This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy’s Brewers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
ST. PETERSBURG -- Brewers general manager Matt Arnold points down the right-field line at Tropicana Field to the precise spot where he was standing when David Stearns called in 2015 to talk about taking a job in Milwaukee’s front office. At another point in the conversation, he points to his old office left field.
There are a lot of memories in this building for Arnold, who spent nine seasons in Tampa Bay’s front office from 2006-15.
“I saw a lot of home shows, boat shows and high school football games in here,” Arnold said with a laugh.
He caught up with several former colleagues on Friday, when the Brewers visited "The Trop" for the second straight season. They included Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander, who chatted with Arnold about “not becoming insular.”
In other words, even though both teams are in the longest stretches of sustained success in their franchise’s histories, they have to continue thinking creatively.
“We used to say it was a little bit like an Etch A Sketch; you can try more things here in this market,” Arnold said of his Tampa Bay tenure. “If it doesn’t work, it’s OK. You can think very much outside the box. And I think that has helped us do things a lot of ways in Milwaukee. That’s something we learned here. We had the kids running the asylum a little bit. …
“You want to make sure you’re constantly trying to improve the way you make decisions and not get too insular. [Neander] has been thinking about some of that stuff, and we were just kicking it around.”
Every time the Brewers and Rays meet, it’s a matchup of small-market teams that have punched above their weight class in recent years. Over the past five-plus seasons, the Rays have the fourth-highest regular season winning percentage in the Majors, and the Brewers are sixth.
“Yeah, I mean, look, that's fair,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “I know Craig [Counsell] a little bit and really admire and respect him as the player he was and certainly a manager now. And from what I've heard from the players, they really enjoy playing for him. There are some similarities, but I don't know that organization well enough to really kind of dig deep into it. But on the field, it does feel like it's fair to have the comparisons.”
Said Counsell: “[The Rays] do a heck of a job. They prove that you can be successful with less resources.”
The Brewers and Rays have another thing in common: They are both trying to win their first World Series. Tampa Bay got there in 2020. The closest the Brewers came in recent years was in 2018, when they lost Game 7 of the National League Championship Series to the Dodgers.
Arnold knows it will take creativity and good fortune to get to the finish line.
“It’s a survival mechanism to be creative,” Arnold said. “We just have to think a little bit differently and dig a little bit extra and find ways to win ballgames. Whether you’re in a small market or a huge market, it’s fun when you win.”