2023 Brewers Successful Start

By: Troy Johnson

Milwaukee Brewers Fans didn’t know what the season was going to look like or be for the Milwaukee Brewers in the season of 2023. They ended up not making it to the playoffs in 2022 for the first time since 2017.

The Milwaukee Brewers made a lot of changes in the offseason leading into 2023. The former General Manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, David Stearns, decided to step down following some decisions he made last season. One involved a huge trade that ended up being getting rid of former Brewers Closer Josh Hader and sending him to the San Diego Padres. Some fans think that Stearns stepping down was somewhat of a factor but not a big deal.

“I think it might be a little bit but still Stearns pretty much built this whole team and Arnold worked under Stearns anyways so I think this probably would have happened either way,” said UWM Junior Chris Grieb.

The Brewers ended up turning the reins of general manager over to a man by the name of Matt Arnold to take over Stearns’s position. Arnold right away ended up trading away former Brewers second baseman Kolten Wong and sending him to the Seattle Mariners in exchange for outfielder Jesse Winker and infielder Abraham Toro.

According to MLB.com’s insider Adam McCalvy the Milwaukee Brewers also traded their former right fielder and reliable hitter at the plate in Hunter Renfroe to the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for two right-handed pitchers in Janson Junk, Elvis Peguero, and a left-handed pitcher in Adam Seminaris. They also did a three-team trade with the Oakland Athletics and Atlanta Braves and added red hot hitting catcher William Contreras to the team in the offseason as well.   

The Brewers added some pieces by bringing up a couple of rookies to their opening day roster. They brought up Second Baseman Brice Turang, Outfielder Joey Wiemer, and last year brought up rookie outfielder Garrett Mitchell. They also added pieces to their team such as adding Infielder and Outfielder Brian Anderson, Utility Player Owen Miller who is from Fredonia, Wisconsin, and first baseman and Designated hitter Luke Voit.

“I think it’s the hitters, the hot rookies have all been driving in runs, and so that’s the reason why I think this year they have started out successful because the rookies have driven in runs and getting hits, when men are on base as the key to the Brewers being successful,” said Brewer’s fan Brian Johnson.

The Brewers opened the 2023 season in Chicago against the Cubs on March 31, 2023, for their first official opening day. However, that game did not go quite as planned as they ended up losing badly 4-0. They did, however go on a little bit of a win streak as they followed up by starting to hit, and their pitching was getting it together and so they ended up winning their first series of the year.

Brewers since opening day have been at the top with the Pirates in the NL Central for the division and they have been at the top with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Tampa Bay Rays for the top winning teams in Major League Baseball right now.

“I believe it has to do with the Manager Craig Counsell,” said Brewers Fan Brian Johnson. “He has put the players in the positions to be successful, and so I think they are going to surprise a lot of teams this year and have a successful year.”

This is a Picture of Christian Yelich before a Brewers Game. This picture is from Wikimedia Commons.

The Brewers have had a mixture of success so far this season with both the pitching and hitting this season.

“I think it’s definitely been the hitting, but the pitching’s been good, but the pitching was good last year too,” said Brewers’ fan Chris Grieb. 

The Brewers this year have a different culture in the clubhouse due to the different players and everyone is just trying to win and succeed. It has seemed to be where everyone is contributing and putting in the effort in their own way that they can to succeed.

“I think it’s been an all-out team effort for sure, I mean everyone’s been contributing really,” said Grieb.

The Brewers for the first-time shutout the New York Mets in back-to-back games starting on their home opener on April 3^rd,2023 which came as a surprise to many fans because something like this has not been done at all for the Brewers and especially at home in a very long time.

“It was a great game; great start and you can’t really start the season any better and just coming from last year I went to a lot of games and is so much more enjoyable than last year,” said Grieb.