Brewers Owner Mark Attanasio Isn’t Fazed By Craig Counsell’s Exit
In a shocking turn of events, now ex-Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell signed a five-year, $40 million deal to become the Chicago Cubs’ new manager … who already had David Ross in place prior to Counsell’s decision.
Many speculated that he would go to the New York Mets or stay with the Brewers, but Counsell opted to join the Brewers in-division rival instead. This deal makes him the highest-paid manager in MLB history and Brewers are not happy about it.
Despite losing the manager that has brought Milwaukee a lot of success, the team owner Mark Attanasio remained optimistic about the whole situation.
“We’re all here today because we lost Craig, but I’ve reflected on this — Craig has lost us and he’s lost our community also. It’s really a special place to be,” Attanasio said. “Relative to managers — most things are worth what someone’s willing to pay for them. Craig was definitely a key part of our success but if I wanted to list all the reasons we’re successful, we’d be here for another half-hour.”
As a Brewers fan, I like the enthusiasm but losing Counsell to an in-division rival is really going to hurt. It is already difficult to compete as a small market team, and in this case, the big market team has beaten us yet again.
Counsell led the Brewers to five postseason appearances in nine years and the team was one win away from a World Series appearance in 2018. I just don’t see how Mark Attanasio can be so calm in this situation. The Cubs will greatly benefit from this hire, and if it wasn’t for their late-season meltdown, the Brewers might not have won the NL Central this year. The offense was bad this year and getting swept by Diamondbacks in the Wild Card was flat-out painful.
The fact is, top-tier talent will not come to Milwaukee if Attansaio refuses to spend money. Counsell should’ve never ended up in Chicago, and ownership is to blame for this.
It’s becoming increasingly harder to take the Brewers franchise seriously and moments like these are the reason why the team has never won a World Series.
