Brewers believe their offense will be better in 2024, and it will need to be

PHOENIX – The Milwaukee Brewers didn’t have a high-octane offense a year ago, but they also didn’t need it to be.

When the 2024 regular season kicks off this week in New York, the script will be different. They will need to beat teams with their offense.

“We have to beat people in different ways,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “We can’t just beat them one way. It’s not a year that we’re going to be able to not score runs. We have to score runs. We know that with the inexperience we have with our pitching staff, inexperience all around, we’re going to have to try to scrape and claw and beat people in different ways.”

Nothing ahead of a 162-game season is for certain, but this much seems pretty close to it. If the Brewers post similar offensive numbers to last year, it’s probably not going to go well.

Ranking in the bottom third of baseball in average, slugging, OPS, exit velocity and hard-hit rate without the same pitchers as last year to make up for it, would create quite the challenge.

“I remember answering a lot of questions about the offense last year,” leftfielder Christian Yelich said.

Perhaps similar questions will be asked after games of the pitching this year. And even if the Brewers pitching staff exceeds expectations, it’s going to be challenging to live up to last year’s group, which was tied for the best earned run average in baseball.

Throughout spring, Murphy didn’t shy away from the difficulty level of the task ahead without Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff, and with Devin Williams out for at least two months.

That puts much of the onus on the offense in 2024.

“Last year it felt like collectively it wasn’t the best year for us as an offense,” shortstop Willy Adames said. “That’s what’s driving us to get better, what’s motivating us to set the bar a little higher because we know we need it this year.”

Can the Brewers offense be better?

If Adames can return to a level similar to his past production in his final year before free agency, Milwaukee has arguably as good a top four as any lineup in the division with Adames, Yelich, William Contreras and Rhys Hoskins.

Hoskins is precisely the type of hitter the Brewers have needed to add for the past five or so years. There’s no real weakness in his offensive profile; he has above-average plate discipline, he doesn’t strike out a ton, his approach seems conducive for consistent success and, best of all, he has real pop.

Put the whole package together and Hoskins wears pitchers down. That’s the type of identity he wants the whole offense to take, too.

“That’s the word for us, is we’re going to try to be as relentless as we can,” he said.

You can look at all the numbers you want in an attempt to ascertain how the Brewers offense will perform this year.

What ultimately will dictate whether or not they reach those projections, or if they under- or overperform them, comes down to approach.

Not every hitter in the Brewers lineup is able to be relentless in the way Hoskins can be. There will have to be different avenues of reaching the same result. Brice Turang, for example, isn’t a candidate to hit 25 homers. Nor is Sal Frelick or Blake Perkins.

'Be You'

But the approach for each of those hitters will be paramount to the team’s overall success.

This is what is preached from Murphy on down to the hitting coaches. “Be You,” is the motto written in big, bold letters in the team’s batting cage. Murphy adds “Pass the baton” to that.

Know yourself, know your approach, stay true to that and don’t deviate so you can try and be the hero. The message isn’t groundbreaking, but sometimes simple is best.

Damage, as Murphy says, at this level isn’t usually hit. It’s thrown.

The Brewers offense is attempting to strike a delicate balance. There is room for nearly everyone in the lineup to be more aggressive and to take advantage of mistakes when thrown, but doing so also needs to be done without losing sight of the overall approach.

Take, for example, hitters like Turang and Frelick.

They certainly have room to do more damage at the plate this year. It’s something Turang has talked about this spring, and the Brewers would like to see more extra-base hits, too.

The way to do that, hitting coach Connor Dawson said, isn’t by overhauling their swings with the singular hope of elevating the ball more. Rather, it’s through a more concise, disciplined approach in the box that results in more swings at good pitches to hit. Then, when they get more pitches to hit in the zone, their above-average hit tools will lead to solid contact often.

Maintaining a consistent approach is key

For an offense as young as the Brewers, maintaining a consistent approach day-in, day-out will be the challenge.

“We’re capable of doing a lot of damage,” Adames said. “We have a lot of power in the lineup, a lot of great hitters. We have a lot of fast guys, too, this year. It’s going to be really interesting to see how we develop during the year and how we become consistent. That’s going to be the key, is being consistent.”

If plate discipline is steadily present for young talented hitters like Frelick, Jackson Chourio and Contreras, it will serve as the base – or, maybe more accurately, a springboard – for the rest of their loud tools to shine.

It will also lead to more runners on base, more chaos and more pitches to hit for Yelich and Hoskins in the middle of the order.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Brewers believe their offense will be better in 2024