Milwaukee Brewers: Ranking the Scheduled 2020 Opponents

MLB team schedules will look quite different in the shortened 2020 season. Who will the Brewers be playing and how do they rank compared to each other in difficulty?

Before baseball fans finally get to start watching Brewers games for the first time this year, two things need to happen. Players need to get back to camp to start ramping back up and schedules need to be determined.

The former takes place next week, while the latter is still being worked out. Though schedules haven’t officially been released yet, their basic structure was announced earlier this week.

That means the Brewers will be playing their familiar NL Central foes (Cardinals, Cubs, Pirates, and Reds) as well as the members of the AL Central (Indians, Royals, Tigers, Twins, and White Sox).

Structuring schedules this way makes sense. By playing only against teams in your geographical region, it highly reduces the amount of travel for each team, which at least slightly lowers the risk of COVID-19 exposure. It also makes scheduling much easier in a season with only 60 games.

Playing a schedule against just the Central divisions will come with its challenges. Both divisions have a mix of perennial favorites and teams that have improved greatly over the offseason to put themselves in a much better position to contend this year.

The Brewers will have their work cut out for them this year if they are looking to reach the postseason for the third straight season. Asterisk or not, it would be the first time in franchise history that feat was achieved.

So, let’s see how this gauntlet shapes up for the Brewers. Here are Milwaukee’s opponents for 2020, ranked from least to most difficult.

9. Detroit Tigers

Key Additions: P Ivan Nova, 1B C.J. Cron, 2B Jonathan Schoop

The good news for the Tigers is that they got one heck of a future star when they drafted Spencer Torkelson with the first overall pick in the 2020 draft. The bad news is that this year will be yet another rebuilding year for fans.

The Tigers were 26th in the majors in batting average in 2019, 29th in home runs, and 28th in team ERA. None of their offseason moves push the needle that much closer to respectability, so they should be good for easy wins again this year, at least until their young talent they’ve been collecting is MLB-ready.

8. Pittsburgh Pirates

Key Additions: P Derek Holland

The Pirates still have talented youngsters such as Josh Bell and Bryan Reynolds who will only continue to get better over time. The problem is that they didn’t really do anything in the offseason to improve the team and even traded away arguably their best player in Starling Marte last winter as well.

Transition is the name of the game for the Pittsburgh franchise as they replaced both manager Clint Hurdle and GM Neal Huntington last fall. Like the Tigers, they find themselves in rebuilding mode and will likely occupy the bottom of the NL Central in 2020.

7. Kansas City Royals

Key Additions: 3B Maikel Franco, P Trevor Rosenthal, P Greg Holland

Though the Royals have put up more of a fight than teams like the Tigers and Pirates lately, they find themselves in a similar situation to Pittsburgh. They have some good, young talent like Whit Merrifield, Hunter Dozier, and Salvador Perez and are just waiting for some of the other prospects to catch up.

Rosenthal looked good in the spring and could be a sneaky good add if he looks more like the 2014-2015 version of himself, as could Franco if he ever figures out how to be a more well-rounded player. If some of the younger players take some steps forward as well, Kansas City could be more challenging of a matchup than expected. But it’s more likely they need at least another year, probably more, before truly being able to compete.

6. Chicago White Sox

Key Additions: C Yasmani Grandal, P Dallas Keuchel, P Gio Gonzalez, DH Edwin Encarnacion, P Steve Cishek, OF Nomar Mazara

The Sox were busy over the offseason, among other things adding two beloved Brewers contributors from the 2019 season in Grandal and Gonzalez. Grandal and Encarnacion in particular will look to improve a Chicago offense that finished 24th in OPS and runs scored and 25th in homers in 2019.

The White Sox have a great mix of top free agent signings to go with former top prospects like Lucas Giolito, Yoan Moncada, and Eloy Jimenez who may be ready to take another big step forward. Add them to talented mainstays such as Jose Abreu and Tim Anderson and the Southsiders could break out in a big way in 2020. I’ll need to see it first to believe it, though.

5. Cincinnati Reds

Key Additions: 2B Mike Moustakas, P Trevor Bauer, OF Nicholas Castellanos, SS Freddy Galvis

The Reds made a bunch of moves last year in an attempt to put themselves in better position to contend in the NL Central, but all it got them was a sub-.500 record and a fourth-place finish in the division. So of course, they doubled down and went with the same strategy for 2020.

While their pitching greatly improved from 2018 to 2019 (24th in MLB to 8th), offense was the issue as they scored were just 25th in the majors in runs scored last year. Moustakas and Castellanos should help in that sense. But last year’s moves didn’t vault them into contention right away like may expected, so like the White Sox, I’ll need to see results before I see them in the upper tier of teams in the division.

4. Cleveland Indians

Key Additions: 2B Cesar Hernandez, OF Franmil Reyes, OF Domingo Santana

The Indians were in the fight for the final Wild Card spot until the final week of the season in 2019 and will be expected to fight with the Twins for the AL Central crown once again this year. Stud pitchers Shane Bieber and Mike Clevinger return to lead a pitching staff that finished 4th in ERA in the majors last year. Thus, unsurprisingly, the major additions were on offense to try and help sluggers Jose Ramirez and Francisco Lindor keep pace with the potent Twins attack.

An interesting story line to watch will be what happens with oft-mentioned trade target Lindor. This year’s trade deadline is on August 31st, meaning teams will have to determine early whether they still have a shot at the 2020 playoffs. If Cleveland somehow stumbles out of the gate, unlikely but possible, they could cut bait with Lindor and write off 2020 altogether.