A shellshock struck the Milwaukee Brewers on Nov. 6 when manager Craig Counsell announced his departure from the Brewers. A few days later, Counsell officially signed a contract to become the new manager of the Chicago Cubs after interviews with the Cleveland Guardians and New York Mets after the offseason.
Counsell was the manager of the Brewers for nine seasons, winning 707 games during his tenure which is the most in franchise history. He led the Brewers to a postseason berth five times as the manager while winning the National League Central Division three times.
This move comes with a huge surprise for Brewers fans for a couple reasons. The first being Counsell was raised just outside the city of Milwaukee in a neighboring city, Whitefish Bay. He grew up a Brewers fan, eventually playing for the Brewers in 2004 and 2007-11. He is joining the biggest rival of the Brewers in the Central division alongside the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds. The fans are left very disgruntled with the fact Counsel joined one of Milwaukee’s fiercest rivals. The second reason this came as a huge surprise to the fans is that the Cubs needed to fire their manager to make this move. David Ross, former Chicago Cubs manager, was under contract until the 2024 season. Ross was a part of the 2016 World Series champion team where he had a monumental moment in theFall Classic, hitting a pivotal homerun in game seven. Ross was the manager of the Cubs for four seasons. This move shocked the entire baseball community because the Cubs needed to fire Ross to make this move happen.
Counsell agreed to a five year, 40 million dollar contract which makes him the highest paid manager in the MLB.
Brewers fans and upper management were left speechless after Counsell switched teams, especially leaving Milwaukee to go to the Cubs. Mark Attansaio, the principal owner of theBrewers went to the media to discuss the move. His comments to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel stated, “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.” Fans across the city of Milwaukee have reflected and shown their emotions about the move. Not many answers have come across on why he left as we are currently left with only our own thoughts and rumors of why he decided to depart from the Brewers. Most fans, like myself, are left with a sour taste in their mouth wondering what happened behind the scenes that we lost our beloved manager to our biggest rival going southbound on I-94.
Deven Michalak Sports Director 90.3 WRST
