Craig Counsell’s Departure

November 13th, 2023. Craig Counsell is introduced by the Cubs organization as their new manager, officially ending his tenure as one of baseball’s most successful managers despite Milwaukee being the smallest market in the MLB. It was an era where the Brewers made the playoffs five out of his nine seasons as manager, which is, in fact, one more playoff appearance than the other 45 years of the team’s history (four appearances from 1969 to 2014). This impressive era earned Counsell a five-year contract with the Cubs worth $8 million a year, the highest annual salary for a manager in baseball history. The Brewers reportedly offered $5.5 million annually to keep Counsell.

This two-and-a-half million-dollar difference perfectly represents the issues that small-market sports teams face while trying to remain competitive for their fanbases. Counsell was hired into the Manager role despite no prior MLB Managerial Experience. Counsell embodied what small market teams must have to compete: a diamond in the rough. Like other small market stars (Aaron Rodgers, Lebron James, Manny Machado), Counsell has left the team that found and took a chance on him for brighter lights and bigger checks. Something that these teams struggle to compete with. If the Brewers threw an extra three million his way to convince the Milwaukee-native Counsell to remain a hometown hero, that three million must be allocated from somewhere else like scouting, player development, player payroll, or the assistant coach’s pool. All of these have a heavy effect on performance and team success, causing the Brewers front office to weigh the benefit of Counsell against the costs of keeping him, seemingly making the decision that, to the Brewers, he was worth $5.5 million. While not as high as the Cubs offer, the Brewers would have committed more to Counsell than the Cubs relative to the 2023 Opening Day Payroll, where Counsell would have received 4.6% of Milwaukee’s roughly $119 million budget compared to receiving 4.3% of the cubs $184 million tab.

However, financially, it is hard to fault Counsell for taking the pay increase to support his family and to cement himself into history as the highest-paid MLB manager. Some Brewers supporters certainly have, vandalizing the sign for “Craig Counsell Park,” a Little League field in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin, that Counsell himself played on as a little leaguer and a field that has been a staple of the community for years. However, this destruction may be tied to frustration as the beloved Brewers appear to be headed toward a rebuild. With lots of bigger-name Milwaukee players headed toward open free agency in the coming years, where the Brewers cannot compete with the powerhouses of the MLB, it would not be unlikely to see the Brew Crew ship off some of their valuables, as they have done in the past, to get some compensation for them. Names like Corbin Burnes, a former NL Cy Young award winner and a three-time all-star, as well as Devin Williams, a former Reliever of the Year and a two-time all-star, among other key players, seem likely to be wearing different jerseys next season. Hopefully, for Milwaukee Baseball Fanatics, the Brewers find a way to stay clear of this rebuild, as the last Brewers rebuild and subsequent playoff drought lasted from 1983-2007. Fans will have to place their faith in Pat Murphy, who has coached for the Brewers since 2016, as the new manager of their squad, to keep them in the hunt and, hopefully, in Milwaukee.