Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio discusses state of the team, payroll and American Family Field

Sporting a 2-1 record after a series victory over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field over the weekend, the Milwaukee Brewers headed into their home opener Monday against the New York Mets at American Family Field excited about what youngsters Garrett Mitchell, Brice Turang and Joey Wiemer have brought to the table thus far and optimistic about what lies ahead.

Among those on hand was team principal owner Mark Attanasio, who was taking in his 19th home opener since taking control of the team back in 2005 -- a far cry from the incredible 53 Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Uecker has now been a part of, as Attanasio himself noted.

Attanasio believes good things are in store for the Brewers this season.

With a revamped roster featuring the aforementioned prospects as well as offseason acquisitions like catcher William Contreras, designated hitter-outfielder Jesse Winker and third baseman-outfielder Brian Anderson, they'll attempt to return to the playoffs after falling out of contention late last year to miss out for the first time since 2017.

"Starting with superstition, last year in spring training I said I think this is the best roster we've ever had. And for the first 50 games, it was," Attanasio said in a roughly 25-minute news conference prior to the game.

It marked the first time since early last August, in the wake of the Josh Hader trade, that Attanasio had spoken to the local media.

"But, it's a marathon season. I'm encouraged by two things: The youthful energy, and there's more coming with Sal (Frelick) and Jackson (Chourio), and some of the young pitchers. We had more pitchers throwing over 95 miles an hour in spring training this year than we've ever had. Most of them are in the minor leagues, so they'll be coming.

"And I think some of the veterans have talked about this -- Brandon Woodruff now is the longest-tenured guy -- they're looking at these two years as seminal. I think that's important. And so I think they have a lot of motivation. So, we've got a good confluence of things there.

"You know, Craig Counsell says you never really know what the soup is going to be, and the soup is tasting pretty good right now in terms of the clubhouse tone, so I'm looking forward to it."

Following are some of the more notable things Attanasio had to say regarding a number of other topics.

What about the team's finances and payroll?

A hot-button issue for eternity in Milwaukee and especially since last August when the team traded closer Josh Hader is spending money.

The Brewers entered 2023 believed to be about $12 million under their payroll number last opening day, at around $109 million.

"Nobody wants to hear this, but we haven't really had a budget in a long time," Attanasio said. "We try to get to a break-even. The reason you get to a break-even is you can end up in a downward spiral; if you do a case study on teams that lose too much money for too long, then they end up gutting the team. We're trying to always compete.

"I learned a long time ago that nobody wants to hear an owner talk about losses. I remember my favorite blog entry when I first started. I wanted to give transparency with what we do and one of the fans said, ‘How about some cheese with that whine, Mark?’

"Relative to the dipping part (compared to the league) you can look at where we sit in media revenues. We are 30 out of 30. That’s just a mathematical truth. We punch above our weight with the fan attendance, and we have again this year a record number of new sponsorships.

"With everything, we're running our businesses, as well as could be run."

Attanasio said it's important to note ownership always leaves payroll flexibility to make midseason moves if the team is competitive.

"We were in on a number of midseason trades that would have added significant dollars last year," he said. "And as it was, even with all the activity, we actually had the same payroll. We traded Josh, but our payroll with the money we took on was the same money. So, we've always tried to leave flexibility to do things and then the number just falls out.

"I don't really look at I don't look at where we sit in the numbers (compared to the league). In fact, I couldn't tell you where we were the last five years."

Are the Milwaukee Brewers negotiating with Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burnes and/or Willy Adames?

Spring training got off to a rocky start when Corbin Burnes made clear in no uncertain terms that he was displeased with the arbitration process and the fact he ultimately lost, being awarded $10.01 million in the process.

Burnes said his relationship with the Brewers was damaged, which certainly wasn't good to hear considering he becomes a free agent after the 2024 season along with Woodruff and shortstop Willy Adames.

The team has been proactive with signing players to long-term deals in the past -- Christian Yelich, Freddy Peralta and Aaron Ashby are the most recent examples.

So, what are the chances the Brewers could ink at least one of their Big Three long-term?

"I’m always eternally optimistic," Attanasio said. "I also recognize that the three of them are about as good as you can get in the sport at their positions. And so, there’s the challenge of what those contracts would be. They’d be deservedly significant, and it’s pretty much a season at a time now because most guys don’t want to talk in-season.

"We’ll see what the season and the offseason brings.”

In the bigger picture, Attanasio noted how large the payroll disparities between the Brewers and Philadelphia Phillies have grown since the teams met in the playoffs in 2008. In rough terms, Attanasio said, only about $16 million separated the two teams back then whereas the gulf now is more than $150 million.

"That’s just the reality," Attanasio said. "So, we have to work smarter, we have to develop players better. Craig Counsell’s done a phenomenal job with these young men and even the veterans. We look at that as a challenge.

"As everybody knows here, I always want to compete. There was a lot of commentary last year about the Hader trade, which we all know. But what was missed in the commentary is we’re desperately trying to compete for a long period of time. And so we stumbled last season with that trade, but now we have William Contreras here.

"Things like that show the confidence I have in our baseball ops group to keep finding that next guy. It’s a challenge because everyone’s trying to do that. So far, David Stearns and now Matt Arnold have executed that.”

What about the Brewers' TV deal with Bally?

With regard to the media revenue piece, Attanasio was asked where things currently stand with regard to the Brewers' TV broadcasts considering Bally's parent company recently declared for bankruptcy.

"Over the last couple of years, if you track -- which I bothered to, not everybody did -- the trading levels of their debt, you could see this coming," he said. "So, we've been able to internally here prepare for it. Now, that said, we got our payment April 1. So, that's good. And they're telling us they're committed to broadcasting our games. So, importantly for our fans, we expect to see that. After that, we'll see.

"Baseball is set up for this. Baseball has committed  -- MLB and the league -- that if there's a hitch, that they're going to put games on MLB Network that will be completely hosted by their production staff. So, it's wait and see. But I think for now, in terms of our visibility we're pretty good, at least with our club."

Where do the contract negotiations with Craig Counsell stand?

The fact Counsell is in the final year of his contract has been another big topic of conversation, with both the manager and Arnold talking about it this spring.

For his part, Attanasio left no doubt he wants Counsell back next season and beyond.

"We’d love to keep him here, obviously," he said. "You always imagine in life where you’re going to be and then you’re at that point. And he’s had a couple World Series rings, got now two sons going to play college baseball; you’d always imagine you’d be watching them play. They’re only going to be playing college baseball once. So, on the other side of things, he’s really enjoying what he does here.

"And he is, as you know, very impactful. I think back to when I first talked to Craig about doing this in 2015 he said the only thing he felt he had left to do in baseball was bring a  World Series to Milwaukee. And so that’s still a goal of his, so we’ll see how he balances all of that."

More: Brewers starting lineup for 2023 home opener vs. the Mets at American Family Field

More: Brewers bounce back from miserable opener to record series victory over Cubs

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Mark Attanasio on state of Brewers, payroll, American Family Field