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.
MILWAUKEE -- There’s “Win Tonight” and “Average Joes” and “Undaunted.” Now there’s a new Brewers mantra you need to know.
“The Power of Friendship.”
It’s been appearing all over the team’s social media during its recent run, and on Friday it appeared on T-shirts in the clubhouse. It comes from the mind of closer Trevor Megill, who dropped that phrase during an interview with USA Today in an effort to help explain the Brewers’ surprising rise to the very top of the MLB standings.
Megill is better known for staring down opposing hitters and triple-digit fastballs like the ones he threw in the closing moments of Friday’s thrilling, 3-2 win over the Mets, than touchy-feely team-building. So “the power of friendship” sounded like something a bullpen mate dared him to say during All-Star festivities in Atlanta, where Megill joined Freddy Peralta and rookie Jacob Misiorowski as Milwaukee’s reps.
But Megill says that’s not the case. It simply came out of his mouth, unplanned, during a chat with USA Today’s Gabe Lacques.
“The way the Brewers run themselves and the research they do on people, personalities -- that goes into a lot of what we’re seeing right now. Power of friendship, right?” he told the newspaper. “We’ve got a college-minded coach at the helm and I think a lot of our guys are just that gritty, tough, and we go and get after it. I think that’s our biggest strength: A lot of guys that like each other and a lot of guys willing to put their body on the line every night.”
In a subsequent story about the Brewers’ success, again in USA Today but this time written by Bob Nightengale, Megill used the phrase again.
“We’re going to start wearing 'Power of Friendship' T-shirts," he said. “Then people can start recognizing who we are. I mean, people were freaking out last year when we won 93 games. Maybe they didn’t think we could do it again."
To be fair, few people outside the Brewers’ own clubhouse expected this. The Brewers came home Friday after a 6-0 road trip to Washington and Atlanta in which they became the first team ever to have a trip of any length on which they scored at least 50 runs, didn’t lose a game and didn’t commit a single error, according to OptaSTATS.
As they prepared to host the Mets on Friday night at American Family Field, the Brewers were the only 70-win team in baseball.
“It’s deserved. This is a really good team,” said Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns, who held that same position with the Brewers through the end of 2022. “It’s a very good run-prevention unit and a lineup that most nights, one through nine, is very complete. They don’t beat themselves. It’s a very, very quality team.”
Asked to explain it, considering the payroll disparity between his current team and his former one, Stearns cited his former colleagues including GM Matt Arnold and the rest of Milwaukee’s decision-makers. Stearns huddled with a number of them, including Arnold, for a long chat on the field prior to Friday’s series opener.
“They’ve had continuity. They’re not afraid to take risks,” Stearns said. “It’s not surprising to any of the rest of us, frankly, that the Brewers continue to find players, develop players and put them in good positions to succeed. It’s a quality organization. People like working here.”
That sounds a little bit like the power of friendship.
As Megill promised, the T-shirts arrived on Friday as the Brewers began their homestand. One of the pitchers wearing the shirt was veteran reliever Shelby Miller, who was picked up from the D-backs at the Trade Deadline while he was completing his comeback from a right forearm strain. He was called up to the big leagues on Friday.
“I saw you all posted it on social media,” Miller said. “I know the power of friendship is strong. If you’re in a group with a lot of good people, that goes a long way. … I’ve been in a lot of clubhouses in my career, as you know, and the best teams I’ve been on are really, really close.”
Megill has evolved into one of the players who help keep the team close, joining manager Pat Murphy’s clubhouse “pillars” this season. They meet once a month to talk about the state of things, giving Murphy and his coaches a feel for the pulse of the club’s leadership group.
But seriously, Megill really didn’t plan “The Power of Friendship” as an elaborate inside joke?
The Brewers improved to 1-0 with their new shirts thanks to Megill’s 27th save, which was in turn thanks to center fielder Blake Perkins’ dime of a throw to cut down the would-be tying runner at home.
The Mets broke the Brewers’ hearts in the playoffs last season, but this year in Milwaukee it’s a “different team,” Megill said, “different vibes.”
“A lot of people playing good baseball,” Megill said. “Everybody keeps saying, ‘The Power of Friendship,' so that’s what it is right now. It’s just clean baseball and a lot of guys who like each other and are playing for each other.”