3 Moves To Make The Brewers World Series Contenders In 2020

The Milwaukee Brewers are in the middle of their contention window right now. To make themselves true World Series contenders in 2020, they have a few more moves to make.

The Brewers roster from the 2019 season wasn’t good enough to win the World Series. It was barely good enough to get into the playoffs.

The issue with the roster was pretty obvious. The starting pitching simply wasn’t good enough to carry the Brewers to where they wanted to be, the bullpen had to pick up the slack, and just couldn’t do it enough to advance further into the playoffs. A lot of the offense struggled as well.

The few working pieces of that offense; Yasmani Grandal, Mike Moustakas, and Eric Thames, are all going to be playing elsewhere in 2020. So GM David Stearns needs to find a way to replace that production and try to improve upon it.

With Ryon Healy and now Justin Smoak in the picture at first base, along with Ryan Braun, the Brewers have effectively replaced Thames.

That still leaves a hole at third base where Moustakas was, and other improvements that need to be made. If the Brewers are going to be World Series contenders in 2020, here are the three moves they have to make.

1. Sign Josh Donaldson

This entire offseason, with the Brewers cutting payroll wherever they could and turning over a lot of the roster, it felt like Stearns had something big up his sleeve. It feels like he has a big splash acquisition coming at some point. That splash player could be Josh Donaldson.

The hole is there at third base. Donaldson is a former AL MVP, a star player, and would be a perfect upgrade over Moustakas. Sure, he’ll be expensive, but they’ve gained all this payroll flexibility, and there’s no point to gaining that flexibility if you don’t use it.

Donaldson had a huge bounceback season in Atlanta in 2019 and is finally healthy. If the Brewers can get the Bringer of Rain to Milwaukee, they’ll have three MVPs in their lineup and having a 2-5 in the order of Christian Yelich, Keston Hiura, Donaldson, and Braun is a gauntlet of a lineup.

For years, the Brewers had a tough time finding production at third base. They finally solidified the position with Travis Shaw, until he slumped and then Moustakas went back there, but now both are gone.

A World Series caliber team is not going to be playing a combination of Eric Sogard and Ryon Healy at third base. That just can’t happen. They need to make a big addition at third base and Donaldson will take them the farthest.

2. Acquire Robbie Ray OR Sign Dallas Keuchel

The Brewers need to raise the ceiling of their rotation. They elevated the floor with the additions of Brett Anderson, Eric Lauer, and Josh Lindblom. Now they need to improve the overall potential of that group.

Currently, the Brewers starting rotation is comprised of Brandon Woodruff and a group of No. 4 or No. 5 starters. Woodruff is the lone pitcher who has shown an ability to be a frontline starter in the big leagues. Guys like Freddy Peralta and Corbin Burnes have the stuff to get there one day, but with their struggles last season, counting on them to do so is unwise.

They need something closer to a sure thing atop the rotation. While someone like Gerrit Cole or Stephen Strasburg would’ve been better for that role, there was no chance the Brewers were ever going to pay the salary those guys got. They need an established veteran starter that won’t command that kind of money.

Robbie Ray has only one year of arbitration left before free agency. Combining that with his projected salary being over $10 million for 2020, the prospect capital it would take to acquire Ray will be relatively low. Bringing in Ray will improve the rotation for 2020 but wouldn’t block pitchers like Peralta and Burnes going forward either.

Ray would immediately slot in as the No. 2 behind Woodruff, and is actually a legitimate No. 2, unlike when Zach Davies was the Crew’s “second best starter” but was legitimately a No. 4 or No. 5 guy. Having a true 1-2 punch atop the rotation will give the Crew something for teams to fear in the postseason. Look at this last World Series. The two teams in there had dominant rotations with multiple frontline guys.

Another option is for the Brewers to sign Dallas Keuchel instead of getting Ray. He’s also left handed, he has a postseason pedigree, and is an extreme groundball pitcher, which will play well in Miller Park. I don’t think the Brewers would go longer than three years in a deal for Keuchel, but he would also give them a legitimate No. 2 behind Woodruff and provide a postseason threat.

David Stearns has done a solid job of elevating the floor of the rotation so far this winter, but if he doesn’t raise the ceiling of that group, they aren’t going to be true World Series contenders.