3 Brewers With New Year’s Resolutions For 2022

A new year brings new year’s resolutions. For many, that’s going to the gym more or spending more time with family. For the Brewers, they have some resolutions, too.

There’s always ways to improve, and the Brewers are no different. Even though they won the NL Central going away in 2021, that doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy to repeat in 2022. Plus, they fell on their face in the NLDS and if their goal is to win the World Series this year (which it is) then these three Brewers are going to need to make good on these New Year’s Resolutions.

Here are some New Year’s Resolutions for Milwaukee Brewers players in 2022.

Christian Yelich and Keston Hiura’s New Year’s Resolution: Find the 2019 version of themselves.

It sure would be nice if Christian Yelich could once again find the version of himself that hit .329 with 44 home runs in a season. Who knows how many more he would’ve hit had he not injured his kneecap that year.

It also would be nice if Keston Hiura could find the version of himself that hit .303 and didn’t strike out nearly 40% of the time.

The overall struggle of that Brewers offense last year was mostly related to these two guys not doing what they were expected to do. They were supposed to be the two best hitters in the lineup, supplying the most power and the best hitting ability. Instead, they were essentially black holes in the lineup for most of the season.

That left guys like Avisail Garcia, Luis Urias, and then Willy Adames to pick up the slack, which they did as well as they could, but they simply don’t have the offensive ceilings that Yelich and Hiura do. As a result, the Brewers offense was lackluster most of the season.

While everyone wants the Brewers to pick up more hitters in free agency or via trade, if these two guys already on the roster figure things back out, then this offense will already be turbo-charged better than anyone they could pick up from outside the organization.

Freddy Peralta’s New Year’s Resolution: Continue to cut down on the walks

As was so eloquently explained in this article, Freddy Peralta has had an issue with allowing walks that he needs to work on. Finding command is usually the last piece of development for a young pitcher, and that can take some time to do. He made great strides in 2021 in that area, but he still has more he can go.

Peralta had a 3.5 BB/9 in 2021, which was down from 3.7 BB/9 in 2020 and a 3.9 BB/9 in 2019. In his rookie season, Peralta had a 4.6 BB/9.

So his walk rate has decreased each season he’s been in the big leagues, which is great. He needs to keep doing that. Peralta’s rotation-mate Corbin Burnes practically eliminated walks from his stat line entirely and it led to him winning the Cy Young award. Peralta, meanwhile, allowed even less contact than Burnes, and he could put himself on the Cy Young path as well if he cuts down on those walks some more.

He’s trending in the right direction with them, and now he just needs to take the next step. He’s entrenched himself in the rotation and has the stuff to dominate every time out there. By cutting down on the free passes, he’ll allow fewer baserunners and thus throw fewer pitches and thus be able to make it deeper into ballgames and throw more innings.

If these three guys follow through on these resolutions, the Brewers should have a very happy 2022.