Brewers center fielder Avisail Garcia. (Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports)
The Milwaukee Brewers, in all likelihood, will win the National League Central. But what happens if they don’t meet expectations in the postseason?
As a small-to-mid-market team at best, the Brewers’ margin for error is incredibly small. High-priced acquisitions can be shipped out of town as quickly as they were brought in for prospect capital. It’s the name of the game when you can only afford to spend so much money on the on-field product.
With that in mind, the Brewers have several high-impact players hitting free agency this coming offseason. While the front office should rightly still be focused on improving this year’s team, it’s not too soon to take a look ahead to this Winter.
In a worst-case scenario in which the Brewers fail to live up to playoff aspirations, these three players could be on the way out.
Will the Milwaukee Brewers pay Avisail Garcia?
Garcia is having an astronomically-good season — one very few expected from him entering the campaign. Unfortunately for the Brewers, he’s also in a contract year. Garcia does have a club option, giving Milwaukee plenty of options.
So, Garcia will be hoping to cash in, perhaps one last time, on his numbers. Garcia is hitting .278 with 24 home runs and 78 RBIs so far on the year, and there’s still a month left. Given the borderline-MVP numbers he’s putting up, it’ll be an intriguing option for the Brewers should they fail to reach postseason heights, as they could flip Garcia via trade entering what would be the final year of his deal.
Surely that’s not a conversation fans want to have right now.