The most boring off-season in Brewers history

Here is a list of moves the Brewers have made since the end of the 2014 season to bring aboard a new player on a major league contract:

November 1: Acquired Adam Lind from the Blue Jays for Marco Estrada

That's it.

The more sensible part of me says that it's a good thing the Brewers haven't done basically anything of note in 74 days. That they haven't means the front office and ownership is comfortable with the makeup of the likely 25 man roster as-is and can content themselves with lesser deals that might provide a little boost.

The Pirates and Cardinals are really good teams, and the Cubs probably will be in short order. The Brewers can compete in 2014 as they are and the only moves that might push them over the top -- signing a Max Scherzer -- are unrealistic. As best we can ascertain, the Brewers' off-season has gone pretty much exactly to plan.

Here's the non-sensible part of me though: Holy moly is this the most boring few months I can remember as a Brewers fan. There have barely been any rumors, and those few that have come out -- like a possible interest in Allen Craig -- have had the Brewers as a subsidiary team at best.

Part of the Brewers' inaction stems from moves made during the 2014 season. They needed a bullpen arm and found it in Jonathan Broxton at the end of August. We'd been clamoring for a bench improvement and they now have one of the best fourth-outfielders in the game after picking up Gerardo Parra at the trade deadline.

After that, there wasn't much for the Brewers to do, overall. First base was concerns one through ten, and that was solved immediately. Potential platoon partners for Scooter Gennett and Lind, perhaps, would be options. The bullpen could use some more certain arms. Further strengthening the bench. None of those are or were especially crucial, though, and Milwaukee likely doesn't have enough salary room to make signings willy-nilly.

Still, the Brewers' collapse was so great in 2014 that they had very public organizational re-evaluations at the onset of this off-season. And what has changed? The only difference to the lineup is the addition of Lind and allowing Gennett to swing away against lefties. The rotation is the same. The bullpen has lost valuable members.

Along with Lind, the biggest changes from 2014 are a new hitting coach and a new first base coach and that's, well...underwhelming. Again, it's not that this is necessarily a bad thing. But when you come into the off-season with the possibility of an organization-wide shake-up, it's weird to have the team do basically nothing for 99% of the time. The Brewers have been so inactive that they barely met with anyone at the Winter Meetings.

The Brewers have rebuilt their Triple-A outfield with organizational filler. They've signed a few pitchers to minor league deals. They've found two new coaches. They picked up two options. They traded for Lind. That's it.

Contrast the Brewers this year with previous years when they signed, claimed or traded for:

2014: Francisco Rodriguez, Matt Garza, Lyle Overbay, Mark Reynolds, Lyle Overbay, Zach Duke, Wei-Chung Wang, Will Smith, Elian Herrera (and traded Burke Badenhop)
2013: Yuniesky Betancourt, Alex Gonzalez, Michael Gonzalez, Burke Badenhop, 
2012: Norichika Aoki, Jeff Bianchi, Tom Gorzelanny, Cesar Izturis, Aramis Ramirez, Jose Veras, Alex Gonzalez, Travis Ishikawa, Francisco Rodriguez, 
2011: Nyjer Morgan, Mark Kotsay, Takashi Saito, Craig Counsell, Zack Greinke, Shaun Marcum, Wil Nieves
2010: Marco Estrada, Jim Edmonds, Doug Davis, Kameron Loe, Claudio Vargas, LaTroy Hawkins, Randy Wolf, Carlos Gomez
2009: Braden Looper, Trevor Hoffman, R.J. Swindle, Casey McGehee
2008: Mike Cameron, Brian Shouse, Salomon Torres, David Riske, Jason Kendall, Guillermo Mota

And that's not counting things like a managerial change, extensions to Ryan Braun and Yovani Gallardo (et al), the Braun drama of the last two years, etc etc. The title of this article is hyperbole, but damn if it doesn't feel completely true.

Overall, it just seems like there's so much nothing happening with the Brewers as they prepare for 2015. Stability isn't bad and is often good. It's just boring is all. We could go for excitement and see the Brewers trade Gomez and Lucroy and Braun and Peralta and Gennett and just build from the ground up. Or go the opposite direction and see them sign Max Scherzer to a mega-deal and bring aboard Pablo Sandoval/Yasmany Tomas/Hanley Ramirez.

There's a reason the Brewers didn't choose those plans, and it's because they are clearly terrible ideas for them. The (likely) correct decision just happened to be the dull one.

Just 37 days until pitchers and catchers report for spring training. Things are bound to pick up then.