4 reasons Milwaukee Brewers failed to make the playoffs
Shortly after experiencing the thrill of a walk-off victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday night, the Milwaukee Brewers were officially eliminated from playoff contention when the Philadelphia Phillies won their game.
The elimination marked the first time in the last five years that the Brewers won’t be in the playoffs, ending a franchise-long streak. It also marks the end of a season of turmoil that saw plenty of twists and turns.
Nobody is happy the season ended the way it did. Milwaukee won 95 games a season ago and was returning an elite pitching staff, a dominant bullpen, and maybe, just maybe, enough offense to get them over the hump. Unfortunately, they could never pull everything together following their best 50-game start in franchise history. The Brewers helplessly staggered throughout the final 110 games and missed the postseason for these four reasons.
The Milwaukee Brewers were officially eliminated from playoff contention on Monday, marking a disappointing season for a team with postseason expectations.
Clubhouse cohesion
The best teams have the most fun on and off the field. We’ve seen that cohesion in recent Brewers’ teams where they legitimately enjoy each other’s company and thrive as a result. This version was never able to develop that same chemistry and suffered as a result.
Part of it has to do with the Josh Hader trade that surprised and shook the clubhouse. Players realized nobody was safe and felt like the management didn’t have confidence in them to get the job done. That’s a difficult message to handle regardless of the intended strategy behind the deal. It was emotionally over at that point.
Inconsistent offense
On paper, the Brewers have an above-average offense by just about any metric. In reality, they were as inconsistent as they come.
Milwaukee was a strikeout-heavy lineup that over-relied on the long ball to produce offense. That led to long stretches of bats that disappeared altogether. Take last weekend’s four-game series against the Miami Marlins as a perfect example. In a must-win situation, their offense produced a measly nine runs in four games and failed to score more than three runs in any one game. That resulted in a 1-3 series that put the nail in the coffin of the playoff hopes.
Pitching injuries
The Brewers had an excellent starting rotation entering the season with Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta forming the best trio of starting pitchers in the MLB. Unfortunately, injury luck prevented them from ever getting going. Every starter not named Burnes spent a lot of time on the injured list this season, preventing the rotation from ever finding their groove. That inconsistent time on the mound made it difficult for the Brewers to string together consistent wins after their hot start.
Bullpen issues
Surprisingly, they also had a bullpen that struggled to close the door on opponents. Even when Hader was on the club, the backend of the bullpen had their bad days. Milwaukee led the MLB with 15 blown saves this season, including two in that critical series against the Marlins that was referenced before. For a unit that was supposed to be a strength of the team, it fell flat on its face in the most critical times.