Enthusiastic Brewers are ready to go
Ryan Braun is the only player remaining on the Milwaukee Brewers’ roster who knows what it felt like when ace CC Sabathia was acquired at mid-season in 2008 and when pitchers Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum were added before 2011 season.
Braun believes the excitement generated by those moves, both of which resulted in the Brewers advancing to postseason play, was equaled when outfielders Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain were acquired within hours of each other on Jan. 25.
“It sends a message to the group that they believe in us and that the expectation is now to win, that we’ve gone beyond the rebuilding phase and the focus is now on winning,” Braun said. “Which, as a player, is all that you can hope for.
“So it’s a good place to be. It’s really exciting and I think it’s rejuvenating for the whole group.”
It is with that enthusiasm and positive vibe that the Brewers will open their 2018 spring training camp with the first workout for pitchers and catchers Thursday at Maryvale Baseball Park in Phoenix. It is quite a leap forward from a year ago when the Brewers had no idea what to expect in the second full season of their large-scale rebuilding process.
Everything changed when the 2017 club far exceeded expectations, winning 86 games and falling just one victory short of tying for the second wildcard berth in the National League. That unexpected showing prompted principal owner Mark Attanasio and general manager David Stearns to hit the rebuild accelerator and go for it now by adding Yelich and Cain.
Beyond energizing the Brewers’ fan base, those moves boosted expectations within the clubhouse.
“It’s where you want to be, right?” Braun said. “You want to enter a season with expectations, and I think that the expectations are fair. I think it’s realistic that we should expect to win.
“When you add two great players as we have, the expectation should be to win, and I think for all of us as players it’s just really exciting. It’s fun and everybody’s real excited to get started.”
The atmosphere in camp figured to be upbeat even before the additions of Yelich and Cain. Several players took significant steps forward with their careers in ’17, morphing from possible transitional players to keepers, at least for now.
Manager Craig Counsell emphasized at the outset that he would place no limits on his players, and wanted them to have the same approach.
Management always takes its cue from the team’s performance, and when the decisions were made to trade three of the organization’s top 10 prospects for Miami’s Yelich and give Cain a five-year, $80 million free-agent deal, the die was cast. Stearns hasn’t added another starting pitcher as speculated yet, but the message was loud and clear that the goal is to return to the postseason for the first time in seven years.
“We’re all in this year; it’s great to see,” said left-hander Brent Suter, a valuable swingman on the pitching staff last season. “There’s definitely a buzz among the players. There’s no ceiling on this team. That’s kind of what our mindset was last year. The theme was no limits on our expectations. That’s what it will be again this year. There’s a great cohesion with this team.”
Not that anyone thinks it will be easy. The two-time defending NL Central champion Chicago Cubs fired another loud warning shot by adding free agent Yu Darvish to an already solid starting rotation. So, the Brewers know what it will take to climb to the top in the division.
And there will be no sneak attacks this time around. Little was expected of the Brewers last year, but opponents now know not to take them lightly. With increased expectations comes added pressure to prove the breakthrough was not a fluke.
“We want to just keep building,” Counsell said. “I think that’s the mentality we want to keep taking. With that, it is going to take hard work. There’s a lot to be done to do that, but we feel like if you keep adding on to what we built, make the next right decision, that you’ll end up in a pretty good place.
“You want to get the group on the same page and get them to a great place where they are playing for each other.”
That approach worked wonders last year, but no one went home happy about missing the playoffs by one game. Now, with the roster improved and the holdovers no longer inexperienced, the focus is singular: October baseball.
“It’s a fun and exciting time to be a Brewer,” Braun said.