David Stearns hasn't exactly set the baseball world on fire with his offseason transactions.
So far, the Milwaukee Brewers' president of baseball operations has made a handful of low-profile moves, most recently by signing one-time top prospect Daniel Robertson to a one-year contract.
Along with Robertson, the Brewers have claimed second baseman Tim Lopes off waivers from Seattle, signed left-handed pitcher Hoby Milner, infielder Pablo Reyes, first baseman Zach Green and outfielders Dylan Cozens and Leo Crawford to minor league contracts while trading former All-Star closer Corey Knebel to the Dodgers for left-handed pitcher Leo Crawford. They also
On the surface, the moves do little to help a major league roster that struggled to produce consistent offense and finished 29-31 last season but they have a purpose: adding young players with attractive skillsets to a minor league system that's short on impact prospects and giving them time to grow as players while also providing depth for the major league roster.
"The transactions we've made thus far in the offseason have really focused on solidifying the depth of our roster," Stearns said. "We've acquired some players with positional versatility and players who, if they continue to improve and solidify themselves as major-league players, have the potential to be here for awhile."
Those signings, combined with the lack of moves at the big-league level, shouldn't suggest the Brewers are eschewing higher-profile moves for a potential rebuild. The industry as a whole has been quiet this winter with most of the top free agents including catcher J.T. Realmuto, outfielder George Springer and reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer still unsigned as teams — and players — navigate their way through an environment still clouded by the ongoing global pandemic.
"The transactional volume around the industry has certainly been lower," Stearns said. There's a number of factors that have likely contributed to that but from a conversation perspective, we've been pretty heavily engaged in conversations throughout the winter. We feel good about a number of the conversations we're having. It's just a question of what ultimately gets across the line. Every offseason moves at a different pace and given all the variables in place this offseason, this is not a surprise. We'll continue to do our work and ultimately, we think it will pay off."
Part of the challenge is knowing how much he'll have to spend. Stearns acknowledged at the end of last season that playing a shortened season without fans would almost certainly affect his budget for 2021.
That's still the case now, with just weeks before players are scheduled to report for the start of spring training.
"There's still tremendous uncertainty," Stearns said.
Coming off their 2018 playoff run that ended a game short of the World Series, the Brewers went into 2019 with a franchise-record $123 million payroll. When that total was projected to drop by 20 percent heading into 2020, owner Mark Attanasio shrugged off notions that the team was cutting its budget but after playing the entire 60-game season without fans — and, more specifically, without the revenue those fans generate through ticket sales, parking and concessions — just what that budget will look like for 2021 has yet to be determined.
Most teams, especially those in large markets, derive most of their revenue through massive local television contracts. The Brewers, like most teams, don't divulge actual numbers but according to estimates from FanGraphs.com The World Series champion Dodgers, for example, received approximately $239 million from their local broadcast deal last season while the Yankees, Red Sox and Cubs all drew at least $100 million.
By comparison the Brewers, whose broadcast territory is limited by the presence of the Minnesota Twins to the west, the Cubs and White Sox to the south and Lake Michigan to the east, are believed to have received around $28 million.
Corporate sponsorships help cover some of the difference, but game-day revenue is still the difference maker. Milwaukee is the second-smallest market in Major League Baseball — slightly ahead of last-place Cincinnati — yet has been among the top-10 draws in baseball the last three seasons (not counting 2020) with an average of 2.8 million fans spinning the turnstiles.
"We're confident that we're going to have fans in the stands during this season," Stearns said. "We don't know when or necessarily at what capacity but we're confident that we're going to have fans in the stands and that's a big deal for us, a big deal for our players and we know that's a big deal for our fan base. So we are looking forward to that but in terms of complete certainty of the over-arching economic impact, there's still a lot of questions and we understand that that's the world that every business is living in right now."
The biggest remaining question, of course, is whether or not spring training — and even the regular season — will begin as planned. For now, Stearns and the Brewers are preparing for a Feb. 17 report date with the first workout pitchers and catchers set for the next day.
Stearns acknowledges that a lot can happen between now and then, with the pandemic showing no signs of letting up and vaccine distribution still in the early stages.
"Our objective is to prepare for as many different scenarios as possible," Stearns said. "We understand that there are going to be circumstances that we can't foresee so we'll adjust but we are doing our best to have contingency plans and to understand that we need to be flexible."
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