The Milwaukee Brewers are an interesting team. They have the best record in Major League Baseball at 68-44 and even have three-game lead over the Chicago Cubs in the NL Central. A lot is going right for them, even after they traded Devin Williams to the New York Yankees and lost Willy Adames in free agency to the San Francisco Giants.
They don't spend a lot of money in free agency and tend to have a lower payroll than most teams. Yet they have the best record in the entire league. A lot of teams could learn from the Brewers and adopt a similar strategy.
One team that could learn from the Brewers is their NL Central rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals.
Cardinals should take a page out of the Brewers book for success
Like the Brewers, the Cardinals don't typically spend a ton of money on player payroll, but they have a bigger market than the Brewers and still do spend more than their NL Central rivals. However, Milwaukee has been dominating St. Louis since 2017. With the exception of the 2020 pandemic-shortened season, Milwaukee has only finished behind St. Louis in the standings twice.
The Brewers finished 10 games ahead of the Cardinals last year in the NL Central, and in 2023, St. Louis went 71-91, finishing in last place in the division while the Brewers cruised to the top.
But why is this? Why do the Cardinals spend more than Milwaukee, but are still less successful than their counterparts in recent years. The secret may be something that a lot of fans wouldn't expect.
The truth is that spending isn't the only way to build a good team. If a team can't spend to the levels of the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, they had better have a strategy that works.
Fortunately, the Brewers have just that. They draft and develop well. In addition to this, while they don't spend much, when they do spend, they spend wisely. They don't just throw money at the problem and assume that it's the only strategy that will work.
In fact, the Cardinals were very much like the Brewers back in the early 2010s. They watched Albert Pujols depart in free agency, but kept on contending because they had drafted and developed strong players such as Adam Wainwright, Yadier Molina, David Freese, Jason Motte and Allen Craig. Then, they gave Carlos Beltran a frugal two-year contract, and he was an All-Star in both years of his Cardinals tenure.
The Brewers have now perfected that strategy. When they traded away Josh Hader, they had Devin Williams waiting in the wings to take over the closer's role, and now have Trevor Megill serving as the closer. They also are now reaping the benefits of top prospect Jacob Misiorowski.
And when the Brewers have spent, they haven't gone after big names, but the players they have added have given them just what they need.
Meanwhile, the Cardinals shifted their strategy to spend more in free agency, but they didn't spend on the right players. They gave four years and $44 million to the recently departed Steven Matz, and he was unable to stay healthy until this year. They also gave more than $10 million to Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson prior to 2024. Neither starter panned out in their final season.
They got away from drafting and developing. Meanwhile, the Brewers held firm in their strategy and have passed the Cardinals in just about every way.
If St. Louis wants to bring back their glory days, they need to take a page out of the Brewers book and re-learn their old strategy of having a strong farm system and using free agency to supplement the roster.