Could The Brewers Flub Their Future Trying To Save 2025?

[Harold Hutchison]

The 2025 season has not gone as well as many Brewers fan have hoped it would. That’s arguably an understatement, especially given what many of the players showed in the 2024 season, where the team outperformed many projections to win the National League Central.

There is some question about whether the Brewers should look to bolster the left side of their infield in the trade market, which has been badly underperforming all season. In fact, shortstop and third base have gone from positions of strength in 2024 to offensive black holes in 2025, and it appears the team could be on the verge of a panic-driven deal to save a season that is not likely to look good. That could make a bad season even worse for the Brewers.

How could that be possible when the team is currently in fourth place in the NL Central? Simple: The team could make more deals like that April 7 trade with Boston. Yes, there is a decent shot Quinn Priester could become a Derek Lowe clone, or at least a Dollar General version of the Giants ace. But the price the Brewers paid was high: Yophery Rodriguez, a pretty good outfield prospect; pitcher John Holobetz, who looked like a fifth-round steal from the 2024 draft; and worst of all, their 2025 Competitive Balance A pick at #33 overall.

Here's how bad losing that pick was: That draft pool money could very well be the difference between the Crew being able to get another Cooper Pratt, Josh Adamczewski, or Luke Adams in the system or watching them go to the NCAA for three years, especially with the colleges able to put together name/image/likeness deals for prospects.

The fact the Brewers don’t have that money (and the pick) is bad enough. The fact the big-market Boston Red Sox do get the pick and the draft pool money is even worse. The Priester deal is the type of trade the Brewers need to avoid making at almost all costs.

That deal, while probably a net negative for the team’s long-term prospects, is survivable, especially if Priester develops the way the Brewers hope he does. Multiple deals of that nature to try to salvage the 2025 season could jeopardize the team’s future, even if it brings quality players in return.

Is this being a Debbie Downer? Maybe, but with a media market that is one of the smallest, if not the smallest in Major League Baseball combined with declining attendance due to the team’s on-field struggles, the Brewers need to load up their farm system as much as possible. That is the key to the team’s ability to compete year-in and year-out. There is help on the horizon for 2026 in the form of Cooper Pratt and Brock Wilken, and Tyler Black and Ernesto Martinez could also be offensive assets as early as the All-Star Break, if not sooner.

It is tempting to deal from the deep farm system to bolster the 2025 team, it comes at a risk: The talented prospects that would need to be dealt to acquire the short-to-medium-term solutions to salvage this season could come to bite the Brewers down the road, for starters. It also thins out the depth of the farm system down the road. That depth is helping keep the Crew afloat in 2025.

The Brewers have already had one elite starter come up from their farm system (Logan Henderson), as well as a more-than-serviceable back-end rotation asset (Chad Patrick) in 2025. Jacob Misiorowski’s major-league debut is just a matter of time. That’s three out of five spots in the rotation, before one considers Tobias Myers (who could still be a fourth or fifth starter), Priester, Aaron Ashby, and DL Hall. This is without the return of Jose Quintana, Aaron Civale, Nestor Cortes, and Brandon Woodruff from the injured list along with continued performance from Freddy Peralta.

The Brewers are at risk of panicking at this point. When people – and teams – panic, they end up making decisions they regret down the road. The front office needs to take a deep breath, and be willing to use 2025 for talent on the farm to make adjustments to major-league baseball - not trade that talent for a playoff run that may or may not bear fruit.

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