After witnessing their historic World Series run, many MLB teams will try to replicate the Milwaukee Brewers' unique recipe for success. Most of them don’t stand a chance because they don’t understand what made this team tick behind the scenes, but the Athletics now have a genuine advantage in turning their dream into a reality.
The A’s just hired Cam Castro, Milwaukee's former Senior Vice President of Player Development and Performance, as their new GM. The 36-year-old joined the Brewers as a minor-league pitching coach back in 2019 and worked his way up to the front office by leaning into the culture of consistency and care. His core responsibility was to help Brewers players meet their full potential, and he did a wonderful job.
During his introductory press conference with the Athletics, Castro reflected on how Milwaukee elevated from an overlooked small-market team to the biggest show in the majors, and in his opinion, it all began with their heart:
"In Milwaukee, it didn't happen instantaneously. Again, it took great people. It took a lot of hard work," Castro explained. "The time, and the effort, and the collaboration, frankly, between everybody that we had there is something that led to the culture. That people felt listened to, that they felt important, and they felt valued, and they felt seen."
Establishing a culture with those values takes time, effort, and the right mix of people who are willing to check their egos at the door and be part of something bigger than themself. That's the guiding reason why the Milwaukee Brewers became World Series champions for the first time this year.
The Milwaukee Brewers didn't skip steps in building their culture, and it paid off in spades over time.
This Milwaukee Brewers team did not win based on talent alone. A handful of franchises can win that way, but very few teams share that luxury. Building organically by drafting, developing, trading for, and instilling confidence in players is the recipe Milwaukee used to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds over the last decade.
There was a time when the Brewers were a laughingstock — a team that rarely made the playoffs, and when they did, they were never taken seriously because they rarely gave teams reason to take them seriously. Then, over the last 10 years, something changed within the organization. It was no longer about wanting to prove themselves to the masses, but about doing it for the city and doing it for each other.
Players, coaches, executives, and staff members who weren’t bought into that identity did not make it very far within the organization. But those who did were applauded, promoted, and accomplished something Milwaukee could only dream of until now. That is the real lesson from this Brewers team — building a contender is just as much about humility, hard work, and execution as it is about payroll.
Baseball fans around the world may not have believed in this lineup before they saw it in the playoffs. But what they witnessed in the sheer, unadulterated bliss of Milwaukee's celebration, winning its first World Series after decades of dreaming, and the unrelenting pride that the Brewers players and organization had in bringing it to them is what makes this team so special.
If there’s anything other teams should hope to replicate, it’s the culture. That’s not a step you can afford to skip if your goal is to reach the pinnacle of the MLB — especially if you have to go through the Milwaukee Brewers to get there.
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