Brewers: Plenty of Team Alumni Remain In 2020 MLB Division Series

Miami Marlins

If you want the team with the highest concentration of former Brewers, the Marlins are your squad. Miami grabbed the No. 6 seed with a 31-29 record as the 2nd place team in the NL East, pitting them against the No. 3 Chicago Cubs, who won the NL Central in 2020.

If you thought there would have been pressure to perform in the their first playoff appearance in 17 years, you would have been dead wrong. The Marlins held the Cubs to just one run as they easily swept Chicago out of the playoffs in two games. That’s already reason enough to like these guys!

Of course many Milwaukee fans might associate the high concentration of former Brewers on Miami with the trade that brought Christian Yelich to the Cream City. That trade saw prospects Lewis Brinson, Isan Diaz, Monte Harrison, and Jordan Yamamoto head over to the Marlins.

But of those players, only two of them, Brinson and Harrison, found their way on to the playoff roster. Both came off the bench late in each of the two Wild Card series wins over the Cubs.

But that’s not where the Brewers-Marlins connection ends by a long shot. For one, they have one of the more beloved former Brewers in recent memory in Jesus Aguilar, who hit a two-run bomb in their game one victory over the Cubs.

After making the All-Star game in in 2018 with Milwaukee, Aguilar struggled in 2019, leading to a midseason trade to the Rays and a DFA by them after the season. Miami claimed him off waivers and he ended up having an outstanding year, slashing .277/.352/.457 while slugging eight homers and leading the team with 31 runs scored.

If that’s not enough, you also have Garrett Cooper, a former Brewer prospect who had a .283 average and .853 OPS in 34 games this year, and Brandon Kintzler, had 12 saves for the Marlins in 2020 but got his start as a Milwaukee reliver from 2010 to 2015.