Brewers: Where Will They Fall in the NL Central Standings?

The PECOTA standings were released to social media the other day, placing the Milwaukee Brewers in fourth place for the NL Central division. With their depth, where could they really fall this season?

With pitchers and catchers bringing baseball back, it’s time to get serious and think about where the Milwaukee Brewers could fall in their division standings. Falling short in their playoff run due to a loss on the October 1st Wild Card game against the now World Series champion Washington Nationals, the Brewers are looking for redemption and looking to claim the NL Central title and bring it back home.

It comes with no surprise that the Brewers are lacking a little bit offensively after losing some key players in the offseason. But with them leaving, they’ve brought some new potential stars to the Cream City to make the Crew a strong playoff contending team. However, according to Baseball Prospectus, it seems that the Brewers will fall into the fourth place spot for the NL Central division behind the Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, and even the cross-town rival Chicago Cubs.

Placing the Brewers in fourth place for the 2020 season seems like a low projection. There was a lot of roster turnover, sure, but there are a lot of players that could have the potential to replace the production they lost in free agency. USA Today ranked the Crew in third place, missing the playoffs.

According to PECOTA, the Milwaukee Brewers are projected to have a 79-83 record with a 20.3% chance of making the playoffs.  They finished 2019 in second place behind the Cardinals with a record of 89-73. That was even without Christian Yelich, who missed the final three weeks after his knee injury.

But with Yelich back and 100% healthy for 2020, it’s very likely that the Brewers offense could be back to where it was thanks to the numbers that Yelich puts out individually. PECOTA has the Cubs finishing in second, when they finished third last season in the division with a record of 84-78.

With the Cincinnati Reds making a lot of improvements this offseason, they’re going to be a team to watch in 2020. They added Mike Moustakas, the Crew’s former third baseman, and many others. The NL Central is the division to watch this year, it being a tough division already with almost all of the teams trying to be competitive, placing the Brewers in the high 80’s for a win total seems pretty reasonable.

Do I see them getting over 100 wins? No. Would it be amazing if they got over 100 wins? Heck yeah. It would be an amazing feeling to brag to other teams that the Brewers have over 100 wins. If the Dodgers can do it, why can’t Milwaukee?

We could see the Milwaukee Brewers finishing second within their division or even taking it, which would be the ultimate goal. The depth they’ve added thus far has put a little bit of confidence back into the fans, though, the recently acquired have to show out and produce career years to get full confidence from the fans.