https://theathletic.com/936864/2019...s-season-christian-yelichs-contract-and-more/
The window to win is now.
And it will be for the foreseeable future.
The Brewers achieved what they did last year – one game shy of the World Series – in large part because of the roster reconstruction by Brewers general manager David Stearns. The moves, headlined by the additions of Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain, were accompanied by a midseason trade for Mike Moustakas. And Stearns wasn’t finished. In the offseason, he added catcher Yasmani Grandal and re-signed Moustakas to one-year deals.
The Brewers added to Stearns’ GM duties by promoting him to the president of baseball operations. He took some time on Easter Sunday and chatted with The Athletic Wisconsin about how he has evolved since coming to the club in 2015, his thoughts about the first 23 games, the contract status of Yelich and much more.
Coming into the season, you knew there would be ups and downs with the three young starters. I know you always check-in on available free agents to possibly find value. But with Corbin Burnes optioned to Class AAA and inconsistencies with Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta, have you felt an increased urgency to evaluate outside options?
No, I think we understand that with young players at any position that there are going to be ups and downs during the course of a season. Starting pitching, that can be magnified a little bit. Because that is where the focus is every fifth day. If you have a couple of rocky ones at the start of a season, we all notice it and it gets talked about. We still feel like our starting depth is pretty solid. We saw that with Chase Anderson and so, as I will always say, we are always looking to get better. But we think we have a pretty good group right now.
How would you assess the first 23 or so games of the season?
You know, probably more or less as expected. We think we are a good team. We expect to be a good team. For the most part, we have played pretty good baseball. But we also understand there is going to be some hiccups every now and then. My general thought is that we try to wait 45-50 games into the season before we make any concrete judgments on the team. Naturally, we have to put the best team out there on a daily basis that we can. So, we are going to make tweaks in that time frame. But in terms of making any real judgments on the team or maybe changing thoughts that we had coming into the season, generally, it’s going to take 45-50 games to assess where we are.
I have heard that you reached out to a few of the leaders on your team during the offseason. What were those conversations like and what was the reasoning behind doing that?
I think we try to stay in touch with our players in general in the offseason, whether it’s me or Craig (Counsell) or other coaches. We want to make sure that we understand the pulse of everything going on with our team. It’s true during the season; it’s true in the offseason. I think these guys are very invested in our organization and in our team. We are invested in them. So, keeping communication going seems to be a pretty good practice.
Sometimes – and it wasn’t just me – as an organization, we are probably talking to our players throughout the course of the offseason whether it’s text or an occasional phone call, there is no real pattern to it. But we do want to make sure, and again – not just me, but the entire organization – that we are keeping in touch with our players.
Is that something you’ve always done?
I think starting in my first year that we have made it an emphasis to stay in touch with our players, beginning with that first offseason. I know that Craig and I, from 2015 to 2016, both thought that it was really important to make sure that we stayed in touch with our players. At that point, our group was a little bit different than it is now. But it’s something that we do think is important.
How would you say you’ve evolved as a general manager since 2015?
I think you learn so much, so quickly on this job that hopefully – hopefully – you change and that you evolve. I don’t know whether it’s necessarily been in an evaluation process or techniques. I think, to an extent, that I have evolved with communication strategies and management strategies. You learn a lot really fast. You try to learn from your mistakes, and we’ve had plenty. You try to get better, honestly.
I hope that I’ve learned when it’s appropriate for me to step in and do something or when it’s appropriate to maybe let things take its course. It’s true, both transactionally and from a management perspective.
You had opportunities to leave in the offseason but decided to stay in Milwaukee. What went into that decision and was there a deciding factor for you?
It was a pretty easy decision. Mark (Attanasio) was very upfront that he wanted me here. I was very upfront about wanting to stay here. Once we had that conversation, the rest kind of took care of itself.
What we went through as an organization and as a team, from those two months in September and October, was really impactful for me. It gave me a great appreciation for the impact this team and organization can – and has had – on this city. So, to have the opportunity to continue to be part of that, was something that I very much wanted to be part of.
A question you’re going to hear more about is the status of Christian Yelich’s contract. Yes, he has four more years on it, but he is signed at a cheap rate. Is it something on your radar?
At this point, it really isn’t. We know Christian is going to be a Brewer for the next four years. We’d love for Christian to be here for a really long time, but four years is plenty of time for us to work through that. I don’t really anticipate that being a conversation or topic of discussion for a little while.
What are your thoughts on the state of the game of baseball: free agency, the talk of collusion and the thought of players potentially striking in the future?
It definitely is a widely-discussed topic. I try to avoid it. On all sides, I try to avoid it. The tone and the tenor out there shouldn’t impact how I do my job, and it hasn’t. We have been a team that is active in free agency. We have spent too – and in some cases beyond our capacity – so whatever discussion, tone, dialogue is out there in the public arena, I think the dialogue that is the most important is between Rob Manfred and Tony Clark. I trust that those guys, when needed, are going to have a really productive dialogue.
Lastly, there has been a lot of backlash about the Miller Park name change. Are you aware of the petition out there with over 90,000 signatures to keep the name the same?
I know there was a lot of talk when we announced the change. From what I gather, it has died down some. Miller is a big part of this community and it’s going to continue being a big part of this community. It’s going to be a big part of this organization – they aren’t going anywhere. American Family Insurance also is a really big part of this state, and they have been an important partner for the Brewers for a long time. Now they are becoming a slightly bigger partner. From all sides of those partnerships, I think everyone is pleased with this outcome. I certainly understand our fans’ attachment to the name on the building. We certainly envision that everyone is going to be comfortable with the name change.
