The stage is set for the Brewers to get left behind in the NL Central this offseason

The Milwaukee Brewers have long been a team that has had to do more with less. While their fans are rabid, the size of their market combined with a relatively frugal owner has meant that extracting as much value as is humanly possible when it comes to roster building is a necessity. While they have tried that and still had some rough seasons (2015 and 2016 come to mind), getting to the postseason in six of the last seven years points to the Brewers being uniquely good at overcoming this type of resource adversity.

Every team has a limit, though. When you are walking a tight rope while weighing financial limitations and the desire to win, sometimes the conditions are unfavorable enough that you simply can't do both. At some point, you are going have to either invest in your roster or accept a down season as a possibility as no team has a limitless source of cheap talent coming from the minor leagues at the positions where you need them.

While the Brewers aren't there yet by any means, there is enough smoke heading into the offseason to suggest that tough times could be coming unless the front office is proactive.

The universe seems to be lining up against the Brewers heading into the 2025 season

As much as is made about the Brewers' payroll not being where fans want it to be, that is somewhat overblown. Milwaukee currently has a little less than $109 million committed for 2025 which is right in the middle of the pack heading into the offseason. In 2024, they ranked 21st in payroll and ahead of two different playoff teams in the Orioles and Guardians. Not ideal obviously, but certainly far from the worst case scenario (sorry A's fans).

The problem is that when you are building a team with no margin for error, it doesn't take much to make things go sideways. We have seen this happen when players have gotten hurt in the past. All of a sudden, the Brewers' inability/unwillingness to take on more payroll has meant that they have had to rely on risky internal replacements of varying quality to make do.

So how does this matter to the Brewers this offseason and 2025? Well, for starters, we just recently got word that the Brewers' TV revenue is likely to go down after the Diamond Sports bankruptcy mess cost Milwaukee their TV deal. While more lucrative TV deals existed in baseball to be sure before things blew up, any decrease in revenue is likely to be felt on the roster in the coming years in some form or fashion.

On top of that, the Brewers are poised to lose one of their best players in Willy Adames to free agency. Sure, Milwaukee can slide Joey Ortiz over and will end up fielding an infield that will "work" next season, but the likelihood that any alignment will be as good as one with Adames in it seems unlikely. The Brewers also have holes to fill on both sides of the ball this offseason with increasingly less revenue to support the roster. Elsewhere in the division, the Reds look like they could make a real push in 2025, the Cubs are pot-committed to at least try to win next season, and it is at least theoretically possible that the Cardinals figure out how to play baseball again.

As for the Pirates, well...they are going to try their best...probably.

If history is any indication, the Brewers will navigate these rough waters well yet again. They still have one of the most exciting young players in baseball in Jackson Chourio and one hopes that when Christian Yelich takes the field next season, he looks like his former self. There is a lot to like about Milwaukee heading into next season, but that optimism should be of the cautious variety given what the Brewers are dealing with at the moment.

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