MILWAUKEE — Brewers pitchers and catchers report to Arizona for Spring Training on Wednesday. I had a chance to talk recently to Adam McCalvy, who covers the Brewers for MLB.com. The interview was conducted before Monday’s trade with Boston. Here is a portion of that interview:
Dennis: Brewers won 97 games last season, their third straight National League Central Division title. Adam, let’s start to unpack the Freddy Peralta trade in the off season. First of all, what do you think the starting rotation will look like?
Adam: It’s Brandon Woodruff and a lot of really young guys. And the question for Brandon Woodruff is can he come back to being that ace type pitcher?
He was a workhorse for the Brewers for so many years before the shoulder injury. Really promising stint last season. Now can he hold up for 26 to 30 starts, 150 innings? I think the Brewers would be very happy with that. Then it’s like, can Quinn Priester build on last year? Can Jacob Misiorowski build on last year? Chad Patrick, Brandon Sproat, who came over in the Freddy Peralta trade a lot of young pitchers who are right at the front of their major league career high ceiling on many of them. Can they get enough of them to do it over the course of a long season to eat up those innings that you need?
Dennis: Pat Murphy two for two National League Manager of the Year, but he does enter the last year of his contract. Are you confident that’ll get done sometime this season or what’s the timing of it?
Adam: I would be shocked if it doesn’t get done in spring training and the sides have been talking. It’s figuring out what makes sense, how long you want to extend it, do you just want to add some option years on? There’s different ways they can structure that. Murph wants to be here. The Brewers want Pat Murphy to be here. You think about all the questions when that transition happened and all the uncertainty, how this was going to go. Murph has been here for a while as the bench coach. But what would it be like with him in the top spot?
And he’s just set a tone that has worked for this group of players and the players have, like, learned to love Murph because he gives them the tough love. And these are young players and that can go one way or another way. It’s gone the right way for the Brewers and he’s just, how do you not extend the two-time manager of the year?
Dennis: What’s the next step for Jackson Chourio?
Adam: Well, the sky’s the limit for Jackson Chourio. Remember, he’s doing this at 20 and 21 years old. Go back and look at — this is an unfair comparison, whenever you make it — but go back and look at Robin Yount at 18. He comes in the big leagues. Look at him at 21. He was still developing into what we now know as Robin Yount, the Hall of Famer.
I’m not setting the Hall of Fame standard for Jackson Chourio, but let’s remember what he’s done in two really steady, productive seasons. When you look at the numbers, they are almost identical, really. He’s done it at age 20 and age 21. So now he goes into age 22, third year in the big leagues. I think with health, if those hamstrings hold up, that Jackson Chourio could be the breakout guy for the Brewers this year.
Dennis: Final question as we survey the National League Central. Cardinals are purposefully rebuilding, taking a step back. The Cubs made a big move in signing Alex Bregman. You’ve got the Pirates and the Reds. How do you look at the division?
Adam: I think when people make their predictions, it’s still going to be a two-team race between the Brewers and Cubs, which it’s been the last couple of years. The Reds snuck into the playoffs at the end of last season. Got hot. And they’re a good team with some really nice rotations. I know what worries Pat Murphy the most is the starting pitching. That’s so important to a team. And you look at the Cubs, you look at the Reds, you look at the Pirates — those are three really nice groups of starting pitchers. The Brewers are doing it a little differently, where they’re going to try to stretch it out with depth, maybe move the Aaron Ashby’s the DL Halls in there from time to time.
Long relief. They’re going to be the out-getter kind of group. Those other teams have really solid rotations, including the Cubs. And you mentioned Alex Bregman. I mean that’s a big addition for Chicago. I would guess most of the projections, like the Cubs to win the division. The Brewers have been in that position before, and they love being in that spot. I think Pat Murphy feels they’re best when they’re the underdogs, and he can do his “Dodgeball” Patches Houlihan thing and try to surprise everybody again.