The Milwaukee Brewers have once again proven that they are not affected by trading away star players in the offseason, as they once again lead the National League Central. They are up 4 1/2 games on the St. Louis Cardinals.
Last offseason, they traded Freddy Peralta to the New York Mets and got a haul in exchange. The trade deadline is still several weeks away, and it remains to be seen what a lot of teams will do.
However, given the way the Brewers have played, it is quite clear that they have positioned themselves to be buyers at the deadline if they do anything at all.
Brewers Well-Positioned to Buy at Deadline
If there is one thing the Brewers need a little more of, it’s power in their lineup. Though they have scored the sixth most runs in Major League Baseball, they are also last in home runs. They have power in their lineup, and that includes players like Christian Yelich, William Contreras and Andrew Vaughn, but they need at least one more bat if they want to improve in that category.
It is likely a longshot that they will land somebody like Tarik Skubal in a blockbuster trade at the deadline, especially given that he is in the final year of his contract. That just isn’t how the Brewers operate these days, so it wouldn’t really make sense for them to do that.
However, they do need more power, and that could be the key difference for them as they try to win their fourth straight NL Central title and make an even deeper run in the postseason. Last year, they were swept in the NLCS by the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
They have the ability to score a lot of runs without the home run ball, and that is a sustainable way of winning because the Brewers are good at situational hitting and baserunning, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt for them to add one more power bat.
At this point, it appears likely that the Brewers will be buyers if they do anything at the deadline. It would take a long losing streak and a collapse in the NL Central standings for them to potentially fall into the sellers’ category. It will be interesting to see what the Brewers do, but fans should expect them to be adding pieces by August 3, not subtracting them.
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