It was a good decade for the Brewers, whose six winning seasons in the 2010s were as many as they totaled in the previous 26 years combined. They reached the National League Championship Series twice, made a third trip to the playoffs via the wild card and boasted a pair of superstar MVP winners, acquiring one of them in an all-time trade heist.
Advertisement
Overall for the decade, their .508 winning percentage ranked 11th among MLB teams, trailing only the Cardinals in the NL Central. It was a decade that saw highs early and late, lows in the middle and a whole lot of star talent coming through Milwaukee.
Here’s a look at the Brewers’ all-decade team, with a complete 25-man roster for the 2010s.
Catcher: Jonathan Lucroy (2010-16)
One of the decade’s most underrated players, Lucroy hit like a first baseman, had great throwing and framing numbers behind the plate and was an iron man. His best career year came in 2014, as he hit .301/.373/.465 in 153 games, including a league-high 133 starts at catcher, and led the majors with 53 doubles to place fourth in the MVP voting. Overall in six-plus seasons with the Brewers, his .779 OPS was 80 points higher than the average catcher over that time. His mid-2016 trade to Texas brought back prospect Lewis Brinson, who was later used to acquire Christian Yelich.
Best season by a catcher: Jonathan Lucroy, 2014 — .301/.373/.465 in 153 games
First base: Prince Fielder (2010-11)
Just two of Fielder’s six-plus seasons in Milwaukee occurred in the 2010s, but his monster final Brewers effort is one of the best by a first baseman in team history. Playing all 162 games, he hit .299 with 38 homers, 120 RBI, and more walks (107) than strikeouts (106), finishing third in the MVP balloting behind teammate Ryan Braun and Matt Kemp. Fielder will be remembered more for what he did in the 2000s, but he was still the only Brewers first baseman to start more than 300 games in the 2010s, as the position turned into a revolving door following his departure.
Best season by a first baseman: Prince Fielder, 2011 — .299/.415/.566 in 162 games
Second base: Rickie Weeks (2010-14)
Keston Hiura put the finishing touches on the 2010s with a great rookie half-season and will own this spot for the 2020s, but Weeks is easy the choice here. Weeks debuted just three months after being drafted second overall in 2003 and was in his prime during the 2010s, bouncing back from an injury wrecked 2009 to have the two best years of his career in 2010-11. Often overlooked due to poor batting averages, he averaged 22 homers, 81 walks/hit by pitches, and 12 steals per 162 games from 2010-14, ranking fourth among all second basemen with a .774 OPS.
Advertisement
Best season by a second baseman: Rickie Weeks, 2010 — .269/.366/.464 in 160 games
Shortstop: Jean Segura (2012-15)
In a decade featuring huge offensive numbers from stars at nearly every other position, shortstop was the Brewers’ biggest weakness by far. Overall for the decade, Milwaukee shortstops posted a .661 OPS to rank 27th out of 30 teams, and only Jean Segura (.294) in 2013 and Jonathan Villar (.285) in 2016 managed to be above-average hitters. Segura and Orlando Arcia tied for the decade’s most starts at shortstop (471), and Segura had a few more high points.
Best season by a shortstop: Jonathan Villar, 2016 — .285/.369/.457 in 156 games
Aramis Ramirez brought stability at third base to the Brewers for over three seasons. (Rich Schultz / Getty Images)Third base: Aramis Ramirez (2012-15)
Two third basemen in Brewers history have topped a .900 OPS in a season. Braun did it in 2007, his first and only year as an infielder. Ramirez did it in 2012, hitting .300 with 27 homers and a league-leading 50 doubles. One of the best free-agent signings in team history, Ramirez left the Cubs for the Brewers in 2012, inking three-year, $36 million deal at age 34. He was great in the aforementioned 2012, hit similarly well in an injury-shortened 2013, and made the All-Star team in 2014, hitting .284/.343/.473 in 455 total games for the Brewers.
Best season by a third baseman: Aramis Ramirez, 2012 — .300/.360/.540 in 149 games
Left field: Ryan Braun (2010-19)
Braun was the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2010s. He won MVP in 2011 and had an equally great 2012 while finishing runner-up, hitting a combined .326/.394/.596 in those two years. Suspended in July of the following season, he returned as a slightly less fearsome hitter but still managed to bat .278/.341/.492 from 2014-19, including slugging .505 in 2019 at age 35. Braun led all left fielders in homers for the decade, and among all 2010s hitters regardless of position only Miguel Cabrera and Nelson Cruz played more games and had a higher slugging percentage.
Advertisement
Best season by a left fielder: Ryan Braun, 2011 — .332/.397/.597 in 150 games
Center field: Carlos Gomez (2010-15)
Twins fans are forever salty that it took a trade to Milwaukee for Gomez to become an All-Star. Viewed as a bust in Minnesota despite being just 24, he hit .267/.325/.452 in five-plus years with the Brewers, averaging 20 homers and 35 steals per 162 games while playing center field like his hair was on fire. Lorenzo Cain’s first Brewers season was as good as any Gomez campaign, but Gomez started twice as many games during the decade and had three straight standout seasons in Milwaukee before being traded to Houston in a mid-2015 deal that brought back Josh Hader.
Best season by a center fielder: Lorenzo Cain, 2018 — .308/.395/.417 in 141 games
Right field: Christian Yelich (2018-19)
Here’s how spectacular Yelich has been in Milwaukee: He won the league MVP in his first year and I almost didn’t choose that as the “best season by a right fielder” shown below because he was arguably even better in his second season, with only a fractured kneecap in mid-September keeping him from going two-for-two with the award. An honorable mention (and then some) goes to Corey Hart, who started the most games in right field for the decade and was damn good, hitting .279/.343/.514 in 2010-12 before a knee injury derailed his career at age 31.
Best season by a right fielder: Christian Yelich, 2018 — .326/.402/.598 in 147 games
Backup catcher: Yasmani Grandal (2019)
It was only one year, but Grandal put together a tremendous all-around season — .246/.380/.468 with 28 homers, 109 walks, and great defensive work in 153 games — that stands neck and neck with any Lucroy season as the best by a Brewers catcher this decade. He gets the nod over more traditional backup backstops Martin Maldonado and Manny Piña. Erik Kratz was fun, too.
Backup infielders: Travis Shaw (2017-19), Scooter Gennett (2013-16), Eric Thames (2017-19)
Brewers shortstops were so weak in the 2010s that I’m opting not to go with a true utility man, instead making room for both Shaw and Gennett. Thames, who had the fifth-highest OPS of any Brewers hitter this decade, is a perfect fit as a swing-for-the-fences bench bat.
Advertisement
Backup outfielders: Corey Hart (2010-12), Lorenzo Cain (2018-19)
Hart is overqualified for a bench spot and the story of Brewers baseball this century can’t be told without him. After that it gets trickier, but I’ll go with Cain’s defense, speed, and on-base skills over the right-handed thump of Domingo Santana or Khris Davis. Of note: Braun, Gomez, Hart and Cain were the only Brewers to start at least 300 games in the outfield this decade.
Starting pitcher Yovani Gallardo was a workhorse for the Brewers in the 2010s. (John Konstantaras / Getty Images)Rotation
SP1 — Yovani Gallardo (2010-14)
SP2 — Jimmy Nelson (2013-19)
SP3 — Chase Anderson (2016-19)
SP4 — Zach Davies (2015-19)
SP5 — Zack Greinke (2011-12)
Not only did Gallardo lead the team with 160 starts in the 2010s, but he also topped 180 innings in five straight seasons while every other Brewers pitcher combined to do so nine times and no one did it more than twice. He was a true workhorse, racking up nearly 1,300 innings by age 28, at which point the Brewers traded him to the Rangers in a deal that netted Cory Knebel and Yo was done as an effective pitcher by 30. Nelson appeared ready to take the top-of-the-rotation baton from Gallardo before a freak shoulder injury while sliding back to first base in 2017 derailed him.
Filling out the rest of the all-decade rotation was tough because many of the pitchers who started the most games for the Brewers weren’t particularly effective (Wily Peralta, Matt Garza, Randy Wolf) and the team’s most effective starters tended to only be around briefly (Mike Fiers, Shaun Marcum, Greinke). Greinke brought front-line star power following a blockbuster trade that sent Cain, Jake Odorizzi, Alcides Escobar and Jeremy Jeffress to the Royals.
Best season by a starter: Jimmy Nelson, 2017 — 3.49 ERA, 199/48 K/BB in 175 innings
Bullpen
LH — Josh Hader (2017-19)
LH — Will Smith (2014-16)
RH — Corey Knebel (2015-19)
RH — Francisco Rodriguez (2011-15)
RH — John Axford (2010-13)
RH — Jeremy Jeffress (2010, 2014-19)
RH — Tyler Thornburg (2012-16)
Among the 250 pitchers to throw at least 200 innings as relievers in the 2010s, the Hader-Knebel tandem ranked No. 1 and No. 8 in strikeout rate, respectively. Smith also ranked 12th, although he spent just two-plus seasons in Milwaukee. Before the Hader-Knebel pairing took over the late innings, the Brewers got strong work from Rodriguez in multiple stints. Axford had an out of nowhere 46 saves and 1.95 ERA in 2011, only to post a 4.42 ERA over the next seven seasons. Jeffress found success in Milwaukee that he never found elsewhere.
Overall for the decade, Brewers relievers had the majors’ third-highest strikeout rate at 9.1 per nine innings, trailing only the Yankees (9.8) and Dodgers (9.2). Meanwhile, the Brewers’ starters ranked 14th in strikeout rate (7.5) for the decade, and perhaps not surprisingly by 2018-19 the line between starting and relieving in Milwaukee had blurred considerably. Or, put another way: Craig Counsell will have a very quick hook for his starters in the hypothetical all-decade team tournament that exists only in my mind.
Best season by a reliever: Josh Hader, 2018 — 2.43 ERA, 143/30 K/BB in 81 innings
(Top photo of Braun, Fielder and Hart: Jonathan Daniel / Getty Images)
ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57kGxwaWxjbHxzfJByZmppX2eEcMDHnmRraGFlwG6tjKWmqKNdlsFuwMeeZJuqlayys7%2BMmqOlZZSasKKwxGarnpmdZA%3D%3D