The 7 Biggest Mistakes The Brewers Made That Doomed Them In 2022

If you are interested in articles with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other article. In this, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle. This is because not very many happy things happened to the 2022 Milwaukee Brewers. Mark Attanasio, David Stearns, and Craig Counsell were intelligent people, and they were charming and resourceful but most everything that happened to them this season was rife with misfortune, misery, and despair.

It was a series of unfortunate events for the Milwaukee Brewers in 2022. It all started when spring training was delayed because Rob Manfred and MLB locked out the players and it took all winter and even into spring before they came to an agreement on a new CBA. We were robbed of the start of the season, which had to be pushed back a week because of the negotiations.

It led to a shortened spring training, shortened ramp up period for pitchers, and turned many away from the game of baseball altogether. That wasn’t the Brewers’ mistake, but something everyone had to deal with that started the season off on a bad note.

This was a team that was supposed to be destined for a 5th consecutive postseason and a likely repeat of their NL Central crown. Instead they lost the crown and missed the postseason completely.

This was such a good team coming in, how could they mess this up? How do you take a first place team, return most of the core and improve the team on paper and yet miss the playoffs? What kind of mistakes were made? Well, there were several.

Several mistakes were made by players, coaches, and front office staff that doomed the 2022 Brewers into missing the playoffs.

Mistake that doomed the Brewers #1: Pedro Severino testing positive for PEDS right before Opening Day

I told you before, there is no happy beginning here and it doesn’t get happier from here.

Right before the season was about to kick off, the Brewers backup catcher, Pedro Severino, whom they signed the previous offseason envisioning a big role for, tested positive for PEDs. He was suspended 80 games for taking a fertility that increased his testosterone thus triggering the positive test.

All of a sudden, the Brewers were a day away from beginning the season and they had no backup catcher. They weren’t ready to trust Brett Sullivan or Mario Feliciano, the two other catchers on the 40 man roster, with the big league backup job. So David Stearns had to scramble for a new catcher right before the season.

He ended up acquiring Victor Caratini from the Padres in exchange for Sullivan and prospect Korry Howell. Stearns also acquired Alex Jackson for prospect Hayden Cantrelle.

Severino was seen as an offensive-minded catcher. Caratini, who took his place, was not. On the year, Caratini hit just .200/.302/.343 with nine homers, a .645 OPS and a 84 OPS+. Of course, around the time Severino returned, Caratini was hitting well. They went with three catchers for a while then dumped Severino because Caratini was playing well.

Once Severino was off the 40 man again, Caratini went into a massive slump.

Instead of the planned offense-first catcher with Omar Narvaez, who has been a defense-first catcher this year, the Brewers have two defense-first catchers and practically no offensive production from this position.