What Are Brewers' Remaining Offseason Needs?

[Jason Wang]

With their most prized trade asset now spent, what other parts of Milwaukee’s roster still need help going into 2025?

Image courtesy of © Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

It has been a pretty busy offseason around the league. More than $2 billion in free-agent contracts have been signed, and the trade front has seen more than a few impact players change hands. The Brewers got involved themselves, shipping Devin Williams to the Yankees in exchange for Nestor Cortes and infield prospect Caleb Durbin. The Airbender was bound for a new home in his walk year, and Milwaukee’s anticipated offseason additions depended heavily on his return package. So, now that he’s gone, what does the team still need—and will it be enough to maintain their dominance over the division?

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Infield
Caleb Durbin was a 14th-round draft pick by team who plays at the highway interchange just north of Atlanta in 2021, and he's been on the minor-league grind ever since. He started hitting his stride over the past two years, steadily climbing the ranks. Most recently, he posted an .867 OPS over 375 plate appearances in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and torched the Arizona Fall League, posting a .976 OPS and stealing 29 bases there. A certified short king, he has adapted his playing style to compensate for a lack of power and has excellent fielding flexibility, making him a great fit for an already versatile Brewers squad. Heading into the offseason, there were questions over who would play which position after the departure of Willy Adames. Now that Durbin is on board, it seems Pat Murphy will have plenty of options for almost every position in the infield.

One area that could still use some improvement is first base. While the Rhys Hoskins signing was exciting at the time of its announcement, a full season of his performance left much to be desired, especially given his $12 million salary. He had -0.2 rWAR, slashing .214/.303/.419 for an OPS+ of 98. After officially exercising his $18-million player option for 2025, there were hopes that he could get traded, but with his stock at an all-time low, it was likely difficult to find a willing buyer at his price point. Even if a suitable replacement was found, the team would still be on the hook for most of his money, so they’ll have to wait for 2026 to decline their part of the mutual option and look for a more meaningful bat, should his numbers remain the same. 

Of course, they could move Hoskins to DH permanently and pick up a more well-rounded first baseman, but given the extra money or prospect equity they’d have to surrender in a free agent or trade situation, the team will probably just hang in there with Hoskins. Moves throughout the league have foreclosed even the options that did seem to loom for them, as the Guardians, Yankees, Diamondbacks, Astros, and Nationals all landed new first basemen over the last handful of days. 

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Outfield
Arguably the area in which they have the most depth, Milwaukee’s outfield is jam-packed with young talent. Injury concerns for Christian Yelich and Garrett Mitchell are well-founded, but based on what we saw from them last year, they’re outstanding when healthy. When you throw in Blake Perkins, Sal Frelick, and the phenomenal Jackson Chourio, you get more than enough pieces for this part of the roster to be successful. If anything, it seems that the surplus in the outfield could drive another trade later in the offseason.

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Catcher/DH
Similar to the outfield, the Brewers are set when it comes to backstops and designated hitters. There’s plenty of crossover between who’s on the depth chart for both roles, with William Contreras and Eric Haase. The organization did also utilize Gary Sánchez on occasion in 2024, but getting a third-string catcher probably isn’t a priority for the front office right now. Keeping DH playing time available for Yelich and Contreras is more important than whatever production they could find on the market from a budget-friendly bat.

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Rotation
There’s a lot to like about the Brewers' starters—at least in theory. Given the tragic injury luck of the past few years, one can never be too sure about betting the house on the team’s rotation to stay healthy. With arms like Brandon Woodruff and Robert Gasser still on unclear timelines to return, the team will have to hope the combination of Nestor Cortes and full seasons from DL Hall and Aaron Civale will be enough to hold down the fort. 

There’s actually a lot to like about Cortes and his potential fit on the team. He’s a crafty lefty who does some unorthodox things, something that could fit well within a development program that has made the most out of arms with neither spectacular velocity nor stuff. His fly ball rate has consistently been higher than average throughout his seven-year career, and while some of those fly balls will inevitably go for extra bases, he hasn’t played with an outfield as defensively proficient as the Brewers’, so his numbers could be even better than anticipated next year.

When Woodruff does finally make it back to the team after his lengthy rehabilitation process, someone may cede their spot, or the team could utilize a six-man rotation. You could always go out and get another arm just to be safe, but with the current talent on the board and starting pitching talent coming at a high premium, it’s not a necessity.

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Bullpen
Milwaukee is great at making the most of what they have. Last year, after Devin Williams was sidelined for months due to stress fractures, the team turned it into an opportunity to start grooming Trevor Megill for the full-time closer job. He excelled, accumulating 21 saves before handing off the reins. We’ve gotten to see what Megill can do over the two past seasons with the Crew, and it seems like the perfect time to promote him to the most important role in the bullpen. Behind him is the same cast of characters as we saw last season, including Joel Payamps, Jared Koenig, Bryan Hudson, and Nick Mears. While the loss of Williams is definitely a meaningful subtraction, the bullpen still looks to be in great shape heading into next year. They could get another arm if the price is right, but don’t expect the team to surrender too much of the farm trying to get a slight upgrade in the reliever department.

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Will It Be Enough?
After remembering that they are, indeed, a big-market team, the Cubs have been fairly active this winter. In addition to signing free agents Matthew Boyd and Carson Kelly, they acquired Kyle Tucker from the Astros and traded Cody Bellinger to the Yankees. The Tucker deal in and of itself was great, but they haven’t shown signs of slowing down. There are reports that they’ve made a big push to sign Roki Sasaki, and they’ve gotten some additional breathing room in the budget after getting most of the Bellinger contract off the books. They were also in discussions to acquire Jesús Luzardo or Luis Castillo, but it seems those talks stalled. Luzardo is now a Phillie.

But Chicago has quite a bit of catching up to do. They were 10 games back of Milwaukee in 2024, and without subsequent moves to improve other parts of their lineup, it would seem that the Brewers are safe for now. The other teams in the division have practically been asleep at the wheel, and haven’t given their fans much to look forward to, so it seems like 2025 could be yet another year of the Brewers taking the top spot in the NL Central. 

Getting past the other titans in the National League is a different story. As usual, the bigger spenders in the East and West divisions have more obvious talent on paper, but a closer look suggests there is a smaller gap than one might otherwise expect. It may not be enough for the team to win the World Series, but if the team shows up to Opening Day with the roster as-is, it’s looking like another successful regular season for the Brew Crew.

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[SandyTolan]

They still need a power IF bat, whether or not Durbin makes the 26-man roster.  That to me is the most obvious glaring need on the team.

[Trax]

You can always use another legit bullpen arm but the glaring need short term is a power bat.   Left side power bat more so if Hoskins sticks.  Long term we continue to search for that natural fix at 3rd.  Not sure (really doubt) Durbin is long term there. 

[Brewcrew82]

39 minutes ago, SandyTolan said:

They still need a power IF bat, whether or not Durbin makes the 26-man roster.  That to me is the most obvious glaring need on the team.

I keep hearing this (and I agree they probably need more power) but honestly the specific position they get the increased power from doesn’t really matter. Runs resulting from power count the same regardless of which position they come from. Sure in an ideal world it’d slot in nicely at 3B/SS to replace Adames, but there’s other positions they could acquire it from if the supply and price is better.

Nate82 mentioned this before, but I wonder if the Brewers won’t eventually swoop in on the Pete Alonso sweepstakes on a pillow type deal. Pretty much all of the teams in the market for a 1B this winter have already acquired one, and the Mets who would be the most obvious suitor might have other players in mind. Sign Alonso and move Hoskins to DH and all of a sudden you have more power than you did last year with Adames. There’s also power bats in the OF still available which could lead them to deal a Frelick for depth elsewhere on the roster.

[Brewcrew82]

6 minutes ago, Trax said:

You can always use another legit bullpen arm but the glaring need short term is a power bat.   Left side power bat more so if Hoskins sticks.  Long term we continue to search for that natural fix at 3rd.  Not sure (really doubt) Durbin is long term there. 

I’m not convinced they need to be searching long-term there. Even with Wilken sputtering at AA, they have Boeve, Pratt, Bitonti, and Made making their way up through the ranks. You have to like the chances of at least one of those guys to entrench themselves in the IF over the next few years alongside Ortiz and Turang. 

[brewmann04]

Power and contact guy won’t not say no to another starter 

[wallus]

It looks like Alonso and Kim are the last higher level FAs we may be "in" on. I would be satisfied if we got one of them.

[Stubby66]

I gotta disagree in another power bat. Adames batted 6th a lot. He left a lot of guys stranded when he struck out. Now you put a contact guy like Durbin in that spot cut down those strike outs more then half. It's going to replace a lot of the rbis that you lost in Adames's homeruns and men stranded. Then if Yellich, Mitchell, Ortiz and Chourio pick up more consistency.  Monso,Bauers, and Dunn replaced with Frelick and Black. They should easily replace what little that those 3 gave offensively. This team is sitting better already then last year.

[Lathund]

The only glaring need to me is an infielder. 3B/SS ideally, but 2B works too in a pinch. Maybe they like Durbin a lot, and maybe they are right to. Regardless, should still aim to get a 4th starting quality guy to the 2B/3B/SS mix, as in addition to replacing Adames you want to upgrade on Monasterio/Dunn too as the primary backup. Now I personally don't care if it's a power hitter or not. I just care that they put up offense, not how. 

[sveumrules]

18 minutes ago, Stubby66 said:

Adames batted 6th a lot. He left a lot of guys stranded when he struck out.

Adames batted 6th zero times last year. He had 13 PAs batting 2nd, 86 PAs batting 3rd, 441 PAs batting 4th, and 148 PAs batting 5th.

His 16.74 RBI% was 4th on the team behind Contreras (17.88%), Chourio (17.79%) and Yelich (17.03%).

There was a significant drop off from there to returning guys like Hoskins (15.47%), Ortiz (15.41%), Turang (14.45%), Perkins (12.89%), Frelick (10.34%), and Mitchell (9.15%).

Adding another middle of the order bat capable of driving in runs will go a long way if the Brewers want to maintain or build on their 6th place finish in runs scored last season.

[eddiemathews]

1 hour ago, sveumrules said:

Adames batted 6th zero times last year. He had 13 PAs batting 2nd, 86 PAs batting 3rd, 441 PAs batting 4th, and 148 PAs batting 5th.

His 16.74 RBI% was 4th on the team behind Contreras (17.88%), Chourio (17.79%) and Yelich (17.03%).

There was a significant drop off from there to returning guys like Hoskins (15.47%), Ortiz (15.41%), Turang (14.45%), Perkins (12.89%), Frelick (10.34%), and Mitchell (9.15%).

Adding another middle of the order bat capable of driving in runs will go a long way if the Brewers want to maintain or build on their 6th place finish in runs scored last season.

I was amazed at Frelick's ability to dot drive in runs. He and Michell can only get better. Right? Right?!? Actually, improvement from the youngsters is one thing they are counting on. 

[sveumrules]

23 minutes ago, eddiemathews said:

I was amazed at Frelick's ability to dot drive in runs. He and Michell can only get better. Right? Right?!? Actually, improvement from the youngsters is one thing they are counting on. 

Mitchell has a chance to improve because he has some pop and extra base hits drive in more runs than singles. Someone like Frelick's ceiling as a run producer is limited by all the weak contact though.

Ichiro is one of my favorite players ever, but out of 138 players to have come up with at least 5,000 runners on base over the last 50 years he ranks 137th with a 12.60 RBI%.

[eddiemathews]

49 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

Mitchell has a chance to improve because he has some pop and extra base hits drive in more runs than singles. Someone like Frelick's ceiling as a run producer is limited by all the weak contact though.

Ichiro is one of my favorite players ever, but out of 138 players to have come up with at least 5,000 runners on base over the last 50 years he ranks 137th with a 12.60 RBI%.

Is there any history of players improving their exit velocity as they progress? I mean, significantly - not incrementally.

[Jason Wang]

5 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Mitchell has a chance to improve because he has some pop and extra base hits drive in more runs than singles. Someone like Frelick's ceiling as a run producer is limited by all the weak contact though.

Ichiro is one of my favorite players ever, but out of 138 players to have come up with at least 5,000 runners on base over the last 50 years he ranks 137th with a 12.60 RBI%.

yeah but does garrett mitchell have a case to monitor the humidity levels of his bats 

[jesusoftheapes]

Tobias Myers is as much a part of the pitching rotation as Freddy right now. Why not include him in your work?  Did he not earn a bit more respect?  Or do we right off players now because they are not supposed to be good and are anyways?

Am I really the only guy out there that thinks Myers is going to improve not the other way around?  I hope not. We need him. 

[jesusoftheapes]

11 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Mitchell has a chance to improve because he has some pop and extra base hits drive in more runs than singles. Someone like Frelick's ceiling as a run producer is limited by all the weak contact though.

Ichiro is one of my favorite players ever, but out of 138 players to have come up with at least 5,000 runners on base over the last 50 years he ranks 137th with a 12.60 RBI%.

Sal hate is strong with this one.  Sal is on pace to improve his power .  Every metric shows he should be producing more power shots and no one feared he would lack power completely when he was coming up . No this only developed in the last 12 months or so .   Sal will be fine.  Let him grow up and take on a man's body fully before we go writing off what Sal can and cannot do.   Okay?  Sal is one of this teams best players.    I hate how fans see this group .  

I like Mitchell and see him as a guy who can bat .300 with a ton of homers but i also see Freilick as being able to homer more than he has.  Sals best baseball is still to come.  

[jesusoftheapes]

5 hours ago, Jason Wang said:

yeah but does garrett mitchell have a case to monitor the humidity levels of his bats 

Baseball legend building. 

[jesusoftheapes]

10 hours ago, eddiemathews said:

Is there any history of players improving their exit velocity as they progress? I mean, significantly - not incrementally.

The answer is it depends.   There have been cases but the general rule is by the time you make The Show you are probably getting close to maxing out.  However in the Brewers case I see it differently as they let players like Turang, Sal and Mitchell develop at the highest level.  It worked well with Brian Jackson Chorio as well.    I think the group here still has a bit more baseball to grow into and can improve the exit velo worry some fans have.    I think it is less important than the stat hounds make it seem though in the end.  This team is not a combination of numbers like other baseball teams but living breathing players who will continue to get better as they grow into a man's body.    

[sveumrules]

16 hours ago, eddiemathews said:

Is there any history of players improving their exit velocity as they progress? I mean, significantly - not incrementally.

Ben Clemens looked into this a little bit ago at FanGraphs.

Long story short, 95th percentile exit velocity is thee stickiest offensive measurement year to year with only 3.9% of the player pool showing an improvement of at least one standard deviation. Contact Rate was next stickiest at 7.3%.

I think the main thing Sal needs to work on is his launch angle. The guy I feel like was always the realistic ceiling comp for him coming up was Steven Kwan.

Kwan doesn’t hit the ball hard and has low barrel rates just like Sal, but he’s managed a 12.2 average launch angle and 24.1% line drive rate to get to a 117 career wRC+.

Meanwhile Sal’s had a 9.3 average launch angle and 17.9% line drive rate to get to his 88 career wRC+.

[Outlander]

6 hours ago, jesusoftheapes said:

Tobias Myers is as much a part of the pitching rotation as Freddy right now. Why not include him in your work?  Did he not earn a bit more respect?  Or do we right off players now because they are not supposed to be good and are anyways?

Am I really the only guy out there that thinks Myers is going to improve not the other way around?  I hope not. We need him. 

Freddy wasn't mentioned either so quite a bit of the rotation was overlooked.

I think it is a lot to ask Myers to improve on from his prior season. However, there is a lot to like about him, he continued to play well down the stretch and into the playoff game he pitched. It is amazing where he was at in 2022 and where he is now.

[Jason Wang]

2 hours ago, Outlander said:

Freddy wasn't mentioned either so quite a bit of the rotation was overlooked.

I think it is a lot to ask Myers to improve on from his prior season. However, there is a lot to like about him, he continued to play well down the stretch and into the playoff game he pitched. It is amazing where he was at in 2022 and where he is now.

I didn't name Peralta or Myers specifically because they kinda fell under the "keep doing what you're doing camp" in my eyes. Both solid arms that will do a lot of the heavy lifting/pitching next year!