2020 MLB Record Prediction has Brewers just Missing the Playoffs

USA Today has released their record predictions for the 2020 MLB season and the Milwaukee Brewers just miss the postseason.

There has been a lot of roster turnover this offseason for the Milwaukee Brewers and of the many additions made, that star or impact player that many fans had been hoping for was not brought in. Instead, Milwaukee would sign a number of low-cost players who certainly have potential in 2020, but they also have low floors as well.

So the big question on everyone’s mind is with the Brewers’ Championship window open, did they do enough this offseason to get back to the playoffs for the third straight season, or will they take another step back in 2020?

Well, now with pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training in about a week, we are slowly starting to see predictions for the upcoming MLB season. And the most recent one came from USA Today who had the Milwaukee Brewers finishing third in the NL Central with a record of 84-78 and missing the playoffs.

There are a few things that we can glean from these predictions and of course the first being that Milwaukee will see their win total decrease from the 2019 season. Last year the Brewers sneaked into the playoffs with a final record of 89-73 after another fantastic September performance but they are predicted to drop five games in 2020.

The projected 84 wins by USA Today also aligns fairly closely with Fangraphs ZiPS projections which has this Brewers team combining for a total WAR of 38.1. And if we extrapolate that out utilizing the Unifying Replacement Level theory that calculates a replacement level baseball team winning 47.7 games, Milwaukee’s win total is predicted to fall around the 85 to 86 mark.

It’s also worth pointing out that once again the NL Central is going to be a gauntlet to get through with every team except the Pittsburgh Pirates finishing above .500 and no team reaching the 90 win mark as they beat up on each other over the course of the season.

The National League as a whole is also expected to be quite difficult with just four of the 15 teams projected to finish below .500 and only two teams – Atlanta and Los Angeles – winning more than 90 games. There even ends up being a four-way tie for the final wildcard spot at 85-77 with the Brewers finishing just a game behind.

So take these predictions as you will, after all they are only predictions and don’t decide anything. But with that said, the mid-80 mark for wins is slowly becoming a popular landing spot for the Milwaukee Brewers, and if that is the case, they could very well end up missing the playoffs.

However, this team has certainly surprised us before and as we’ve seen from them in recent years, we certainly can’t count them out.