Brewers: 4 Players Who Must Step Up for the Crew to Make the Playoffs

Here are four players who must step up if the Brewers want to make the 2022 MLB playoffs.

2. RHP Adrian Houser

This season, it was no secret that the key to the Brewers’ success would be having the offense do just enough to support what was to be an elite starting rotation. Unfortunately, that rotation has been good, but not quite as dominant as many expected.

The weakest link for much of the season has been Adrian Houser. Though the right-hander was one of many Brewers starters coming off a career year in 2021 (10-6, 3.22 ERA, 1.279 WHIP), he wasn’t able to repeat that success early in this season.

Through the end of June, Houser saw himself sitting with a 4-8 record, a 4.72 ERA, a 1.480 WHIP, and a .271 batting average against. To make things worse, he would be lifted early from his start on June 30th and placed on the injured list the next day with a right flexor strain.

Houser wouldn’t return until August 24th, when he would give up five runs in a start that lasted just 2.1 innings. It was possibly a bit early of a return for the starter, but one that was necessary as the team had just lost fellow starter Aaron Ashby to the IL two days earlier.

Houser would be briefly removed from the rotation before returning for a start on September 5th against the Rockies. Though that outing would start out roughly with the righty giving up three runs to the first seven batters, things finally clicked after that.

Houser would retire the final 15 batters he faced that day en route to a 6-4 Brewers win. He would follow that up a start that saw him give up just a run on a hit and two walks over six innings in another Brewers victory,

That is the Adrian Houser that fans were hoping to see in 2022 and it will be critical that he continues a performance similar to that to finish the season. Milwaukee is not only still down Ashby in the starting rotation, but they are now missing Freddy Peralta and Eric Lauer as well.

That means Houser is now the No. 3 starter in the rotation behind the 1-2 punch of Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff. His last 10 innings of work have looked worthy of that status, and he’ll need to repeat that impressive work for the Brewers to not find themselves down early in his starts like earlier this season.

Here are four players who must step up if the Brewers want to make the 2022 MLB playoffs.

3. C Omar Narvaez

The Brewers traded for catcher Omar Narvaez before the 2020 season to be their offensive-minded catcher for the next few years. After severely struggling in his first year with the team, he returned to his offensive ways last season.

Narvaez slashed .266/.342/.402 in 2021 and made the first All-Star game of his career. And while it looked for a while like a repeat performance was taking place to start the 2022 season, the backstop has cooled off dramatically over the last few months.

Since the beginning of July, Narvaez is slashing a lowly .122/.215/.207 with a double and two homers in just 93 plate appearances. Of course, the reason he has that few PAs is because he missed most of the month of August due to a quad injury, his second IL stint of the season.

Perhaps the injury has played a big part in his offensive decline. Either way, the Brewers could use even mild production out of Narvaez in what could be some of his final games in a Milwaukee uniform.

4. C Victor Caratini

As it turns out, both of the Brewers’ primary catchers have seen their offensive production dip significantly over the second half of the 2022 season as Victor Caratini has followed a similar trend as Narvaez.

Caratini was one of the most effective hitters for the Brewers early on. Through the end of June, he had the third highest OPS (.794) and second highest wRC+ (128) of any position player on the team.

It’s been a completely different story since then. Caratini is slashing just .174/.250/.304 since July 1st of this season. He took almost all of the playing time behind the plate while Narvaez was on the shelf and it’s possible that the extra workload caught up to him.

Like Narvaez, if Caratini can improve just a little bit to finish out the year it could make the difference in putting up a couple extra wins against some weaker opponents. And if he can do it against anyone, it’ll be against teams like the Diamondbacks, Marlins, and Reds.

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It might not feel like it, but the playoffs are still within reach. If these four players can step up down the stretch, the postseason could become a reality yet again.