5 Position Players Milwaukee Brewers Should Consider Selling

The Brewers have heated up and are closing in on the Cubs at the top of the National League Central. But even in the midst of a playoff chase in 2025, should the Brewers look for chances to bolster the team for the long haul? We’ve looked at starting pitchers and prospects the team should consider selling. Now, let’s look at the position player group on the 40-man roster and see whom the Brewers should consider dealing.

UT/DH Tyler Black
.083/.250/.167 at Triple-A Nashville
.387/.513/.613 at Rookie-Level ACL Brewers
Black was a one-time top-100 prospect, showing speed, excellent plate discipline and very good bat-to-ball skills. After a breakout 2023 season, he seemed poised to be a candidate to handle the hot corner for the Crew, making his debut alongside Jackson Chourio. While he made his debut, he ended up making multiple trips on the Milwaukee-Nashville shuttle.

The 2025 season saw him injure his hamate, and even though he is back on the field, that injury has sapped his power. Now, he’s decidedly behind Caleb Durbin at the hot corner, with Brock Wilken, Luke Adams, and Mike Boeve all at Double-A Biloxi making their cases. Adams and Boeve made MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 list at third base. At first base, he’s behind Ernesto Martinez and Andrew Vaughn (not to mention Jake Bauers and Rhys Hoskins). The outfield remains crowded, as always.

SS Joey Ortiz
.214/.272/.294 in Milwaukee
Ortiz is arguably the hottest Brewer right now, so why put him on the block? He put up decent numbers in 2024 after being acquired in the Corbin Burnes trade, but had an atrocious slump in 2025. He is under club control through 2029, and cheap through 2026. So why put him on the market?

Two words: Cooper Pratt. The way Pratt is hitting in Double-A Biloxi, it’s hard not to imagine him catching a plane to Nashville soon, and equally hard to not envision him being a contender at shortstop for the Crew in 2026. So, the Brewers may want to try to move Ortiz now, before he swings back to being ice-cold at the plate; he could still fetch a decent return. The catch, of course, is that they can't deal Ortiz unless they also acquire a solid infielder on a short-term deal before the deadline. It's unlikely they'll risk creating a need for themselves just to capitalize on an opportunity to acquire farm depth, especially when the main impetus for doing so might be a player not yet even in Triple A.

1B Jake Bauers
.230/.339/.430 in Milwaukee
0-0, 3.60 ERA in 5.0 IP in Milwaukee
Bauers has been a decent platoon option for Rhys Hoskins and is a capable corner outfielder in a pinch. He's done what the team needs him to do, up to and including soaking up the odd inning in a blowout to preserve the pitching staff. Why, then, would they trade him?

In this case, it’s to make way for what could be the next Brewers platoon at the cold corner: Andrew Vaughn and Ernesto Martinez. Bauers could net the Crew a lottery ticket or two, similar to the Adam Lind trade after the 2015 season. The package Lind fetched in that deal included some guy named Freddy Peralta.

1B Andrew Vaughn
.189/.218.314 with the Chicago White Sox
.211/.328/.315 with Triple-A Charlotte (White Sox)
.290/.371/.613 with Triple-A Nashville (Milwaukee)
Could Vaughn perform well as part of a platoon with Ernesto Martinez? That’s a distinct possibility. Might it be better to instead see what he might fetch in a trade? Maybe so. Vaughn was acquired after Aaron Civale demanded a trade, at a moment when the White Sox were eager to get their former first-round pick a change of scenery, too.

On one hand, Vaughn would certainly be a decent complement to Martinez at first base. Such platoons have worked well before (see Eric Thames and Jesús Aguilar in 2017-2018). But on the other hand, perhaps the Brewers might decide to allow Christian Yelich to play the cold corner next year. Certainly, for the balance of 2025, Hoskins stands in the way of Vaughn and leaves the team without an urgent need at first.

Like Bauers, Vaughn won’t bring home a massive package, but it could be another way to re-enact the Lind trade. If Vaughn's stellar numbers (not just the results, but an average exit velocity up about 3 mph and a whiff rate that's down, relative to his time with the White Sox's Triple-A affiliate) catch the eye of any needier teams throughout the league, this could be a very quick transition from buying low to selling high.

OF Garrett Mitchell
.206/.286/.294 in Milwaukee
.000/.000/.000 with Rookie-League ACL Brewers
.556/.636/.556 with Triple-A Nashville
Mitchell is a superb player when he is on the field, averaging 4.1 Wins Above Replacement per 162 games, per Baseball Reference. The problem is keeping him on the field: Over his major-league career, spanning 2022 to the present, he’s played only 141 games total, for 3.6 career Wins Above Replacement.

Mitchell is arbitration-eligible after 2025, and the Brewers may be selling low—but if he’s missing most of the last three seasons, is he really that irreplaceable? He may not net much at all, but clearing a roster spot and gaining clarity on who will (and who won't) be part of their future in the outfield would have a little bit of value.

Which position players do you think the Brewers should try to move? Let us know in the comments below!