Could This Be the Brewers’ Surprising Turnaround Season?

Alright, here we go — kicking off February with a bang in our brand-new Daily Question series! Every single day this month, I’ll be throwing out questions designed to spark some real chatter among the Brew Crew Ball faithful. We’re starting simple yet profound: “What’s the biggest reason to think this season won’t just be another dud?”

Look, I’m the first to admit that ‘rebuild year’ seems like a foreign phrase around the Brewers, especially with Matt Arnold at the helm. It almost sounds unreal — Milwaukee dodging a rebuild for nearly ten years? That’s usually the playground of the big spenders like the Yankees or Dodgers, not a mid-market squad.

Yet, that’s exactly the narrative here. Arnold and his crew have kept the Brewers competitive, rarely serving up so-called “meaningless” games since 2017. The lone miss since 2018? 2022, and even then, they battled tooth and nail for a wild-card spot right up until the final stretch, finishing just a game shy of the Phillies.

But how much longer can this circus keep running without a proper rebuild? Freddy Peralta’s recent trade is just the latest domino falling in a long series of moves aimed at restocking Milwaukee’s farm system. So, are Arnold, Pat Murphy, and this front office still magicians, turning scraps into playoff pushes? Or is this finally the year they bite the bullet and reset?

Jump into the conversation below, and stick with us all month as we hash this out on the road to spring training…

LEARN MORE

Welcome to our new February Daily Question series. Throughout the month, we’ll be posting question articles every day in the hopes that we can start some more conversations within the Brew Crew Ball community. To begin, we’re asking, “What’s the strongest reason to believe this season won’t be a waste?”

Now, I’ll be the first to say that “rebuild year” doesn’t seem to be in the Brewers’ — specifically Matt Arnold’s — vocabulary. But it seems almost too good to be true that Milwaukee can avoid having any rebuild seasons for nearly a decade. That’s typically the stuff of high-payroll franchises like the Yankees and Dodgers.

But that’s exactly what Arnold & Co. have done. The Brewers have played virtually no “meaningless” baseball since 2017 — the only season they’ve missed the playoffs since 2018 was in 2022, when they remained in wild card contention until the last series of the season and ultimately finished just one game back of the Phillies for the last playoff spot.

They can’t keep getting away with it, can they?

With Freddy Peralta just the latest “sacrifice” in a long line of trades to reload Milwaukee’s prospect depth, can Arnold, Pat Murphy, and the Brewers work their magic once again? Is there reason to believe this is the rebuild year, or will the “bites of the apple” approach continue to work?

Weigh in in the comments, and join us throughout the month as we keep these conversations rolling into spring training.