The Milwaukee Brewers have historically avoided big spending and acquiring marquee free agents, yet they remain within the postseason mix more times than not. A lot of it is thanks to personnel such as president of baseball operations Matt Arnold and manager Patt Murphy, who both won Executive of the Year and National League Manager of the Year in consecutive seasons, respectively. 

Arnold evaluates the right moves for the team in acquiring talent, and Murphy helps maximize said talent. However, there is more that goes into a successful staff, and the Brewers made sure to pick a candidate from the college ranks who has been impressive in his tenure: Recently promoted first base coach, Spencer Allen. 

After his promotion to the Major League staff, Ken Rosenthal and Will Sammon of The Athletic praised the Brewers for seeing the potential in Allen years ago. 

“The Milwaukee Brewers got off to a head start on the trend of college coaches jumping to the major leagues when they hired Spencer Allen as a field coordinator ahead of the 2022 season,” they wrote. “Allen, who spent the prior six seasons as Northwestern’s head coach, then became the Brewers’ director of player development, a position he held the last two years. In a move that received high marks around the industry on Monday, Milwaukee announced Allen’s promotion to the major-league staff as first base coach.” 

“Allen, 48, is widely regarded as a candidate for a managerial job or bench coach spot down the road. Other clubs held interest in hiring Allen away from the Brewers, league sources said. His calling cards as a coach are base running and defense.” 

Allen’s hiring and ascension demonstrated a move by Milwaukee to leverage talent beyond pro baseball in its coaching ranks. Now, longtime collegiate managers like Tony Vitello, who is entering his first season as an MLB manager with the San Francisco Giants after a decorated tenure at the University of Tennessee, are breaking into The Show. 

Allen’s coaching capabilities and deep understanding of the game will be why he has a great chance to become a skipper in the future, and the Brewers’ ability to see what he could provide before he had any MLB experience speaks to why the organization has been so successful in so many seasons. The ability to evaluate and develop talent will carry Milwaukee far when spending constraints will not. 

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