Brewers: 3 Brewers Players Who Will Be Better In 2023 and 2 Who Won't

"Every day you either get better or you get worse. You never stay the same." - Bo Schembechler. You've probably seen that quote or heard it in some form before, and it holds true. Especially in sports, with the amount of work that players put in and the variance of performance, players never stay the same.

From year to year, from day to day, players don't put up the same performance each and every time. Sometimes they're better than they were before, sometimes they're worse. If you look over the course of a player's career, from one year to the next, it's never the same stat line. The stats usually either get better or they get worse.

For the Milwaukee Brewers, based on the results of last season, they'll need a lot of their players to get better and improve on their 2022 numbers this season. But not all of them will be able to. It's inevitable that at least some of the Brewers won't be better in 2023 than they were in 2022. However, plenty of them will get better. But which ones?

Let's take a look.

Here are three Brewers players who will be better in 2023, and two Brewers who won't be.

Brewer who will be better #1: OF/DH Jesse Winker

The Brewers are betting on a bounce-back season from Jesse Winker this year. He has one year left on his contract before free agency and is coming off a down season in Seattle. For years, Winker was a productive bat, and a Brewer killer, for the Cincinnati Reds. His one season in Seattle was plagued with injuries and poor performance. A return to the NL Central and a clean bill of health should help him.

It's also likely that Winker stays primarily as the DH in MIlwaukee. With the free agent departure of Andrew McCutchen, that job was available for the taking and Winker has never been regarded as a strong defender in the outfield. He's strictly a left field profile and Christian Yelich is already taking up that job and doesn't have the throwing arm for any other outfield spot.

Winker has been an above-average hitter every year of his career, and in 2021 he posted a .305/.394/.556 slash line with 24 homers. He's a career .270 hitter with a 123 OPS+. So his 2022 numbers, hitting .219/.344/.344 seem like an outlier. It's unlikely that in his age-28 season Winker all of a sudden became a bad hitter.

Brewer who will be better in 2023 #2: 1B Rowdy Tellez

Rowdy Tellez had a pretty good year in 2022. He finally got an opportunity to be the everyday first baseman and he did well. Tellez slugged 35 homers with a 15 OPS+, but he also hit just .219 with a .306 OBP.

While Tellez's power output may still improve slightly, as there were several deep fly balls he hit that died on the warning track and perhaps should've been homers, the bigger help for Rowdy is the ban on extreme shifts.

Last season, Tellez was shifted on more than 78% of his ABs, with the second baseman routinely playing in shallow right field, robbing him of several would-be hits. With the second baseman now having to play on the dirt and only two infielders on either side of second base at a time, more of Tellez's batted balls will find a way to sneak through. That increases his batting average, his on-base percentage, and slugging. Everything is helped by taking away that shift.

Tellez had a .318 wOBA against the shift in 2022. Without the shift, he had a .338 wOBA. That's a pretty solid increase that's to be expected from Tellez over the course of a whole season.

The shift ban won't affect his power numbers, which will still likely be quite good. But Tellez is likely to get on base a lot more often in 2023, which only means good things for the Brewers.

Rowdy's always been able to hit for decently high averages before. He even hit .283 in the shortened 2020 season, albeit in just 113 ABs. He's a career .236 hitter and his .219 mark in 2022 was the lowest of his big league career. All signs point to Tellez being better in 2023.

Brewer who won't be better in 2023 #1: DH Keston Hiura

I'm slightly surprised the Brewers didn't trade Keston Hiura during the offseason. It's possible that other teams simply weren't interested in Hiura and weren't willing to give up a player in order to get him. Like Yelich, things haven't gone to plan for Hiura since 2019. Unlike Yelich, Hiura did not have a track record of MLB performance prior to that and a series of MVP performances.

Hiura is firmly on the roster bubble heading into 2023. With Tellez at first base and Jesse Winker at DH, both of whom are projected to improve this year, Keston Hiura is a man without a clear path to playing time. He brings almost no value defensively and is limited in the positions he can play. Offensively, he hasn't brought the value to make it worth putting him in the lineup everyday and dealing with defensive struggles or putting him at DH.

Hiura has been in a three year long slump and his strikeout problems have continued to grow worse, despite swing changes and cutting down his high leg kick. He hasn't been in a regular starting role since early 2021, where his slump reached a rock bottom. Hiura needs regular playing time to get himself into a rhythm and get out of this slump, but he likely won't be finding that in Milwaukee.

To make matters more difficult, Hiura is now out of minor league options. They can't send him down to Triple-A to get everyday ABs. For now, that has hitting sitting on the bench as a limited defender and pinch hit option in a league with the DH and pinch hitting is not as common as it used to be.

In 2023, Hiura is slated to get sporadic playing time. He showed home run power when he did make contact, but his ever increasing strikeout rate jumped over 40% last year. Without regular ABs, that's not likely to decrease very much.

The shift ban won't help him either as Hiura did better against shifts in 2022 than he did with the defense playing straight up.

Brewer who won't be better in 2023 #2: OF Tyrone Taylor

Tyrone Taylor has had an interesting career. An early draft pick in 2012, Taylor didn't make his MLB debut until 2019 and has slowly started to gain some playing time over the past few years. Yet the Brewers continue to acquire other outfielders to play above Taylor despire Taylor putting up solid numbers.

In 2022, Taylor finally got the chance to be an everyday starter after the DFA of Lorenzo Cain. Taylor showed some power in 120 games but overall struggled to be a consistent hitter and failed to secure a starting job going forward. He fell into a slump with some home runs peppered in that brought his season total up to 17 long balls.

By the end of the year, Taylor gave way to Garrett Mitchell in centerfield and Mitchell is likely to be the starting centerfielder in 2023. Right field is now the open spot for Taylor to get some playing time. But the Brewers have a couple more outfield prospects that will need big league playing time and who are they going to take it from? Probably Tyrone Taylor.

His power numbers were solid but it'll be difficult for Taylor to repeat that performance in 2023. If everything goes according to plan with the youngsters, Taylor is unlikely to play in 120 games this year. Even if things don't go to plan with the prospects, Brian Anderson has outfield experience and will spend time out in right field to give all the infielders the Brewers have their share of ABs, meaning Taylor again likely won't reach 120 games played. That also means he likely won't get back to 21 doubles or 17 homers.

The Brewers moved Hunter Renfroe this offseason and didn't bring in another established veteran for right field because they were clearing room for their young outfield prospects. Taylor is a stopgap until they're ready, but he won't be blocking them. Even if he has a career year in 2023, Taylor likely won't be keeping that starting right field job for very long.