Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

It’s easy for casual baseball fans to forget all about the Milwaukee Brewers.

The organization is completely Midwestern, almost to a fault. The Brewers have made the playoffs just eight times in almost 55 years of existence. They even got to the World Series in 1982 and lost to the Cardinals in Game 7.

Milwaukee even has two Hall of Famers. Paul Molitor is probably the most underrated contact hitter of all time, and Robin Yount was basically his generation’s Mike Trout.

But for the most part, Milwaukee has thrived on frugality and rarely spends big money on any players. This season marks a turning point as the Brew Crew seems to have ditched its aw-shucks nature and added an edge to the roster.

And in the quest for the NL Central, the Brewers come to New York twice. They’ll visit the Yankees in the Bronx for a weekend in September. Milwaukee also hosts the Mets in April, but four games at Citi Field in late June are intriguing.

If this Brewers team is as good as it seems, that could very well be a playoff preview.

Greatest Addition: Jesse Winker. He’s recovering from knee and neck surgeries and there are questions about his work ethic, especially since he was traded for the popular and jovial Kolten Wong. Winker spent last year with the Mariners and saw his batting average drop almost 100 points to .219. However, his walk rate (BB%) increased from 10.9% to 15.4%.

Even still, it’s a pretty safe bet Winker will bounce back with the Brewers, especially with the new shift restrictions. Sticking him in the DH spot and keeping his lackluster glove off the field will also help. All Winker really needs to do is be a reliable middle-of-the-order lefty bat in Milwaukee. If things don’t work out, his expiring contract can be traded away.

Greatest Loss: Hunter Renfroe, another one of baseball’s many journeymen. He hit .255 for the Brewers last year and missed time with injury, but still slugged 29 home runs with 72 RBI. Milwaukee still traded him to the Angels , who will be his fifth team in eight years.

Granted, the Brewers had no choice but to trade Hunter Renfroe this offseason, even though he performed well. Tyrone Taylor is ready to play every day and so is Garrett Mitchell. Renfroe, who also has a strong throwing arm in right field to go with his powerful bat, was thus the odd man out.

Greatest Strength: Corbin Burnes, even if he and the team aren’t currently in the best place after going through arbitration. The former Cy Young winner is still the face of a Brewers pitching staff that has generally performed well over the last decade. In 2022, Burnes made an MLB-best 33 starts with a 2.94 ERA and he also led the National League in strikeouts.

Now, at 28, Burnes is two years from free agency. The NL Central isn’t so competitive that Milwaukee doesn’t have a chance, especially with Burnes as their ace. Even if they won’t pay him the big money, they can at least strike while the iron is hot and maybe make him a champion.

Greatest Weakness: Christian Yelich, and it’s all because of the contract. The former MVP has fallen off a cliff since winning the trophy in 2019, batting .243 with just 35 home runs and 130 RBI. His outfield defense has also started declining.

And now, the Brewers are between a rock and a hard place with the 31-year-old Yelich. Whether it was juiced balls, his cracking under the pressure and losing confidence, or both, he isn’t the same player anymore. He has six years and $156 million left on his contract. Suddenly, Aaron Hicks’ deal with the Yankees doesn’t look so bad.

The Brewers can’t trade him, so they’ll keep paying Yelich and hope for a revival in 2023.

Should the Brewers scare the Yankees or Mets? At this stage, probably not. The Yankees don’t play them until the weekend of Sept. 8, when they’ll hopefully be close to clinching the AL East and otherwise just worrying about playoff seeding.

The Mets are a different story. As was mentioned earlier, the NL Central isn’t so competitive that the Milwaukee Brewers should automatically be counted out. Remember, the team missed the playoffs last year but still split the season series with the Cardinals. Win or lose, they rarely go down without a fight.

This means the four June games at Citi Field are more significant than the three in April at American Family Field. That’s so early in the season that both New York and Milwaukee will still be figuring themselves out, let alone each other.

But late June is when everyone has a good idea of who is or isn’t making the playoffs. The Brewers are definitely a bubble team at this point. Thus, if they can make some noise in New York in June, it could set the stage for some October drama.

Josh Benjamin has been a staff writer at ESNY since 2018. He has had opinions about everything, especially the Yankees and Knicks. He co-hosts the “Bleacher Creatures” podcast and is always looking for new pieces of sports history to uncover, usually with a Yankee Tavern chicken parm sub in hand.