What is the Milwaukee Brewers' Best Offensive Lineup for October?

[Harold Hutchison]

Image courtesy of Michael McLoone-Imagn Images

The Brewers have one of the best defenses in the major leagues. Their run-prevention unit has given them chances to win as consistently as that of any other team. But teams don’t win purely by stopping the other team from scoring; they need to score runs.

Milwaukee’s offense tends to run hot and cold. The team banks on its elite defense and strong pitching to push through to win every night. What would a lineup that maximized Milwaukee’s offense look like? Let’s go position by position.

Catcher: William Contreras
Contreras struggled for a bit after the All-Star break, but he's since heated up and delivered big for the team. Even after his slump, he could still match his 2025 totals. In fact, his batting average this season is higher than it was when he was playing through a finger injury. Contreras is the team’s best choice on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball. He has two Silver Slugger awards, two top-20 MVP finishes, and two All-Star Game appearances to prove it, but it's also a choice made easy by the lack of an appealing alternative. And in this particular exercise...

First Base: Gary Sánchez
What? No Jake Bauers or Andrew Vaughn? Well, this is about assembling the most potent offensive lineup, and the cold corner isn't the place where either of the team's regulars provide the most relative offensive punch, adjusted for the position. Sánchez therefore gets the call at first base, where he filled in when Vaughn and Jackson Chourio were both out with hand injuries earlier this season. He's perhaps the team’s most potent threat in terms of home runs per at-bat, and the Crew may need that sudden jolt against the Dodgers in the playoffs.

Second Base: Brice Turang
Turang, like Contreras, is the best choice for both offense and defense at his position. Like Contreras, he’s become a complete ballplayer, after initially being seen as simply a solid starter whose main tools were speed and defense. Since the start of the 2025 season, Turang has become arguably the team’s most well-rounded offensive threat.

Shortstop: Cooper Pratt
Pratt is much like Turang was when he came up. There are no doubts about his defense or speed. However, he always had a higher offensive floor. Indeed, in his rookie season, he’s delivered an 88 OPS+, compared to Turang’s 61 in his rookie campaign in 2023. He’s also got some serious power potential.

Third Base: Andrew Vaughn
Vaughn’s made some occasional appearances at third base this season, but also saw some action at the hot corner during his first few years with the Chicago White Sox. He’s not likely to win a Gold Glove there, but in 13 games and six starts, he’s been competent, and it gets a 134 OPS+ bat into the lineup.

Left Field: Jake Bauers
Bauers has arguably been the team’s MVP this season, leading the Crew in home runs, RBIs and extra-base hits. In this case, where he isn’t an offensive liability, we can account a little bit for his defense. Thus, he will be in left field.

Center Field: Garrett Mitchell
Mitchell has shown what he can do when he’s healthy, posting career highs in many offensive categories. He’s also quite good defensively, and no liability in center field. The power and speed will help Milwaukee extend lineups; he's the kind of presence that increases the frequency of both single tallies and crooked numbers.

Right Field: Jackson Chourio
Chourio is seen as the Brewers’ franchise player of the 2020s, and he’s actually improved in some key stats from his first two seasons (OBP in particular), even if the counting stats are down due to his fractured hand taking him to the injured list for the first portion of the 2026 season. Lately, he's been as indispensable as any bat other than Bauers.

Designated Hitter: Christian Yelich
Yes, he’s having arguably the worst year of his career, but Yelich is still arguably the team’s best option at DH. The big reason: He’s posting an .806 OPS with runners on base, and like Contreras, he’s turned things around a bit in recent games (.800 OPS from August 16-22). He remains the heart and soul of this Brewers team.

Overview
Some of these decisions might seem out of the box, but none of these starters are entirely incompetent defensively at these positions. In addition, if the team needs to boost their defense to protect a lead, the option is always there to bring Joey Ortiz, David Hamilton, Sal Frelick or Luis Lara in. Milwaukee can field a devastating offense if it wants to. It's unlikely we'd ever see this exact configuration, no matter what, because there are context questions that have to define what a "best offensive lineup" looks like. Against lefties, Vaughn and Sánchez have to be on the field to say the best lineup is present. Against righties, it's much easier to make a case for Ortiz over Vaughn, for instance. But the thought exercise reveals the blend of depth, impact and versatility Pat Murphy has celebrated so openly, ever since spring training.

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[Snoebird]

The Brewers' offense is built around on-base success. Sanchez at the plate with runners on base is a double play waiting to happen. He would be pitched to accordingly. The Brewers shouldn't weaken their defense in hopes of getting a home run out of Sanchez. 

[Outlander]

I'm confident the Brewers don't trot out that lineup once during the playoffs.

[Team Canada]

21 minutes ago, Outlander said:

I'm confident the Brewers don't trot out that lineup once during the playoffs.

Well of course, because their goal isn't simply to maximize the offense.

[Harold Hutchison]

8 hours ago, Snoebird said:

The Brewers' offense is built around on-base success. Sanchez at the plate with runners on base is a double play waiting to happen. He would be pitched to accordingly. The Brewers shouldn't weaken their defense in hopes of getting a home run out of Sanchez. 

Every hitter comes with trade-offs. In the case of Sanchez, the power is a plus, especially given how Vaughn's hamate has been an issue - although I think it may make Vaughn far more dangerous in 2027.

[Snoebird]

3 hours ago, Harold Hutchison said:

Every hitter comes with trade-offs. In the case of Sanchez, the power is a plus, especially given how Vaughn's hamate has been an issue - although I think it may make Vaughn far more dangerous in 2027.

Too few homers to consider him worth rearranging the infield. 

[Harold Hutchison]

50 minutes ago, Snoebird said:

Too few homers to consider him worth rearranging the infield. 

But a lot of doubles this season, and he's hitting over .300 - that's nothing to sneeze at. 

[Brian]

Interview on why Murphy pulled Cooper Pratt: 

To understand how this game got away, you have to start with the worst moment of Cooper Pratt’s promising Major League career. Or rather, two moments.  One, he twice failed to execute a bunt attempt in the third inning, pulling back his bat on a 92 mph fastball down the middle for strike two before grounding into a fielder’s choice and extending a recent slump to 1 for 20 with six strikeouts and no walks.  And two, he didn’t hustle out of the batter’s box on a bloop single over first base in the fifth. This can not happen.   In one loss to the Cardinals last April you remember, he benched both Sal Frelick for missing the cutoff man and Caleb Durbin for getting picked off. And on two occasions this month alone, he’s yanked a starting pitcher (Brandon Sproat against the Pirates and Robert Gasser against the Mariners) in the middle of a batter.   “It’s for the player and the team,” Murphy said. “I love [Pratt] and I believe in the kid immensely. But he’s got to be a player who does those things. He’s not going to hit 30 homers at this point in his career. He’s a great defender and a really capable offensive player, and he can’t do that. It’s just not tolerated by anybody, and it sends a message to everybody else also. You’ve got to run.”  Pratt hit a high pop up into no-man’s land along the right-field line, where three Mets defenders converged but none caught the baseball. Pratt had paused in the batter’s box and looked up before running to first. Once he got there, he thought for a moment about second base while the baseball rattled around, but held instead.   So, instead of a bloop hit to feel good about, it marked a sudden end of his night. David Hamilton, who was still in the dark after the game about what had actually happened was sent in from the bench to pinch-run for Pratt, who wore a similarly confused look on his face as he trotted off the field. He took a seat on the bench for conversations with Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick. “They hold you accountable they said."  "Which is good" Pratt said. “I needed that.  It will never happen again.”

[Team Canada]

1 hour ago, Brian said:

Interview on why Murphy pulled Cooper Pratt: 

To understand how this game got away, you have to start with the worst moment of Cooper Pratt’s promising Major League career. Or rather, two moments.  One, he twice failed to execute a bunt attempt in the third inning, pulling back his bat on a 92 mph fastball down the middle for strike two before grounding into a fielder’s choice and extending a recent slump to 1 for 20 with six strikeouts and no walks.  And two, he didn’t hustle out of the batter’s box on a bloop single over first base in the fifth. This can not happen.   In one loss to the Cardinals last April you remember, he benched both Sal Frelick for missing the cutoff man and Caleb Durbin for getting picked off. And on two occasions this month alone, he’s yanked a starting pitcher (Brandon Sproat against the Pirates and Robert Gasser against the Mariners) in the middle of a batter.   “It’s for the player and the team,” Murphy said. “I love [Pratt] and I believe in the kid immensely. But he’s got to be a player who does those things. He’s not going to hit 30 homers at this point in his career. He’s a great defender and a really capable offensive player, and he can’t do that. It’s just not tolerated by anybody, and it sends a message to everybody else also. You’ve got to run.”  Pratt hit a high pop up into no-man’s land along the right-field line, where three Mets defenders converged but none caught the baseball. Pratt had paused in the batter’s box and looked up before running to first. Once he got there, he thought for a moment about second base while the baseball rattled around, but held instead.   So, instead of a bloop hit to feel good about, it marked a sudden end of his night. David Hamilton, who was still in the dark after the game about what had actually happened was sent in from the bench to pinch-run for Pratt, who wore a similarly confused look on his face as he trotted off the field. He took a seat on the bench for conversations with Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick. “They hold you accountable they said."  "Which is good" Pratt said. “I needed that.  It will never happen again.”

Please link to the source.

[Brian]

2 hours ago, Brian said:

Interview on why Murphy pulled Cooper Pratt: 

To understand how this game got away, you have to start with the worst moment of Cooper Pratt’s promising Major League career. Or rather, two moments.  One, he twice failed to execute a bunt attempt in the third inning, pulling back his bat on a 92 mph fastball down the middle for strike two before grounding into a fielder’s choice and extending a recent slump to 1 for 20 with six strikeouts and no walks.  And two, he didn’t hustle out of the batter’s box on a bloop single over first base in the fifth. This can not happen.   In one loss to the Cardinals last April you remember, he benched both Sal Frelick for missing the cutoff man and Caleb Durbin for getting picked off. And on two occasions this month alone, he’s yanked a starting pitcher (Brandon Sproat against the Pirates and Robert Gasser against the Mariners) in the middle of a batter.   “It’s for the player and the team,” Murphy said. “I love [Pratt] and I believe in the kid immensely. But he’s got to be a player who does those things. He’s not going to hit 30 homers at this point in his career. He’s a great defender and a really capable offensive player, and he can’t do that. It’s just not tolerated by anybody, and it sends a message to everybody else also. You’ve got to run.”  Pratt hit a high pop up into no-man’s land along the right-field line, where three Mets defenders converged but none caught the baseball. Pratt had paused in the batter’s box and looked up before running to first. Once he got there, he thought for a moment about second base while the baseball rattled around, but held instead.   So, instead of a bloop hit to feel good about, it marked a sudden end of his night. David Hamilton, who was still in the dark after the game about what had actually happened was sent in from the bench to pinch-run for Pratt, who wore a similarly confused look on his face as he trotted off the field. He took a seat on the bench for conversations with Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick. “They hold you accountable they said."  "Which is good" Pratt said. “I needed that.  It will never happen again.”

https://www.mlb.com/news/cooper-pratt-benched-in-brewers-extra-inning-loss-to-mets