Milwaukee Brewers: 4 major question marks for 2020

Fluctuations and Inconsistencies

Baseball is a crazy sport, guys can have uncharacteristically great seasons and catch lightning in a bottle, or have crazy extended slumps. Plenty of guys on the Milwaukee Brewers this year have experienced both ends of that spectrum, so the team’s success will hinge on these guys having years closer to the higher end of their ability.

Josh Linblom has had bits of success pitching in the major leagues as a reliever, but remade himself into a starter in Korea. He was the MVP of the KBO in 2019, the same award that Eric Thames won in 2015. When a guy comes from an entirely different league in a different country, there’s no telling how much success he’ll have. Maybe he’ll win the Cy Young, maybe he’ll completely flop and be off the team by June. My guess is that he will fall somewhere in between and will have an ERA around four.

Sticking with pitching, we’ll go to two guys who started 2019 in the starting rotation, but were relegated to the minor leagues and bullpen duty early in the season. Freddy Peralta and Corbin Burnes have both made major tweaks to their pitching this offseason and are looking to make big splashes in 2020.

Burnes has been working on giving his slider a different look than his fastball and throwing off hitters’ timing in addition to getting Lasik surgery, meaning he won’t be rocking the goggles anymore. Peralta pitched in the Dominican Winter League, where he developed a slider and gave up only six hits and three earned runs in 20 innings.

Finally, Justin Smoak has made a long career for himself, but that doesn’t mean that there haven’t been low points. He gets on base at a high rate, being in the top eight percent in walk percentage in each of the past two seasons. That also allows him to have a respectable on-base percentage of .324 for his career despite hitting only .231.

Of his ten major league seasons, he’s had an OPS+ of over 100 in six, and under 100 in four. As a 33-year-old on a one year contract with a club option for 2021, the Milwaukee Brewers are hoping for one more above-average season from Smoak in the middle of their order to drive in runs and get them back to the postseason.

So what question mark are you most concerned about? Who do you think could have a big season despite the uncertainty surrounding them? Leave your thoughts in the comments below or @DairylandXpress.