The 2017 season was expected to be another losing season. While the Milwaukee Brewers had finished trading away most of their pieces of value, their prospects were not quite ready to step up to fill the void yet. This was expected to be a placeholder year, and the plan was to just get some experience and prep for 2018 and beyond. However, the year went much better than anyone expected.
Following the 2016 season, the Brewers were still in a period of rebuilding. There were only a few players that remained from the last competitive team, and the resources to trade away were small.