Surprised By The Brewers? How A Bunch of ‘Average Joes' Are Among MLB's Best

Fox Sports

5 days ago

Pat Murphy understands the incredulity and puzzlement spawned by the Milwaukee Brewers' success.
The team's manager leans into it, in fact.
"It's a bunch of guys nobody's ever heard of," Murphy said last week when his small-market club swept the mighty Dodgers for the second time this month.
The Dodgers' luxury-tax payments alone exceed Milwaukee's entire payroll, which ranks in the bottom 10 of the sport. Yet the Brewers — with "a bunch of Average Joes," as Murphy endearingly refers to his group — reached the 100-game mark with the best record in the sport.
That band of light-hitting castoffs and misfits, accustomed to being overlooked, reeled off 11 straight wins, tied for the second-longest winning streak in franchise history, before falling 1-0 Tuesday in Seattle despite their 23-year-old flamethrowing rookie All-Star, Jacob Misiorowski, tallying his third scoreless outing in six career MLB starts.
Misiorowski is a spectacle to behold, though he is an outlier on the Brewers' obscure, superstar-starved roster. They do not have a player who ranks in the top 40 in FanGraphs' version of wins above replacement. They do not have a player with 20 home runs. They do not have a player who ranks in the top 20 in jersey sales, and they do not have a player with an .800+ OPS.
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They let Willy Adames, their 2024 home run and RBI leader, sign a nine-figure deal with the Giants in December. Days later, they traded star closer Devin Williams to the Yankees. This all came a year after trading away their ace, Corbin Burnes.
They do not spend money to backfill those departures, and yet, they continue to make it work by extracting the most out of their talent and upside. They have won 35 of their last 48 games after starting the year 25-28.
"When their friends go to Las Vegas and see, 'The Brewers are predicted to win X number of games,' you know what I mean, they hear about it," Murphy said, "and they love to outdo those expectations."
The Brewers have made the playoffs six times in the last seven seasons and have won the division three times in the last four years, despite an Opening Day payroll that has not ranked higher than 19th in that span. (This year, it ranked 24th.) Their competitive balance tax figure projects to be about $100 million under the threshold. This season, they're only paying two players — Christian Yelich and Rhys Hoskins — more than $10 million. They have gone on this run without Hoskins, one of their top power threats, who has been out since July 6 with a thumb sprain.
Their leader in WAR, Sal Frelick, strained his hamstring at the end of the first half; the Brewers still reeled off wins in their first four games out of the break without him. William Contreras, their 2024 WAR leader, considered by many before the season to be the best catcher in baseball, is hitting around league average with the lowest OPS of his career.
And yet, they are 60-41 as the trade deadline nears. It's the latest in a season since 1982 that the Brewers have boasted the best record in MLB.
The production is hard to fathom for many, save for those who watch them on a daily basis or have fallen victim to their wrath.
"They can really pitch, the pen is lights out, they catch it, they play good defense," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts explained. "In totality, they do a good job of preventing runs, and offensively it's just a dynamic team. They don't punch much, they steal some bases, they bunt, they hit and run, and they do a lot of different things. I think Murph does a good job with those guys."
The moniker bestowed upon the club by Murphy, a former college coach who seems to be the perfect fit to guide this youthful group, is not an entirely accurate description.
His players are, it seems, a bunch of well-above-Average Joes.
While Murphy believes the top of his lineup "hasn't scratched the surface" of what it is capable of yet, the Brewers still have seven regulars who are above league-average hitters this year. Only two teams have more.
"Good teams, the lower half of the lineup contributes," Murphy said. "I think those guys are contributing."
One of those contributors was the lesser-known acquisition from the Williams trade. In addition to starter Nestor Cortes, the Brewers also received a 5-foot-7-inch prospect who was drafted in the 14th round in 2021 out of Washington University in St. Louis. That player, Caleb Durbin, personifies the identity of his new club. Durbin made his MLB debut on April 18. The speedy, contact-first infielder is now among eight position players on the team worth between 1-3 fWAR.
"These guys have been told they can't do it their whole lives, most of them," Murphy said. "So, it's good to have that."
The Brewers rank last in barrel rate, 23rd in home runs and 22nd in slugging, but they excel in most other areas. They have the third-lowest chase rate, the fifth-lowest whiff rate and the seventh-fewest strikeouts in MLB. They rank in the top 10 in both on-base percentage and walks, and they cause havoc on the basepaths, stealing more bases than any team in the National League.
"We're just really fortunate that these guys are jelling and coming together and playing hungry," Murphy said. "Play hungry, and anything's possible."
By working counts, putting the ball in play and taking extra bases, the Brewers can wear opponents down. They also defend well, ranking second in outs above average to assist a pitching staff that is the primary reason for their success.
Milwaukee's pitchers rank ninth in strikeouts and are adept at avoiding barrels, boasting the second-lowest hard-hit rate in MLB. The Brewers have three All-Stars on the mound in Freddy Peralta, Misiorowski — whose fastball averages 99.3 mph — and closer Trevor Megill.
But it is their depth on both sides of the ball, built in part from the discards of other clubs, that has allowed them to sustain success.
"The belief is there," outfielder Isaac Collins said. "Everyone's playing free."
Murphy describes Collins, who was selected by the Brewers in the minor league phase of the 2022 Rule 5 draft and made the Opening Day roster after an injury to outfielder Blake Perkins, as the team's "silent hero." The 28-year-old, who now hits in the middle of the order, ranks fourth in fWAR and fifth in OPS among all MLB rookies with at least 200 plate appearances.
There are similar surprises littered throughout the roster.
Quinn Priester, a 2019 first-round pick of the Pirates, had a 6.46 ERA in Pittsburgh before getting traded to Boston last July and then to Milwaukee this April. The former top pitching prospect has a 3.33 ERA in 18 appearances (13 starts) with the Brewers and struck out 10 Dodgers batters in six scoreless innings on Friday in Los Angeles.
First baseman Andrew Vaughn, another 2019 first-round pick, was unable to fulfill his tremendous potential with the White Sox, where he was a below-replacement level player over parts of five seasons. The 27-year-old was at Triple-A Charlotte when the Brewers offered him a fresh start, dealing from their pitching surplus when Aaron Civale requested a trade.
Like Priester, Vaughn has run with the opportunity. He was called up on July 7 and homered in his first game. The Brewers have lost just once since, and he has a .943 OPS with his new club.
"A kid like Vaughn, he was in the proverbial cooler in baseball," Murphy said. "He's on a team that's not going to contend, and then all of a sudden he's in Triple-A like, 'What's going on?' … Then to have that opportunity to be resurrected and respond the way he did speaks to who he is."
The Brewers, who rank sixth in ERA overall and tied for second in starters' ERA, continue to churn out more arms than they can use, which should give them plenty of ammunition to add at the deadline. There is so much solid Brewers pitching, in fact, that Chad Patrick, an early contender for the NL Rookie of the Year Award, had to be optioned to Triple-A to make room for Brandon Woodruff, a two-time All-Star and the longest-tenured Brewer, whose return from a lengthy, arduous shoulder rehab has coincided with the club's winning streak.
Milwaukee was 49-40 and four games back in the NL Central on July 6 when Woodruff made his first start since September 2023. He struck out eight batters and allowed one run in six innings of a 3-1 win.
Two weeks later, the Brewers are 60-41 and tied for the lead in the NL Central with the Cubs, whose manager, Craig Counsell, left Milwaukee a year ago for seemingly greener pastures. That opened the door for Murphy, who was part of Counsell's staff, to take over as Milwaukee's skipper.
In Murphy's first year at the helm, the Brewers exceeded expectations and won 93 games, finishing 10 games ahead of the Cubs and Cardinals. Murphy was named NL Manager of the Year, but Milwaukee's season fizzled out in the wild-card round for the second straight year.
Now, this unheralded group is defying what many thought possible once again.
"They remember the kind of year they had last year, a lot of them, and how it ended," Murphy said. "I think that they're still hungry."
Rowan Kavner is an MLB writer for FOX Sports. He previously covered the L.A. Dodgers, LA Clippers and Dallas Cowboys. An LSU grad, Rowan was born in California, grew up in Texas, then moved back to the West Coast in 2014. Follow him on Twitter at @RowanKavner .
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