Milwaukee Brewers: Top 5 Spring Training Storylines To Watch

5. How Does Yasmani Grandal Adjust To His New Team?

The Milwaukee Brewers made Yasmani Grandal their marquee offseason addition this winter when they signed him to a one year, $16 million contract back on January 9th. Considering he’s only in Milwaukee for one season, he’s going to have to make it count.

Grandal is arguably the second best catcher in all of baseball. He’s rated as the best pitch framer in all of MLB and finished second in catcher OPS+ last season, just behind JT Realmuto. The Brewers have made a clear upgrade at the position.

Some Brewers fans have a negative opinion on Grandal’s ability, based on his horrible performance in the NLCS last year. For whatever reason, Grandal did not play well last postseason, and hopefully that does not become a trend for him. But rest assured, Grandal is as good a catcher any team would be able to find.

He’s going to have to adjust to a new pitching staff and hopefully address those passed ball concerns. We’ve seen reports that soon after Grandal signed, he texted Josh Hader and starting catching bullpen sessions for him. Hard to blame him, Hader has probably the filthiest stuff on this pitching staff, and it’s probably a smart idea to get as much practice catching him as he can.

Grandal appears dedicated to learning this new staff, and his framing ability should help this staff achieve even further heights. But it’s his bat that really caught the Brewers attention.

A strong offensive output in spring training, as well as limiting the passed balls will go a long ways towards putting Brewers fans at ease about their new starting catcher. As the big name acquisition this year, he’s going to attract a lot of attention from Brewers fans.