4 things the Milwaukee Brewers can't afford to have go wrong the rest of the season

The Brewers need William Contreras to keep it up at the plate

Regardless of how the rest of the season turns out, the trade for William Contreras has to be considered to be THE heist of last offseason. For reasons no one can really understand, Oakland allowed a trade to happen where they gave up one of the best catchers in baseball in Sean Murphy and they didn't even get the second best player in the deal (or even the third as Joel Payamps has been awesome, too). Things have worked out for the Braves as well, but Milwaukee being able to snake Contreras somehow has been a revelation.

Through 460 plate appearances in 2023, Contreras has posted a .276/.352/.449 line with 13 homers and the defensive metrics have really liked him in 2023, too. The end result has been that William has produced the second highest fWAR on the team behind Yelich at 3.8 in 2023. Not too shabby for a guy that Milwaukee gave up Esteury Ruiz to acquire.

Assuming no other Milwaukee hitter breaks out the rest of the season, they are going to need every bit of production Contreras can give them at the plate. As good as the Brewers are defensively, they aren't going to scare a lot of teams with their offense unless Contreras is a viable threat in the lineup the rest of the 2023 season alongside Yelich.

Milwaukee's bullpen has to keep doing what they are doing

Bullpens are a funny thing because if they are doing their jobs, they often get overlooked unless there is a backend guy that putting up video game numbers. Case in point is the Brewers' bullpen who has been the sixth best relief corps in all of baseball in the second half by fWAR while sporting a 3.10 ERA since the All-Star break.

After being a bit top heavy in the first half with Devin Williams and Joel Payamps leading the charge to start 2023, Milwaukee's bullpen has gotten deeper and stronger as the season has gone on. Abner Uribe has been a delightful addition to the roster ever since he was called up and both Hoby Milner and Trevor Megill have contributed significantly as well.

With the strength that the Brewers have at the top of their rotation, they become very, very tough to beat when they have a shut down bullpen rolling as well. If the relievers can just stay healthy the rest of the way and keep things going, Milwaukee has a real shot at making some noise in 2023. If not, well...a few other things will have to go right.

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