Where do the Brewers go from here?

This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy’s Brewers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

The 2022 Brewers got off to the best 50-game start in franchise history, then went 54-58 the rest of the way and missed the postseason for the first time in five years.

Fans expected more. Players, coaches and the front office felt the same way.

“Pressure is a privilege,” first baseman Rowdy Tellez said. “We're a team that came through this with our bullseye on our back. We let ourselves down, but we'll be back next year. There's always the year after and I think in the long run, we're gonna have a really good team.”

Defining moment:
It’s an oversimplification to say that trading Josh Hader to the Padres on Aug. 1 broke the Brewers, but that’s the memory of this season that will endure.

The reality was more complicated. The Brewers were two games under .500 between Memorial Day and the end of July, and two games under .500 from the day of the trade on Aug. 1 through the end of the season. That deal wasn’t their undoing, but it didn’t help. The Brewers got swept in Pittsburgh after the Trade Deadline, then lost two of three at home to Cincinnati. Taylor Rogers, who came from San Diego with prospects in return for Hader, and Matt Bush, another reliever acquired from Texas that same day, both posted a negative-0.3 fWAR after the trades. Trevor Rosenthal never threw a pitch. The Brewers went from four games ahead of the Cardinals in the NL Central to four games behind in the span of 20 disappointing days.

What we learned:
There is no such thing as too much pitching depth. The Brewers made only modest changes to the position-player group after the offense let the team down at the end of 2022, relying instead on an elite pitching staff to carry them in a weak division. But that group took a step back in '22, with injures and the Hader trade taking a toll. Of the Brewers’ six-man Opening Day rotation, only Corbin Burnes avoided the injured list. Brewers pitching slipped from third in fWAR in '21 to 14th in '22, and from third to 12th in ERA.

“I think we need to build some depth in our pitching,” Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns said this week. “That’s an area where when we got hit with injuries, particularly in the rotation, we had a tough time. And so as we go into next year, I do think building pitching depth is important and some of that’s going to have to come externally.”

• Stearns looks back on Brewers' disappointing finish

Best development:
Willy Adames’ first full season with the Brewers was marked by solid defense and big power. His 31 home runs all came as a shortstop, breaking Robin Yount’s franchise record for the position (29) set in 1982. Adames was unsatisfied with his .298 on-base percentage and will prioritize that going into 2023.

Area for improvement:
The Brewers’ offense was an enigma. Milwaukee hitters were a respectable 10th of 30 teams in runs per game (4.48), 10th in OPS (.724) and 11th in wRC+ (103), meaning they were three percent above average in 2022’s run-scoring environment. The Brewers were second in baseball with a .727 OPS with runners in scoring position, but had the 10th-fewest plate appearances with RISP. Only the Yankees scored a higher percentage of their runs via home runs.

“I think diversifying our skill set on offense is something that can help, but solving against home runs isn’t really the answer,” Stearns said. “Homers are going to lead to runs, damage is going to lead to runs. I also think it’s a fair observation that you have to do the little things to win baseball games as well, and there were times in big spots where we weren’t able to do that.”

On the rise:
Called up to the big leagues about a week before his 24th birthday, Garrett Mitchell gave the Brewers a jolt of energy. The outfielder ranks fifth on MLB Pipeline’s list of Milwaukee's top prospects, and he's lived up to that billing, with an .832 OPS, several timely hits, eight steals without being caught, and a series of stellar defensive plays. Mitchell could clean up the swing and miss (28 strikeouts in 61 at-bats), but figures to play a prominent role in 2023.

Team MVP:
Burnes became the first Brewers pitcher to top 200 innings since Yovani Gallardo in 2012, delivered the second-highest strikeout total (243) in franchise history, ranked 10th among NL qualified pitchers with a 2.94 ERA, en route to ably defending his 2021 NL Cy Young Award.

“It’s incredible, what he did to follow up a great season with another great season is to be commended and the mark of a great pitcher,” manager Craig Counsell said. “He’s a great player. No doubt we’ve got ourselves a great player.”