Milwaukee Brewers: 2018-19 Offseason Brewers Team Needs

The Milwaukee Brewers enter the 2018-19 Offseason with fewer holes on the roster than they entered last offseason with. But there are still ways to improve this roster.

The outfield for the Milwaukee Brewers figures to be full of high quality talent for years to come. There shouldn’t be too many additions to that group this winter, although we thought similar things last offseason before the acquisitions of Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain.

It seems impossible to predict what Brewers GM David Stearns will do. We expected a big frontline starting pitcher last offseason, and he instead opted for Jhoulys Chacin, a career mid-back end of the rotation starter, and Chacin had the best 2018 of all the free agent SPs from last year.

With that said, there are still expected areas to look for improvement. The Brewers fell shy of reaching their ultimate goal in 2018, and Stearns needs to address the deficiencies of this team in order to get to the World Series next season.

Need #1: Fix The Rotation

This was the top need last offseason as well. Interestingly enough, this offseason, the Milwaukee Brewers have too many qualified pitchers and not enough spots in their rotation. Here’s how I think the rotation battle currently stands:

• In rotation: Jhoulys Chacin, Corbin Burnes, Jimmy Nelson, Freddy Peralta, Brandon Woodruff
• Out of rotation: Zach Davies, Chase Anderson, Junior Guerra, Adrian Houser

Davies and Anderson were left off the postseason rosters in order to keep the young players active and available. I think that’s a pretty telling sign that the veterans could have been jumped on the depth chart. If that’s the case, maybe it’s time for Davies and/or Anderson to get new homes in a trade this winter.

Those two aren’t high-ceiling pitchers in a rotation full of young arms that should turn into studs next year. The regression they saw in 2018 is not a good sign for their future potential.

However, the Brewers likely aren’t going to be content starting three pitchers who will have their first full year in a big league rotation in 2019 with Burnes, Peralta, and Woodruff. Not to mention Jimmy Nelson who missed all of 2018 recovering from shoulder surgery. That’s a lot of question marks.

Because of that, the Milwaukee Brewers should be looking to acquire one of the top-flight starting pitchers on the free agent or trade market this winter. Patrick Corbin and Dallas Keuchel are the two top free agent starters available. David Stearns has shown he’s willing to go after the top players, but he won’t go past a certain price point for them.

On the trade market, Madison Bumgarner might be available should San Francisco decide to go all-in on a rebuild. The New York Mets probably should start a rebuild and trade some of their starting pitchers like Jacob deGrom, Zack Wheeler, and Noah Syndergaard, but no one is really sure what they’re going to do.

Those are just a couple of options for David Stearns to consider, but the rotation will need to be addressed before spring training begins. They have a lot of current options, but don’t have a very high ceiling. In order to raise that ceiling, there’s going to be need to be an addition and a subtraction or two from the current group.