The Brewers Just Proved the Pirates Have No Excuse

One of my favorite baseball articles from this past season was in The Athletic where Reds owner Bob Castanelli asked his GM, why aren't we the Brewers?

It's a valid question and it was a great article because it was, the man looking in the mirror and not seeing his reflection.

We're all trying to find the guy who did this.

But it's also funny that it's the Reds.

Because since I joined the beat in 2020 and Travis Williams was hired and Ben Cherington was hired, the Reds have completed a rebuild and made the postseason.

They crashed out spectacularly and lost 100 games and then rebuilt to make the postseason again.

While the Pirates' high watermark has been 82-80.

So I want to steal that question.

Why aren't the Pirates' the Brewers?

Good morning and welcome to OffBeat here on North Shore Nine presented by FanDuel.

My name is Alex Stumpf and this is a daily look at your Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Brewers are going to the World Series.

A pretty dominating sweep of the defending champions was completed on Thursday night.

And how rare is it that the defending champs get swept away?

Well, it hasn't happened since 2005 whenever the Red Sox were swept in the ALDS.

But that was a five-game series.

Last time it was a seven-game series was the 1990 Oakland A's.

The other teams that have been swept away in a seven-game series defending champions, the 66 Dodgers, 63 Yankees, and 1914 Philadelphia Athletics.

And now the 2026 Dodgers that were supposed to ruin baseball were just absolutely obliterated by the team in baseball's smallest market.

And it's a great story.

It is a great story.

It's going to be presented as a miracle.

And it is the furthest thing from a miracle.

Over the last 10 years, the Brewers have won 866 ballgames.

The only teams with more are the Dodgers, the Astros, and the Yankees.

And I think if you were to be asked who were the teams of the last decade who defined the game, you would say the Dodgers, the Astros, and the Yankees are always going to be in the mix.

And then it's the Brewers.

Hanging around in that stratosphere.

As the highest of epsilon teams.

Back on opening day for the home opener, I got a one-on-one interview with Bob Nutting.

And I asked him, in the middle of the conversation, he brought up the core that he was built.

And I asked him, this could be read on Book Rule Bucks.

I asked him, quote, You mentioned the core you have here.

Paul, skeins, is obviously a part of that.

Connor, Griffin, being called up, being a part of that.

Did that heighten the urgency to make a run in 2026?

Nutting responded, quote, In a market like Pittsburgh, we're going to have some leaner years, and we're going to have some good years.

We need to capitalize, as we did in 13, 14, 15.

We need to build on strength.

We need to build on the foundation and really double down.

And I believe that's what you're seeing this year.

Talked a little bit about Bubba Chandler.

And then he followed up, quote, again, There's so much strength that we've been able to build over the last couple years.

I think it's coming together, and I'm excited by it.

End quote.

Next question, I brought up the Travis Williams period full stop.

And Bob Nutting said, quote, I think we need to start every season with an expectation of playing in the postseason.

I think we need to start every day with the expectation that we're going to win that game.

This year, I really do think we have a realistic opportunity to have a solid, good team that can make it into the postseason, make it through the postseason.

Be continued on.

But that was the gist of the quote there.

And those are two very different answers, in my opinion.

The second one is the right answer.

We need to start every season with the expectation of playing in the postseason.

Yes.

The first one, where he says that there are going to be, quote, some leaner years.

End quote.

That's the wrong mentality.

When has been Milwaukee's lean years this last decade?

A decade is a legitimate long run.

When have the Brewers' lean years been?

There have been years where they have maybe not been the best team in baseball, even though they have three times had the number one seed in the National League going into the postseason.

But every year, they've gone in.

And if you didn't at least look at them and think, they've got a shot.

They could play in October.

They're going to be pesky, if nothing else.

There are no lean years in Milwaukee.

And I talked about that the night the Brewers clinched a division at PNC Park.

I talked about my trip to the NLDS last year, covering them and the culture that they built and the buy-in that they have with their players.

There is no organization in baseball that is better at developing, scouting, acquiring, and coaching great baseball people and players.

And great baseball people and players do great things on a baseball field.

You want to have a winning culture, you have winning people.

And the Brewers do that better than anyone.

And they've done it all with the restriction of being in baseball's smallest market.

Yes, their payroll was a little higher than the Pirates' this year.

The Guardians and Rays' payroll was a little lower than the Pirates' this year.

We can talk about what a potential salary cap could do for competitive balance.

And I'm not going to say a lie.

I'm not going to BS you guys here and say that money doesn't mean nothing.

It can make a difference.

It can make a difference.

But it does not automatically win you baseball games.

If it did, the Brewers would not have been the best team in baseball all season.

If it did, the Dodgers wouldn't have been absolutely whipped by the Brewers.

It's people who win ballgames.

And nobody does better at assembling and deploying winning people than the Milwaukee Brewers.

We're going to take a quick break.

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The big quote in October of 2025 was the expectation was to make the playoffs, period, full stop, according to team president Travis Williams.

Travis Williams has not had a media availability since, period, full stop.

Or at least at the end of this season.

So I don't know what the thoughts are of falling short of that goal, of how there are no significant changes to personnel for falling short on that goal, or no doubling down publicly on period, full stop.

But it showed this Pirates team jumped 11 wins.

That's a big leap for a team, especially to go from where they were to finishing with the winning season.

That, on its own, was a big leap.

It wasn't big enough, but it was a big leap.

And it showed that you can't just declare, okay, guys, postseason this year.

We're really feeling it this year.

No.

This is something that takes years to build, years to assemble.

And whenever you do have it, you don't tear it down.

You do everything you can to keep the wheels churning.

That's why Milwaukee's going to the World Series here.

It's a sheer numbers game, in my opinion.

Three times they have had the best record in the National League the last 10 years.

They have made the postseason, what has it been?

Eight times?

It is, you're just, they're just putting up shots.

The playoffs are a bit of a crapshoot.

So what do they do?

They get to the postseason.

And they're like, all right, let's see what happens.

And this year is the perfect storm.

This year is the best team they have assembled, at least in my lifetime.

I can't speak for the 82 team.

This is the best Brewers team I have seen assembled.

They can hit.

They field.

They run.

They have starting pitching.

Their relievers are just deadly.

This is a complete ball club.

And they're doing it in a way that Major League Baseball is going to say is impossible all winter.

It's not.

And there's no reason, as Bob Cassinelli asked in Cincinnati, why aren't we the Brewers?

There's no reason why it couldn't have been Pittsburgh.

This past decade, I cited the Brewers as having the fourth most wins.

I want to make sure I get this order right.

Yeah.

The Rays have the sixth most and the Guardians have the seventh most.

Those are two teams that consistently play in October.

There aren't lean years.

They are always putting up shots.

It's a winning culture.

It's being able to develop, deploy, to acquire good people, to coach good people.

This is why the Brewers have advanced.

And I see some foundation in Pittsburgh here now.

I see some foundation in Pittsburgh here now.

But I'm going back to Bob Nutting's quote about really doubling down whenever you have the foundation.

Let's see.

Milwaukee has.

They kept Christian Yelich.

They saw Andrew Vaughn, who wasn't exactly free.

And they acquired him.

And what a trade that was.

There are some good homegrown people here.

And yeah, they probably will trade Trevor McGill this winter because that's what they always do with their best pitcher who's entering his walk year.

But they always replenish.

They always have another guy.

This is a team.

This is an organization, actually.

An organization that has the best culture in baseball.

And now they have a pennant to show for it.

It's not impossible.

It's not impossible.

It could happen in any city in baseball if it could happen in Milwaukee.

Thank you so much for listening to OffBeat this week here on North Shore Nine presented by FanDuel.

If you haven't already, be sure to subscribe wherever you find podcasts or check us out on YouTube if you want to see my smiling face.

Thank you so much for listening.

Have a good weekend.

We will talk again tomorrow.

All right.

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