How the Brewers Got Here

Less than a year after trading All-Star closer Devin Williams and losing Willy Adames in free agency, the Milwaukee Brewers are heading to the National League Championship Series! Just like their 2018 appearance, this one will be a showdown with a loaded Los Angeles Dodgers team. Normally the team with the best record in baseball making a championship series wouldn’t be a surprise, but this is a team who many picked to miss the playoffs all together coming into 2025, so let’s look at how this team got here and what to expect as they fight for their franchise’s first World Series trophy.

After the offseason moves significantly weakened the roster on paper, many Brewers fans rightfully expected a rebuilding year could be in the works. Of course there was still plenty of talent on the roster with guys like William Contreras, Freddy Peralta and Jackson Chourio, who are more than capable of playing at an elite level. Even Christian Yelich, despite missing the second half of the 2024 season with a back injury, was expected to be a major contributor. Still, many questions were left unanswered, could Brice Turang and Sal Frelick take a major step forward? How would the bullpen respond to the hole left by the departure of Devin Williams? And even if the team outperformed expectations, could they buck the trend of early playoff exits that had haunted the team over the last 6 seasons?

On May 24th of this year the Milwaukee Brewers sat 6.5 games out of first place with a record of 26-28 and certainly looked the part of the mediocre squad many predicted them to be. Fast forward to August 11th and the Brewers found themselves 6.5 games up in the NL Central amid one of the hottest streaks in recent baseball history. Between those dates, the team rattled off 49 wins and only 16 losses thanks to multiple 10+ game winning streaks. Freddy Peralta looked like a legitimate Cy Young contender but it was contributions from Quinn Preister and June call up, Jacob Misiorowski, that had turned the starting rotation into one of the best in Major League Baseball. Behind them was a bullpen that was considered among the best in the league thanks to Trevor Megill in the closer role and a stable of consistent arms being rolled out in front of him on a nightly basis.

Oh, and the offense? Only among the best in baseball as well, despite being one of the weaker home run hitting teams. What the team lacked in power, they made up for by getting on base at an elite rate and stealing bases better than anybody else in the National League. Veterans William Contreras and Christian Yelich put up outstanding numbers, but the biggest spark came from 25 year old Brice Turang. When Jackson Chourio went on the IL on August 1st, it was Turang who provided the offense, hitting .340 with 10 HRs in the month of August en route to Player of the Month honors. By the end of the regular season the Brewers were third in runs scored, boasting an MLB best run differential of +172 & had run away with the Central to secured the first overall seed in the National League.

The only question remaining would have to be answered in October, as the Brewers tried to change the tune surrounding the franchise in the postseason. In 2023 and 2024 the team won 92 and 93 games respectively, only to lose in the Wild Card round in both years. Now in 2025, could a team that won 97 games be the one who broke through? This season, their divisional round opponent would be a familiar foe in the Chicago Cubs, led by the Brewers oft-maligned former manager Craig Counsel. After going up 2-0 in Milwaukee, the series headed back to Chicago where the Cubs promptly tied the series up at two games apiece. Heading back to Milwaukee for a winner-take-all game it appeared that Chicago had fully taken control of the momentum in the series, but then came the master class in pitching staff management that Pat Murphy put on in game 5. The Brewers opened the game with usual closer Trevor Megill, before turning to rookie starter Jacob Misiorowski for four innings, a combo of Aaron Ashby and Chad Patrick for two and regular setup man Abner Uribe for a six-out save. The final result was a rattled Cubs offense that mustered four hits and just one run in the biggest game of their season. The Brewers, of course, managed to take the game by a score of 3-1 on the back of three solo shots, which was a statement in itself, given their well known lack of the longball throughout the season.

This brings us to today, where the Brewers are preparing to battle through what could be a back and forth, seven game set with the defending World Series Champions. While this series is being advertised as a kind of David versus Goliath matchup, it will be anything but that. Milwaukee is a team that has dealt with adversity and proven themselves time and time again throughout the year. When injuries reared their ugly heads, role players stepped up. When talking heads all around the league doubted the bullpen, they let their arms do the talking and finally, when the moment appeared too bright in the NLDS, they slammed the door shut right in the faces of their big market rival. This series may feature the same two teams from 2018, but the result could be much different. The “Average Joe” Brewers are here and they’re anything but average.

John Siebels is the owner of Springhill Sports Cards, he collects and sells sports cards on Ebay, you can find him on TikTok, YouTube, BlueSky and his Ebay store.