Brewers’ NL Central clinch, PNC Park takeover expose how far Pirates still have to climb

More than an hour after the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night, PNC Park belonged to the visitors.

The Brewers had already handled their own business with a 5-1 win. Then they waited inside the clubhouse for the result they needed from Chicago. When the Atlanta Braves finished off the Cubs at Wrigley Field, Milwaukee had officially clinched the National League Central division.

Eventually, the Brewers emerged back onto the field. They took pictures. They celebrated. They soaked in another division championship on Pittsburgh's home turf.

For the Pirates, it was a rather uncomfortable look at what they are still trying to become.

Milwaukee's division championship is its fourth straight, making the Brewers the first franchise to win four consecutive NL Central titles since the division was created in 1994. They have won five of the past six division crowns and reached the postseason eight times in the past nine seasons.

Pittsburgh, meanwhile, entered Wednesday back below .500 at 75-76. That gap is about much more than the 19 games currently separating the two teams in the standings, though; it's a gap in organizational standards.

There was plenty of optimism surrounding the Pirates this season, and reasonably so. They spent aggressively by their standards, dramatically improved an offense that had held them back for years and played meaningful games well into the second half.

There has been progress. But Tuesday night was a reminder that progress and arrival are two very different things.

The Pirates spent portions of this season celebrating getting above .500, staying within striking distance of a Wild Card spot and proving they were finally capable of playing competitive baseball beyond the summer. The Brewers, meanwhile, are well beyond that stage. They're measuring seasons in division championships.

Brewers celebrating another NL Central title at PNC Park should embarrass the Pirates into raising their standards

The organizational comparison becomes even more fascinating because of the men running the two clubs.

When the Pirates conducted their general manager search in late 2019, Matt Arnold was one of the finalists. Arnold was then Milwaukee's assistant general manager and brought extensive small-market experience to the interview process.

Pittsburgh chose Ben Cherington instead.

Seven years later, Arnold has been Milwaukee's general manager throughout this run of four consecutive division championships, while Cherington's Pirates are still trying to produce their first winning season under his watch.

That doesn't mean choosing Arnold in 2019 automatically would have produced Milwaukee's results in Pittsburgh. Arnold stepped into an organization that already had established infrastructure, ownership stability and a recent track record of winning. Cherington inherited an organization badly in need of rebuilding its talent pipeline and player development system.

But the paths taken by the two franchises since then still make Tuesday night's scene difficult to ignore.

Milwaukee is exactly the kind of organization Pittsburgh has repeatedly said it wants to become. The Brewers don't have New York or Los Angeles revenue. They aren't solving every roster hole by throwing $200 million contracts around. They have remained competitive through drafting, development, trades, pitching infrastructure and a willingness to continually reshape the roster without allowing the entire operation to collapse into another rebuild.

And most importantly, they've sustained it. That's the part Pittsburgh still has to prove.

One summer hanging around the Wild Car isn't enough. Getting back to .500 after an August collapse isn't enough. If the Pirates believe they have finally assembled the foundation of their next contender — Paul Skenes, Oneil Cruz, Konnor Griffin, Braxton Ashcraft and the other young players they've spent years accumulating — then the next step has to be much bigger than incremental improvement. The expectation in 2027 should be October.

There was something almost too fitting about Brewers owner Mark Attanasio reflecting Tuesday night on how far his own franchise has come. He recalled the team finishing 81-81 in 2005 and noted that Milwaukee is now a long way from treating .500 as something worth celebrating.

That's exactly where Pittsburgh needs to get. Because while the Pirates continue trying to establish that they belong in the NL Central race, the Brewers have spent four straight seasons ending it. And Tuesday night, they celebrated the latest one on the Pirates' field.

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