Pressure building on Brewers to spend as MLB insiders blast owner Mark Attanasio

The Milwaukee Brewers seem to be entering the 2025 season in a very familiar position. The roster has a slew of talented young players with a smattering of veteran stars with little help coming via offseason acquisitions. Yes, the Brewers did trade for Nestor Cortes and Caleb Durbin who could help this season, but the rest of the offseason was more about what Milwaukee lost than what they gained.

The Brewers' payroll situation is a bit of a sore spot. On the one hand, owner Mark Attanasio generally supports the team just enough to let Milwaukee compete for a playoff spot each season and that is not easy to do. However, he has also done little to push further than that and the list of talented Brewers stars that have left town continued to grow with the losses of Willy Adames and Devin Williams this offseason.

There were already some rumblings that Brewers fans were growing tired of Attanasio and his penny-pinching. However, after Attanasio spoke to the media this week at spring training, the national outlets like USA Today and The Athletic finally took notice recently by not only calling out the Brewers' lack of spending under Attanasio in a column, but also questioning how long Milwaukee's model can even work without more investments in the roster in another.

Brewers owner Mark Attanasio's comments on spending seem to have finally caused a shift

No one expects the Brewers to spend like the Dodgers or Mets. That would be a lot of fun especially when that kind of money is in the hands of a smart front office. However, Milwaukee isn't the kind of market that could support that nor is Attanasio the type of owner that is willing to spend himself into oblivion like Steve Cohen in search of a legacy title.

In fact, Attanasio is pretty much the opposite of that. He spent the bulk of his media availability explaining why the Brewers' payroll is as low as it is, talking up the team's playoff appearances, and decrying calls to spend more. The kicker, though, was when Attanasio said, "Is my job to win a World Series or is my job to provide a summer of entertainment and passion and a way for families to come together?"

That probably sounded a lot better in Attanasio's head than it did out loud. Yes, baseball is an opportunity for friends and family to get out and have a great time. However, an owner strongly implying that he doesn't see it as his responsibility to field a World Series contender is both sad and makes it less likely that fans will spend their hard-earned money to support the team. It doesn't help that Attanasio is STILL looking for opportunities to trim payroll as Rosenthal's piece said that he has pushed to some extent for the club to trade Aaron Civale and others to save a buck.

Attanasio is walking a dangerous line here. The Brewers rely on fans attending games in force and for the last several years, they have gladly done so. However, fans need to feel as though their support has value and purpose. If the purpose is to finally get back to the World Series, fans will be all in. If the goal is to make Attanasio's bottom line look pretty as it appears to be, that goodwill could go away in a hurry and that may be the only way to get him to change.

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