Can the Brewers threaten any of these unbreakable records with new addition?

Since the Brewers are facing off against the Athletics this weekend, it's only right to be talking about stolen bases.

During the 2024 season, the Milwaukee Brewers stole 217 bases, which would have been the most stolen bases by a team in a single season since 2000, according to StatMuse, if it hadn't been for the 2024 Washington Nationals who swiped 223 bags. With the Cincinnati Reds stealing 207 bases of their own in 2024, the three highest team stolen base seasons since 2000 came in 2024. This influx of stolen bases is in part due to the many rule changes that went into effect during the 2023 season, including bigger bases, the pitch clock, and a limit on the amount of times a pitcher could step off during an at-bat, which all made it easier for runners to steal bases. With players having a season to adjust to the new rules, teams who emphasize base-running like the Nationals, Brewers, and Reds started to take advantage of them during the 2024 season.

However, it wasn't just rule changes that led to the Brewers accelerating their stolen base rate, as slightly larger bases and bigger leads only get you so far. Having an elite base-running attack requires a speedy group of players and an aggressive mindset, of which the Brewers have both. Having players like Brice Turang, Garrett Mitchell, Sal Frelick, Jackson Chourio, Blake Perkins, and Joey Ortiz, all of whom rank in the 90th percentile or higher for sprint speed according to Baseball Savant, gives the Brewers base-stealing threats up and down their lineup. With the addition of Caleb Durbin, who is known for his base-stealing ability, the Brewers have one of the best groups of base stealers in all of MLB, but does that mean they can threaten the seemingly unbreakable records that exist in the world of base-stealing?

With certain parameters, the Brewers could break several team base-stealing records

Let's make something clear from the onset: no one is touching Rickey Henderson's individual stolen base records. Neither his single-season record of 130 stolen bases nor his career stolen base record of 1,406 are even remotely attainable, so any records discussed will be of the "team record" variety.

With that in mind, the first record that the Brewers could chase would be the most stolen bases by a team in a single season, but even this record requires some scaling down. According to StatMuse, the current record is held by the 1911 New York Giants, who swiped 347 bases in a single season over 100 years ago. Remember, the Brewers stole 217 bases last year, so a jump of more than 50% is virtually impossible. Things don't get any easier if the parameter is scaled down to the live ball era, as the Oakland Athletics stole 341 bases in 1976, which ironically was three years before Henderson made his MLB debut. However, the current Brewers team does have a chance to surpass the 2024 Nationals as the team with the most stolen bases in a single season since 2000, but after stealing just 22 bases in the first 19 games, they are well behind the pace.

There is one category where the speedy Brewers might have a chance to snatch a record: total team steals in a single game in the live ball era. The current record is unsurprisingly held by the 1976 Athletics, who stole 12 bases in one game. That might seem like a lot, and it is, but you might remember Elly De La Cruz and the Reds stealing nine bases against the Brewers just two seasons ago.

With the Brewers’ combination of speed and aggression on the base paths, they could reach 12 stolen bases in a single game, assuming everything goes right for them. It's a tall task that's for sure, but the Brewers have never had a group of position players with this much speed, paired with a coaching staff that likes to run as much as Pat Murphy and company do. If ever they are going to threaten one of the seemingly insurmountable stolen base records, the time is now.