Article: The Most Popular Milwaukee Brewers Stories of 2022

[Brock Beauchamp]

It was a wild inaugural year for Brewer Fanatic (née Brewer Fan). Let’s look at the most popular news and editorials of 2022.

In our first nine months as a Brewers news and opinion site, we published over 600 stories about the Milwaukee Brewers. Look at the 2022 Brewers season and the stories that drove the year.

The Weekly: The End is Near for American Family Field
Sports stadiums are a contentious topic for a good reason: they’re often publicly funded - at least partially - while the team often derives almost all of the benefit from its existence. In the case of American Family Field, it’s starting to show its age. While the Brewers’ current lease extends to 2030, stadium planning is rarely less than a decade-long endeavor, which means the city of Milwaukee will have to consider the current stadium's long-term viability soon. Whether that’s a retrofit/refurbishment or a brand new stadium, American Family Field will not last forever in its current state.

As an aside, this was our first viral story on Brewer Fanatic, drawing nearly 20,000 Brewers fans to the site in its third month of existence.

Three Bad Decisions Sunk the Brewers' Playoff Run
Brewer nation was struggling in early October. After four consecutive postseason appearances, the 2022 Brewers struggled down the stretch and ultimately missed out on the new expanded postseason format, narrowly losing the final wild-card spot to the Philadelphia Phillies, who went on to win the National League pennant. In the wake of this disappointing season finish, Tim Muma looks at three of the decisions that helped sink the Milwaukee Brewers’ 2022 season.

Time is Running Out for Brewers' Cain
By late May, skepticism about the final year of Lorenzo Cain’s contract had turned into full-blown concern over whether he was a playable major league baseball player any longer. Virtually every metric for Cain dropped severely year-over-year, and he wasn’t a viable hitter just as his defensive metrics began to crater. With no easy solutions in front of them, the Brewers were nearing a difficult decision with the fan-favorite veteran who started and ended his career in a Brewers uniform.

Brewers Have Decisions to Make on Four Key Potential Free Agents
In late September, it was increasingly clear the Brewers would miss the postseason and needed to look toward the offseason and how their roster would change with losing players to free agency. Players that helped the Brewers to the postseason in previous years, such as Jace Peterson, Omar Narvaez, and Brad Boxberger, would become free agents, and, as it turned out, the Brewers retained none of them for 2023 and beyond.

Yelich's Decline and the Brewers' Current Offense
It wouldn’t be a Brewers season if a Christian Yelich story didn’t appear as one of the year's most-read stories. Every year, there are moments of hope as Yelich “figures it out” for some time and returns to looking like the MVP-caliber player of previous seasons. Inevitably, that hope is dashed upon the rocks as Yelich declines and finishes the season with an OPS+ in the 110 range instead of the 160 or higher OPS+ he posted in 2018 and 2019.

Those were the top five most-read stories in the first nine months of Brewer Fanatic and stay tuned later in the week when I compile the top five Brewers discussions within the Brewer Fanatic community. What storylines from 2022 will stick with you for years to come? What storylines will emerge as the dominant narratives of 2023? Comment and leave your opinion below!

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