Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio recently sat down for a Q&A interview. The interview was led by play-by-play announcer Brian Anderson. Anderson did have a few questions of his own, but it was primarily a session directed at answering fan questions. As expected, Attanasio was rather non-committal regarding the teams “economic reality” in terms of free agent spending and contract extensions. However, he did reveal some things regarding David Stearns’ future, upcoming rule changes, and his thoughts on the team’s current group of prospects.
1) David Stearns will likely move on after next year.
Mark Attanasio was asked about the transition to Matt Arnold leading baseball operations and David Stearns’ future. He referenced the switch to Arnold as the co-pilot sliding over to the lead pilot’s seat. As for the future of Stearns, Attanasio believes he will move on after next season. For the 2023 season, he will remain with the Brewers in an advisory role.
Attanasio: “David is going to, at the end of next year, do something else. I think. Who knows, right?”
Added they expect to see Stearns at spring training in a few months. https://t.co/ftXmTiihER
— Curt Hogg (@CyrtHogg) November 4, 2022
To hear Attanasio say this is not that surprising. Stearns is young and has a lot of his career ahead of him yet. He has been involved in rumors with the Met’s for years, but it is unclear at this time if Stearns will seek another job in baseball or pursue other opportunities.
2) Attanasio has been a driving force behind baseball rule changes.
It has been 18 years since Attanasio bought the Brewers organization. Over that time he has been a driving force regarding rule changes in baseball. For the 2023 season the bases will be larger, a pitch clock will be initiated, pick off attempts will be limited, and extreme defensive shifts will be banned.
Attanasio indicated that he believes baseball should look at what other sports have done (i.e. football, tennis) to improve their sports and learn from them. He briefly referenced an automated strike zone with hitters having the ability to challenge a strike or ball call. It’s clear more changes in baseball may be coming and Attanasio has been a supporter regarding several of these changes.
3) Attanasio referenced several prospects and labeled them as the best group of prospects since he has been here.
On several instances throughout the Q&A interview, Attanasio referenced several prospects. Sal Frelick, Brice Turang, Esteury Ruiz, and Abner Uribe were specific names that he mentioned. Of course there are others that he did not mention, but he labeled the Brewers current prospect group as the best he has seen since he has been here.
He also goes on to specifically say that this prospect core is better than when Rickie Weeks, J.J. Hardy, Prince Fielder, and Ryan Braun were coming up. That is quite the comparison given how pivotal that era of players were in helping bring winning baseball to Milwaukee. Attanasio also was very impressed with the speed that the likes of Frelick, Turang, and Ruiz have and their ability to steal bases.
The full Q&A video is 40 minutes in length and is available to watch on the Brewers website.
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