After surprising showing in 2017, Brewers decide time is right to go for it

When the Milwaukee Brewers' brain trust embarked on a large-scale rebuilding process in 2015, the thinking was that it would take five years to be postseason-worthy, based on similar projects with other clubs.

But, after the team unexpectedly broke through with 86 victories last season, principal owner Mark Attanasio, general manager David Stearns and assistant Matt Arnold decided it was time to be aggressive. At a meeting in Los Angeles in October, they put their heads together and asked, “Why wait for 2020? Let’s go for it now.”

“We decided winning in 2018 was as important as to win in 2020,” Attanasio said Sunday during a break at the team’s “On Deck” fan event at the Wisconsin Center, where interest was so high the Brewers ran out of tickets to sell.

“If you looked at what a typical rebuilding arc would be, 2020 would be a typical year that you thought everything would come together. With that (decision to make a push this year), there was an intensive focus on free agents and on trades. David and his group have been absolutely tireless on it.”

Those efforts finally were rewarded when, within a couple of hours Thursday, the Brewers traded for Miami outfielder Christian Yelich and signed free-agent outfielder Lorenzo Cain. Just like that, 2018 went from another year in the rebuilding process to "let’s win now."

Those commitments added some juice to the “On Deck” event, but not just from the fans’ perspective. The large group of players on hand were just as excited about what could happen this season with Yelich and Cain in the fold.

RELATED:Braun says he's open to trying first base

NOTES:Hader to remain in relief role

ON DECK BLOG:Review our live tweets from fan fest

“This is huge,” third baseman Travis Shaw said. “My excitement is through the roof.

“Going into this year, everybody was going to have raised expectations. Then, you see the front office, I don’t want to say all in, but they believe in this team. With those moves, expectations are definitely higher.”

And, to hear Attanasio tell it, the Brewers aren’t done yet. There could be another bold move before the opening of spring training in mid-February. In particular, the Brewers would like to add a starting pitcher, especially with right-hander Jimmy Nelson expected to miss significant time in the first half of the season while recovering from shoulder surgery.

“Look, you can never have enough pitching. David is working on that,” Attanasio said. “We’ve been working on that all off-season. It’s hard to sign a free agent. We had a process with Lorenzo and I’m really glad it came together. But until it did, there was no guarantee he was coming here.”

The Brewers have been linked to high-end pitchers on the market, in particular Yu Darvish, to whom they reportedly made an offer. The financial commitments to Yelich and Cain ($20 million combined this season), plus the money it will take to sign the team’s pre-arbitration players, has the 2018 payroll headed for $90 million, or about $30 million more than last year.

So, having committed about $130 million for the next five years to Yelich and Cain, is there room in the budget to land one of the top free-agent pitchers? Attanasio didn’t hesitate with his answer.

“We could sign a big pitcher,” he said. “If the right situation comes along, we can take advantage of that.”

Management always takes its cue from the club when formulating its next moves. So, when the ’17 club exceeded expectations, with many players emerging as keepers in the rebuild, the decision was made to start thinking big immediately.

“When you win 86 games, you’re a really good team,” Attanasio said. “There’s some good fortune in that but so many players developed together at the same time that we felt we wanted (to make moves).”

Attanasio said the current group of players, many of whom got their first real chance to play regularly last year, was reminiscent of the rebuild in the early 2000s, when Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, Ryan Braun, Corey Hart and J.J. Hardy led the way.

“We felt we had a similar group of young players here,” Attanasio said. “Maybe not as many pure superstars as Prince and Ryan, but a really good core of young guys. We thought to build around them, now was the time.

“With Lorenzo and Christian, you have two extremely well-rounded players. Christian, I think, is still developing, frankly. And Lorenzo is at the top of his game, and has a World Series ring. We thought that would kind of ‘super charge’ what we were doing.”

Having said that, Attanasio was careful to pump the brakes a bit. Time will tell if the Brewers are rewriting the history of team building, proving it doesn’t take years of 90- and 100-loss campaigns.

“I want to be careful of that,” Attanasio said. “I called (manager) Craig (Counsell) and told him he needed to send David a magnum of wine. I had big birthday last year and Craig sent me this great magnum of Pinot Noir. I told him to send one to David.

“But Craig reminded me we still have to win some games. So, we still have to go out and have this all come together. Then, we’ll see how fast the progress is going. Last year, I got asked where we were and if we were ahead of schedule. I think we can say now we’re ahead of schedule.”

All of which has every interested party energized – fans, staff and yes, the players. No two words were repeated more often Sunday by uniformed personnel than, “I’m excited.”

Which begged the question of Attanasio: Was he having trouble tempering his excitement?

“Yes, sure, of course,” he said. “It’s very hard. And you have to because it’s a long season. Even if you win 90 games, you lose 72 games.

“We’re trying to stay focused on what we need to do. David is still working on some other things. We’ll see if any of them come to fruition. Then, we have to come to camp and it’s Craig’s job to pull it all together.”