The Top 5 Roster Moves The Milwaukee Brewers Made In 2021

Decisive and quick to strike, Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns had a solid 2021 season running the Milwaukee Brewers. Once again, the Brewers made the playoffs, their fourth straight appearance. That’s the longest such streak in franchise history.

It was not easy to get there, despite a comfortable division lead when September rolled around. The Brewers front office made a whole bunch of moves throughout the year to supplement the club and get that roster to the level where they could pull away in the division race.

That involved Stearns jumping ahead of the curve and being the first to strike on a market rather than sitting and waiting out the market, which has been his typical MO in recent years.

As the year 2021 comes to a close and we turn over to a new calendar year and a new season in 2022, let’s look back on the best transactions the Brewers made in 2021.

(Important note: Moves from this current offseason will be excluded since we aren’t able to see how the moves played out on the field. So, for example, the Hunter Renfroe trade is ineligible for this list)

Brewers Honorable Mention Best Move of 2021

Claiming Hunter Strickland off Waivers

While this move didn’t quite make the Top 5, it’s one that’s certainly worth mentioning. Hunter Strickland struggled with the Angels bullpen and was placed on waivers. The Brewers put in a claim and added the 32 year old veteran to their bullpen on June 12th.

After posting a 9.95 ERA in Los Angeles, Strickland made 35 appearances with the Brewers and posted a 1.73 ERA in 36.1 IP. He got the Brewers out of some big jams and earned the trust of Craig Counsell, performing in some big moments down the stretch.

Brewers #5 Best Move of 2021: Acquiring Eduardo Escobar from Arizona

The Brewers needed an infusion of power into their lineup and another option at the corner infield spots. Eduardo Escobar was a perfect fit. He was having a great season while on the final year of his contract with a team that was on pace to lose well over 100 games this season. Escobar was an obvious trade candidate.

A switch hitter with power, Escobar would’ve been a perfect fit in a lot of lineups. In fact, there were rumors that a deal was in place earlier in July to send Escobar to the White Sox. But that deal ended up not happening, and the Brewers were able to acquire him a few weeks later.

In exchange for Escobar, the Brewers sent Arizona minor league utilityman Cooper Hummel and teenage prospect Alberto Ciprian.

For one of the most highly sought after commodities on the market, the fact the Brewers were able to acquire him without surrendering a single Top 30 prospect makes this a great move.

Escobar didn’t turn out to be everything the Brewers hoped, as he did spend some time on the IL and his power didn’t show up as often as they would’ve liked. But he was solid in that lineup, added some depth to it, provided some veteran leadership, and gave Craig Counsell another good option to fill out his lineup.

His slump to end the season notwithstanding, acquiring Escobar was a really good move for the Brewers in 2021 and it comes in at No. 5.

Brewers #3 Best Move Of 2021: Let’s Get Rowdy Tellez

The Brewers needed help at first base. Badly. Keston Hiura was floundering and Daniel Vogelbach, who had been holding down the fort, just suffered a hamstring strain. On July 6th, David Stearns swung a trade with the Blue Jays for first baseman Rowdy Tellez.

Earlier in the big league season with Toronto, Tellez was hitting just .209 with a .610 OPS in 50 games. He was demoted to Triple-A to get some regular playing time.

With Tellez being stuck in Triple-A and blocked at first base by AL MVP runner-up Vlad Guerrero Jr, he became an obvious trade candidate. His stock improved as he began to tear it up at the plate in the minors.

Stearns couldn’t wait to get closer to the July 30th Trade Deadline with the injury to Vogelbach and Hiura’s struggles, so he pulled the trigger. He sent minor league pitcher Bowden Francis and reliever Trevor Richards to the Blue Jays to complete the deal.

After all those struggles at the big league level, Tellez then comes over to Milwaukee and in 56 games, he hits .272 with an .814 OPS and seven homers.

Tellez had numerous clutch moments and became a fan favorite pretty quickly. His big-bodied teddy bear demeanor along with his fun and easily chant-able first name of ‘Rowdy’, made him the perfect addition to the Milwaukee Brewers family.

He had a 116 OPS+ with Milwaukee, by far the best mark among the Brewers many first basemen they had in 2021.

Again, the Brewers were able to solve a major need on their roster without having to surrender a top prospect and Tellez is under team control for a number of years. Stearns struck early and made a great move to help solidify a position that was a problem area all season long.

Also, Tellez was basically the sole source of offense for Milwaukee in the NLDS and one of the two key reasons they didn’t get swept in that series (the other being Corbin Burnes).

Brewers #2 Best Move of 2021: Signing Kolten Wong

With Keston Hiura seemingly entrenched at second base but with suspect defense, David Stearns decided to sign two-time defending Gold Glove winning second baseman Kolten Wong. Shoring up the infield defense was a priority for Stearns and he accomplished that with the addition of Wong.

But defense isn’t all Kolten Wong brought to the table.

After a 2020 season in which the Brewers were desperately searching for a table-setter in the leadoff spot of the lineup, they found one in 2021 with Wong. He hit .272/.335/.447 with career highs in doubles (32) and homers (14). His 32 doubles also was the top mark for the team in 2021.

Seven of his 14 homers were leadoff shots as well, quickly putting the Brewers on the board in the first inning. Given the Crew’s struggles scoring in the first inning in 2020, this was a much needed addition.

His 12 stolen bases were second on the team as well, behind only Lorenzo Cain.

Wong was everything the Brewers could’ve hoped for and more. He was a veteran mentor to young infielders Keston Hiura and Luis Urias. He was a spark at the top of the lineup, an anchor of that Run Prevention Unit, and a leader in the clubhouse.

His two year, $18MM contract is looking like an absolute bargain. The only thing that could’ve been better in Wong’s first season with the Crew would be his health. He did have a couple of IL stints with a nagging oblique issue, but it’s tough to hold anything like that against Wong, and he did battle through those issues and played through injury throughout the season.

Wong had terrorized the Brewers for years as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals, and now he gets to terrorize the Cardinals for a few years as a member of the Brewers.

Brewers #1 Best Move Of 2021: The Willy Adames Trade

This should come as no surprise to anyone who watched a single moment of Brewers baseball this season, but the Willy Adames trade was the best move the Brewers made in 2021.

At 22-23, the Brewers were treading water and the offense was lackluster, needing a spark. Luis Urias, who had been handed the full time starting shortstop job just six weeks ago, was dealing with mental struggles defensively. He kept making throwing errors on routine plays and just couldn’t seem to get right.

David Stearns could’ve given Urias some more runway and waited to address shortstop until closer to July, when trade talks typically heat up. But the perfect sequence of events lined up for the Brewers to acquire Willy Adames from the Tampa Bay Rays.

Firstly, Urias was struggling both offensively and defensively and the Brewers needed to inject some life into the ballclub. After Orlando Arcia departed, the team was lacking a fun, lively presence in the clubhouse. They weren’t having much fun. That’s something that Willy Adames can remedy very quickly.

Adames was having a tough start to the season in Tampa, however, and the top prospect in all of baseball, Wander Franco, was breathing down Adames’ neck from Triple-A. It was only a matter of time until he was called up, but Adames was too good to just bench. Tampa, meanwhile, needed some pitching help.

So the two teams swung a surprise, blockbuster trade, sending Adames to Milwaukee while relievers J.P. Feyereisen and Drew Rasmussen went down to Tampa on May 21st.

Adames immediately brought life to this Brewers team and its offense. The shortstop position was improved dramatically and Adames took a team that was just treading water to now swimming like Michael Phelps in the 200M Butterfly.

He slugged 20 homers for the Crew, posted a 135 OPS+ and hit .285 in a Brewers uniform. He received NL MVP votes as a midseason addition and that takes some doing. Oh, and he’s under team control for the next three seasons.

The Brewers likely don’t win the division without Adames. They probably don’t even make the playoffs without him. Trading for him was the single best move the Brewers made in 2021.

It was another great season for the Brewers in 2021, and they couldn’t have done it without all five of these moves this year.