The best team he's had? Attanasio talks payroll, rules and '22 Crew

PHOENIX -- Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio said his favorite day is the opening game of the playoffs when his team is in it. His second-favorite day is his first day in Spring Training, when he addresses the team like he did Thursday morning.

His third-favorite day was March 10, when MLB, its owners and the MLB Players Association struck a deal on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement to end a 99-day lockout.

“It was so great when it was over," Attanasio said in his first public comments of 2022. "Like, immediately to have all these free-agent signings. David [Stearns, the club's president of baseball operations] is calling me. We had three big names we were hoping for, and we got one in Andrew McCutchen. I mean, I was so excited. I just wanted to keep talking, and David is like, 'I've got to go to work!'”

Attanasio had a busy offseason as a member of several ownership committees, most notably the labor policy committee and revenue sharing committee. In his view, a significant element of the new CBA is the joint competition committee comprised of four active players, six members appointed by MLB and one umpire, which beginning in 2023 will be tasked with making decisions on additional rules changes, such as a pitch clock, limits on defensive shifts and the automatic ball/strike system. Any rule changes that committee adopts can be implemented with 45 days’ notice to the players.

The pace and amount of action on the field, in Attanasio’s view, is the most important issue facing the sport. That’s why he pushed for the accelerated timeline; previously, MLB could change rules unilaterally but was required to give players one year’s notice.

"We want to try to improve the product on the field for everybody -- players in what they play, fans in what they watch,” Attanasio said. “And we have a real opportunity to do that now. But we wanted to do that constructively, working with the players. We want to bring the game back to where it was in terms of pace of play and the amount of action.

"David was telling me this may be the best team we've had in his tenure, which would probably mean for me -- other than 2011 -- be the best team I've had. And I can tell you, like, 1,000 percent, this is the best group of athletes that we've had in 18 years. And so, we need to figure out how to showcase that athleticism, and it will draw people to the game.”

After signing McCutchen for $8.5 million and committing just shy of $50 million this week to settle with arbitration-eligible stars including Josh Hader, Brandon Woodruff and Corbin Burnes, the Brewers will open this season with one of their largest payrolls in history, north of $120 million. The budget, Attanasio said, includes room to add additional payroll in-season if circumstances warrant.

Still, that projects for about half of the spending of the National League rival Dodgers and Mets, who like the Brewers enter the year with World Series aspirations. Attanasio acknowledged that there are fans who wish Milwaukee would spend more on players.

"When I was buying the team 18 years ago, you looked at teams that got into trouble, it's teams that had been spending and then had to pull back,” he said. “And so, one of my goals was to always compete. We set that out 18 seasons ago, and we have really always competed. David had one year of a rebuild. Doug [Melvin, Stearns’ predecessor as general manager] never wanted to rebuild because he told me you never know that you could build it back up. It's one thing if you have injuries or things that are out of your control, but if you overspend and then you have to cut back because of that, it's very difficult.

“We not only think of some payroll certainty, which is in our control, but because our fans are so supportive and our sponsors are so supportive, we have revenue certainty. And then it's really on me and [president of business operations] Rick Schlesinger and the business group to make sure that we budget properly. That that means spend prudently. And I'm sure we'll have some comments now: 'You're cheap!'”

He believes the Brewers are built to take the next step after making the postseason every year since 2018 but never advancing to the World Series. Attanasio has talked about that with manager Craig Counsell and Bob Uecker, the Brewers’ legendary radio voice.

“This team knows what it's like to go to the playoffs. The players talk about taking the next step,” Attanasio said. “That's the mission this year. ‘Ueck’ has got one World Series ring. We tell him we want to get him a second one.”