Attanasio: 'We have an expectation to win this year'

PHOENIX -- Mark Attanasio, who enters his 20th season as the Brewers’ chairman and principal owner, is extremely proud of what his ownership group and management team have accomplished on and off the field in the past 19 seasons, but admits he’s not very retrospective.

There are a few memories from his introductory press conference back in 2005 that stand out.

“Somebody asked, ‘Is it more that you'd like to win or you hate to lose?” Attanasio recalled. “It's more that I hate to lose. I really hate to lose.”

Attansio also remembers someone from a national outlet telling him that he wouldn’t be smiling so much when his team had not made the playoffs in 20 years.

“I wasn’t going to respond on camera to that, but afterward, I went up to him, I said, ‘That is not the plan.’” Attanasio said. “I am superstitious, so I didn't say more than that. I never imagined how hard this would be, but I made a commitment to always being competitive, and that's hard to do when the paradigm is to go all in to win and then rebuild. I never really wanted to rebuild.”

In his first season as owner, the team snapped a streak of 12 consecutive losing seasons. Two years later, Milwaukee had consecutive winning seasons for the first time in 15 seasons, and in 2008, the Brewers qualified for the postseason for the first time since 1982. The Brewers reached the NLCS in 2011 and again in 2018. In 2018-2021, the Brewers reached the postseason in a franchise-record four consecutive seasons. The club returned to the postseason in 2023 for the seventh time under Attanasio.

“In the last eight years, we are one of the three best teams in the National League, and since I bought the club in 2005, we are one of the four best,” Attanasio said. “We have an expectation to win this year, and we will have a lot of young players who have their first real opportunity to shine in the Major Leagues. We'll see who seizes that opportunity.”

Attanasio's tenure as the owner also includes numerous enhancements to the ballpark along with his commitment to the community and fans. The owner, along with Brewers manager Pat Murphy, addressed the players and staff in the clubhouse before Tuesday’s workout.

“We all focus on the 26 guys on the team, but there are 100 people in that room that are making things happen,” Attanasio said. “What it took to get all of those projects done, not only from the people who work in the club, but the support from our sponsors and our investors, and then you step back, you realize we have this state-of-the-art facility here in Maryville, state-of-the-art facility in the Dominican and a state-of-the-art ballpark with the support of the community and the legislators that we are going to be able to keep it state of the art.”

Attanasio also discussed these topics during the 20-minute session with the assembled media:

On Jackson Chourio:
“I didn't really check the date, but someone said this morning on the way in that I have owned the team since before he was born. That’s more of a comment on my age, maybe, than his. But listen, he gets the attention, but there are a lot of guys in that clubhouse who have significant ceilings, and who we think will be big contributors to us, maybe even this year, certainly in the next two or three years.”

On signing Brandon Woodruff:
“Woody is not only one of my favorite Brewers ever, he's one of my favorite people ever, and outside of baseball, too. He and [his wife] Jonie and their family. But that's somewhat a work in progress and [general manager] Matt Arnold can talk about that. But nothing's done yet.”

On relationship with Murphy:
“It’s evolved. I'm in touch with him a little more. He worked real hard this offseason, so I talked to him more. In fact, I flew with him to look at the Dominican academy. I flew with him there and back, which is a pretty long flight. It's also evolved because now he's in charge. We used to kind of joke around a lot. Now, we joke around a little less, maybe a lot less. But you know, his determination is palpable. You can feel it, you can feel it this morning in how he spoke to the players.”

On Christian Yelich and team leadership:
“[Yelich], Willy Adames, [William] Contreras and, frankly, Rhys Hoskins are four pillar veterans that we're going to build off of on the field. His leadership isn't only his performance, which as I said was like a four-win player last year, but he's out there every day. He really keeps himself in condition so that at 31 years old, or whatever it is, he can be out there every day. That's a really good example for the next generation of players who look up to him.”

On Spring Training and the first day of workouts:
“This is one of my favorite days of the year. I still like Christmas, but this is up there. One of the reasons it's important to always try to compete is that we have real hope. …We had a year as David Stearns was coming in that we knew we were bringing the next wave of players, but we’re not going to be that good. Now, we're bringing the next wave of players and we think we’re going to be good, maybe really good. That's what it's about, and it wouldn't be much fun to not be competing.”

On payroll:
“There's always money in the budget to take advantage of opportunity. There always is and there will be this year. Pat Murphy can certainly speak for himself, but one of the things he said in the clubhouse is that he hopes we’re so good that we don't need to get anybody midseason, and let's not get distracted from what we're trying to do.”

On the NL Central:
“There was a team that was widely picked to win last year that finished 21 games behind us, and we finished nine games ahead of the Cubs last year. So, I appreciate the friendly competition, and we're just going to focus on what we need to do game by game. And look, I think the division is clearly better this year.”