Here's why the Brewers could be the "small market mystery team" in on Juan Soto

An Average Joes' uniform from the movie 'Dodgeball' hangs on the office door of Milwaukee Brewers manager Pat Murphy. It signifies how the Brewers players view Murphy like Patches O'Houlihan, leading their group of underdogs and misfits against high-priced, powerhouse teams like the Globo Gym Purple Cobras or the Chicago Cubs. That mentality led to the Brewers success this season and is perhaps leading an underdog pursuit of the top free agent on the market, Juan Soto.

At first glance, the Brewers appear to have no shot to sign Juan Soto. He's going to sign one of the richest free agent contracts in MLB history on a massive long-term deal. The Brewers are a small market, low revenue club that does not have a history of dishing out big contracts or winning a bidding war.

However, MLB insider Jon Heyman reported that the Soto derby includes a pair of mystery teams and that "at least one low-revenue team is believed still in this derby, but it isn’t necessarily Tampa Bay."

Well, if one low-revenue team is still in the derby and it's not Tampa Bay, the Brewers very well could be that club. That may be a surprise to many, but it's actually not that far-fetched that they'd try to be involved.

Why the Brewers could be the mystery team in the Juan Soto sweepstakes

The Brewers love players that make great swing decisions and have excellent ball-strike recognition. Juan Soto fits that description perfectly. There are none better in baseball at that than Soto. There's plenty of reasons for a front office to want a player like Soto and the Brewers certainly recognize what he brings.

That's why the Brewers were heavily involved in the Juan Soto trade sweepstakes back at the trade deadline in 2022. They nearly landed him in what would've been a major upset to what the national media expected.

Granted, it'll be much more difficult this time because it's not just dealing from a strong farm system to get Soto, but it'll be a heavy financial commitment, which is not a strength for Milwaukee. Still, if there's a player the Brewers front office and ownership would be willing to splurge on, it'd be Soto. They were willing and able to do it before when he was on the trade market, they could be again.

Typically, the Brewers do not like to trade from the top of their farm system. They hug their prospects as tight as possible, but they were willing to deal them in order to land Soto two years ago. That says a lot about how much Milwaukee values Soto.

None of this is to say the Brewers are very likely to actually win the Soto sweepstakes. The teams with deep pockets can more easily afford to give Soto the contract he wants without having to pinch too many pennies elsewhere. Milwaukee would have to pinch every penny with Soto, Jackson Chourio, and Christian Yelich under long-term contracts. It's a complete longshot for Milwaukee and that's if they even are that mystery small market team, which is no guarantee.

Just maybe, all of the pinching pennies and saving money on payroll the last few years was all in an effort to have enough money available for a Soto pursuit. Just maybe. That doesn't mean it's going to be enough to win it or even if they somehow have the "high bid" that Soto would choose Milwaukee over a place like New York.

The Brewers' previous pursuit of Soto on the trade market and willingness to deal from a farm system that they don't typically like to deal from makes you wonder if the Brewers would want to make another run at Soto and be willing to spend an amount of money that they typically don't like to spend.

It may only end up being a footnote if it's later revealed the Brewers were this low revenue mystery team that was involved in the Juan Soto sweepstakes. Still, it'd be pretty notable that the Brewers would even be in that footnote on a free agent pursuit like this that no one would put Milwaukee in the conversation for.