How Many of the 26 currently on Our Roster

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

Will still be on our playoff roster come September/October if we make the playoffs?

Will be gone (upgraded)

Rengifo, Perkins, Woodford, Sanchez

Will be gone (AAA) if they can’t step it up

Frelick, Sproat, Hamilton/Perkins

will be here purely for defense

ortiz/Hamilton

[adambr2]

Playoff roster building is a little different and sometimes the last spot or two is a niche PR type or defensive type role. So I think Hamilton is pretty safe. Perkins, no way, just doesn’t offer enough. Same with Rengifo. He probably won’t even last that long on the roster.

Ortiz has been their ride or die at SS for 2 and a half seasons now so I don’t see that changing unless they make a deadline move for a SS or unless Pratt comes up and rakes with the same defense.

With Sanchez, they need a backup catcher, so barring a trade for one, I don’t see enough difference between Sanchez and Quero to pull the trigger.

Pitching staff is where it gets interesting and a lot of these guys at the bottom will be upgraded especially in the playoffs where you can afford deeper benches with more days off.

Of the current 26, I’d say Chourio, Yelich, Turang, Contreras, Miz, Harrison, Megill, Uribe, Ashby, and Patrick are locks, with Vaughn, Bauers, Ortiz, Frelick, Hamilton, Mitchell, Lockridge, Sanchez, Anderson, Henderson, Hall and Drohan all looking like the high side of likely to varying degrees. Good chance one or more of the 22 names above will be traded, injured to end the season, or drop off enough to lose consideration, so this is all just early speculation.

If it held, it leaves only 4 spots for some combination of Woodruff, Priester, Sproat, Lara, Pratt and Jett — and the rest guys that we have yet to acquire. 

[Frisbee Slider]

Milwaukee hasn’t seemed to blow up the roster due to Individual performance issues in recent years. I doubt 25% of the roster is dismissed or demoted with how well the season has gone.

[adambr2]

6 minutes ago, Frisbee Slider said:

Milwaukee hasn’t seemed to blow up the roster due to Individual performance issues in recent years. I doubt 25% of the roster is dismissed or demoted with how well the season has gone.

Well, I think we can mostly agree that Perkins, Rengifo, Woodford, Coleman, Zastrysny and Sproat probably all won’t make the playoff roster. That’s about 25% as of today.

Maybe one from the group does. Sproat could start putting it together or Zastrysny could end up having a great season. But I’d say 5 out of 6 probably don’t and there’s maybe 1 more dark horse that I didn’t list. (Like who would have thought a year ago that Rhys Hoskins wouldn’t make the playoff roster).

[Jopal78]

I think any of those players “could” be jettisoned or sent down based on their contract status.

However, why would they get rid of Gary Sanchez? Given Contreras’s proclivity to play almost every day, Sanchez sees very little playing time. Yet with sporadic playing time el Gary has a 113 OPS+. He’s also one of the few bats on the club with the potential to go deep at any time. 
 

 

[Trail]

2 hours ago, adambr2 said:

Playoff roster building is a little different and sometimes the last spot or two is a niche PR type or defensive type role. So I think Hamilton is pretty safe. Perkins, no way, just doesn’t offer enough. Same with Rengifo. He probably won’t even last that long on the roster.

Ortiz has been their ride or die at SS for 2 and a half seasons now so I don’t see that changing unless they make a deadline move for a SS or unless Pratt comes up and rakes with the same defense.

With Sanchez, they need a backup catcher, so barring a trade for one, I don’t see enough difference between Sanchez and Quero to pull the trigger.

Pitching staff is where it gets interesting and a lot of these guys at the bottom will be upgraded especially in the playoffs where you can afford deeper benches with more days off.

Of the current 26, I’d say Chourio, Yelich, Turang, Contreras, Miz, Harrison, Megill, Uribe, Ashby, and Patrick are locks, with Vaughn, Bauers, Ortiz, Frelick, Hamilton, Mitchell, Lockridge, Sanchez, Anderson, Henderson, Hall and Drohan all looking like the high side of likely to varying degrees. Good chance one or more of the 22 names above will be traded, injured to end the season, or drop off enough to lose consideration, so this is all just early speculation.

If it held, it leaves only 4 spots for some combination of Woodruff, Priester, Sproat, Lara, Pratt and Jett — and the rest guys that we have yet to acquire. 

Its not really about the playoffs, but I think at some point this year you HAVE TO bring up Quero.  If memory serves, Contreras is under team control through '27...so to get maximum value you probably have to trade him this winter.  Before you do that you'd better know what you have in Quero.  Sanchez has good leadership qualities and has playoff experience, but he's nothing special offensively or defensively.  

[LouisEly]

39 minutes ago, Frisbee Slider said:

Milwaukee hasn’t seemed to blow up the roster due to Individual performance issues in recent years. I doubt 25% of the roster is dismissed or demoted with how well the season has gone.

This.  I think the biggest reason MKE has been outperforming expectations/projections is because of team chemistry.  They've made it a point of bringing in guys that aren't going to be a negative clubhouse presence and who are complementary to their core pieces. 

They're in first place with the 5th most wins in baseball.  They're not likely to change 25% of their roster.

I could see them bringing in a 3B and maybe a SP depending on what happens with Woody/Priester/Henderson health-wise.  Getting Woody/Henderson/Koenig back can push Patrick back to the pen, Sproat back to AAA, and DFA Woodford, and then the bullpen is set.  Getting Lockridge back will likely replace Perkins.  Then it's just finding a 3B and maybe a SP/innings eater. 

You can have one Ortiz in your lineup; it's having Ortiz, Rengifo, and Perkins that hurts.

 

[cragi]

56 minutes ago, Frisbee Slider said:

Milwaukee hasn’t seemed to blow up the roster due to Individual performance issues in recent years. I doubt 25% of the roster is dismissed or demoted with how well the season has gone.

I dont think we've had a roster quite this "feast or famine" before. last year, it was a bunch of pretty good pitchers and pretty good hitters. this year its great/poor hitters and great/poor pitchers. I would expect moves.

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

25 minutes ago, cragi said:

I dont think we've had a roster quite this "feast or famine" before. last year, it was a bunch of pretty good pitchers and pretty good hitters. this year its great/poor hitters and great/poor pitchers. I would expect moves.

This is how I feel as well.   The 2025 squad seemed to be generally a group of 26 guys who were all hustling/contributing, and each week it was "next man up".   Right now, we have a number of guys who have a negative WAR on the season.  I can't imagine that was the case for the 2025 Brewers.

Based on the realities of our market, we likely will never have a ton of 5 WAR players  (Miz, Harrison, and pre-slump Turang maybe excluded), but for the Brewers to be successful we need to keep getting that extra 0.5 or 1.0 WAR per position.

 

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

1 hour ago, Jopal78 said:

However, why would they get rid of Gary Sanchez? Given Contreras’s proclivity to play almost every day, Sanchez sees very little playing time. Yet with sporadic playing time el Gary has a 113 OPS+. He’s also one of the few bats on the club with the potential to go deep at any time. 

Sanchez had an OPS of .400 in May... and really has not done anything in roughly 60-70 abs since mid-April.  I get he's only the backup catcher...

That said, I just realized his AB went from 55 in April (when he started out hot) to 33 in May (when he majorly cooled off), so it looks like Murphy has adjusted his playing time considerably.

That said, our bench is pretty terrible....  Perkins, Hamilton/Rengifo, Sanchez.... woof.   Ideally, we have both Bauers and Vaughn on the field together (especially versus Lefties), but aside from Vaughn (against Lefties) and Bauers, our bench really doesn't have much.

 

[TwinsBrewersWorldSeries]

37 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

You can have one Ortiz in your lineup; it's having Ortiz, Rengifo, and Perkins that hurts.

And a struggling Frelick, a Vaughn that can't hit righties, Sanchez (who hasn't hit since mid-April), and Hamilton who can't hit much but is making a difference with his  baserunning

[wiguy94]

Gary Sanchez has a 120 wRC+ and pitchers have a 3.40 ERA when he's catching. I'm not sure why there's any talk of getting him off the roster. He's a power over hit guy who is going to be streaky. He was streaky hot to start the year and has been streaky cold since. It will break the other way again at some point.

[DonBarclay]

9 minutes ago, wiguy94 said:

Gary Sanchez has a 120 wRC+ and pitchers have a 3.40 ERA when he's catching. I'm not sure why there's any talk of getting him off the roster. He's a power over hit guy who is going to be streaky. He was streaky hot to start the year and has been streaky cold since. It will break the other way again at some point.

Exactly. If anyone said before the season started that on June 1 Sanchez would have a 113 OPS+, .2 WAR, and 5 HR - you’d take that all day. On pace for a 15 HR season as a backup C/DH/PH. He’s going to be streaky, but it’s probably better than Quero being wasted as a backup C. He’d have half the ABs because he’s not a DH candidate. No sense in having Quero up to start once a week (maximum). Gary is fine, and is producing exactly what they probably hoped to get out of him. 

[LouisEly]

47 minutes ago, TwinsBrewersWorldSeries said:

And a struggling Frelick, a Vaughn that can't hit righties, Sanchez (who hasn't hit since mid-April), and Hamilton who can't hit much but is making a difference with his  baserunning

Find one team that has had every single player do well every single month.

The Dodgers have Betts struggling, Tucker and Smith well below career averages, Kim was sent to the minors, and they have a backup IF with 47 PAs and a .570 OPS.

[liveforoctober]

2 hours ago, Trail said:

Its not really about the playoffs, but I think at some point this year you HAVE TO bring up Quero.  If memory serves, Contreras is under team control through '27...so to get maximum value you probably have to trade him this winter.  Before you do that you'd better know what you have in Quero.  Sanchez has good leadership qualities and has playoff experience, but he's nothing special offensively or defensively.  

I'm a value guy through and through. I think trading ahead of decline or at peak value is how we have to operate for the most part BUT I do not think that is the case with Contreras. He feels like a Yadi to me in terms of his importance to the pitching staff. I would like him here as long as it makes financial sense.

I could be wrong and I'm not saying we should be dishing out a 9 figure contract to him... maybe he even leans into QO territory. Who knows. I just think he should be handled differently than most other positions. I know we will have to lose him sooner rather than later - but I'm low key nervous of what life after Contreras looks like from a pitching/game handling scenario.

[Lathund]

I think Contreras is someone like Adames that they keep and offer the QO (If an extension isn't looking feasible). Gives you a year of Quero learning in the majors, more time for Dinges and others to get closer to the majors. More than Peralta, Burnes, Hader, Williams, I think Contreras is the kind of player where another year + comp pick outweighs the return of trading him a year early. Should still listen to offers in case some team gets really desperate, as always, but one year of Contreras at $14.5m has a lot of surplus value. In and of itself, but also for the Brewers in particular.