Brewers Have to Sign or Exchange Arbitration Figures with Six Players Today

We’ve come to that point in the offseason at which teams must set their arbitration figures for players who qualify. For those who are unaware, arbitration is a way for players to get a modest, scheduled raise, while still being affordable for the organization with club control. Players are arbitration-eligible after three years of MLB service time. There are ways to get arbitration a year earlier via the Super Two designation, but the majority of players have to accrue the three years.

If the player and the team can’t come to an agreement on a contract by a certain deadline, both sides will have to submit a salary figure and will be scheduled to an arbitration hearing at some point prior to Opening Day. If it comes to that, a panel of three arbitrators will make the final decision and choose one of the submitted proposals for the player's salary for the season. This year, the deadline for pre-exchange of figures deals to avoid arbitration comes at noon Central time Thursday. If no deal is struck by then, the sides must submit figures by 7 PM.

The most recent example of this was Corbin Burnes last season, when the Brewers won the hearing, locking in a $10.01-million salary for their ace instead of the $10.75-million proposal Burnes requested. This may have backfired, though, as Burnes was so frustrated by what was said about him in the hearing that he vented to the media when he got back to spring camp in Arizona.

If the Brewers want to avoid having another arbitration hearing this season, they will have to make a flurry of deals today. There are seven players who are arbitration-eligible this season, but the team already settled on a one-year deal with Hoby Milner. Let’s take a look at the other half-dozen candidates and how much they are projected to make this season (per MLB Trade Rumors), from least to most expensive.

Bryse Wilson (3.036 years) $1.3 million
Once a fourth-round pick in the 2016 MLB draft, right-handed pitcher Bryse Wilson made his debut with the Atlanta Braves in August 2018. The pitcher was originally stretched out to be a starter for the club, pitching five innings of shutout baseball in his major-league debut.

After a few years of struggling in the rotation with the Braves, Wilson was packaged with prospect Rickey DeVito in a trade to acquire Pittsburgh Pirates setup man/closer Richard Rodriguez at the 2021 trade deadline. He made 28 starts for the Pirates with a 4-13 record, striking out less than 6 batters per nine innings.

With a career 5.54 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP after the 2022 season, the Pirates designated Wilson for assignment in late December. The Brewers traded for the pitcher in exchange for cash on Jan. 4, 2023.

The Brewers never used Wilson as a starter. Instead, he made 53 appearances out of the bullpen. His entire career was turned around, having a 6-0 record with a 2.58 ERA, a 167 ERA+, and a 1.07 WHIP. Barring a trade, Wilson should be seeing plenty of time in the bullpen for the Brewers this season, hoping to repeat his success in 2023.

At 26, Wilson is entering his first year of arbitration, expected to make somewhere near $1.3 million. That almost doubles his $732,600 salary from last season, and is decent pay for a middle-relief arm. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Brewers gave him more than projected, as he played a key role for the bullpen. He also doesn’t have any minor-league options left, but he won’t need them if he replicates his last season. His price tag is low enough, too, to make it relatively easy to swallow waiving him if he's unable to recapture last year's magic.

Joel Payamps (3.027 years) $1.7 million
Payamps seemed like a small addition in the William Contreras trade, but over the course of 2023, he became the setup man for closer Devin Williams. Prior to his 2023 season, Payamps never spent an entire season with a major-league team. Unless you count his four appearances across two seasons with the Arizona Diamondbacks, he has bounced around from team to team since 2021.

Payamps was claimed by the Boston Red Sox, then hot-potato'd between Boston and the Toronto Blue Jays a couple of times before settling down in Toronto. After pitching in 22 games with a 2.70 ERA, he was traded to the Kansas City Royals for cash. He spent the remainder of the 2021 season there.

In 2022, he spent a good chunk of the season with the Royals before being designated for assignment and claimed by the Oakland Athletics in August. But now we are back to the present day, where the Brewers needed to find an eighth-inning pitcher after trading Josh Hader and installing Williams as the new closer. With a 3.34 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP entering the 2023 season, Payamps didn’t seem like a bad option.

He promptly became yet another Brewers pitcher with a career year. His 2.55 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 27 holds and 9.8 strikeouts per nine innings were all his best. Payamps is set to make a projected $1.7 million in his first year of arbitration. If he continues to be the setup man, his pay (like Williams's) will start to climb at a faster rate.

Jake Bauers (3.084 years) $1.7 million
One of the biggest weaknesses on the Brewers roster last season was at first base. A .231/.292/.389 team slash line at the position made it clear that a change had to be made to make some sort of improvement. The Brewers decided to add Bauers in a low-level trade with the New York Yankees, and non-tendered Rowdy Tellez.

Although he hasn’t played for the Brewers yet, Bauers is entering his first year of arbitration. His numbers don’t exactly jump off a page, but he hasn’t played in American Family Field yet, so anything can happen.

Over the last six years, Bauers played in the majors with four different teams. The Yankees tried to change his swing over the 2022 season while he was part of their minor league system. After a hot start in Triple A in 2023, Bauers was added to the 40-man roster on Apr. 29. His success didn’t sustain itself in MLB, as his .202/.279/.413 wasn’t really stellar. However, his slugging percentage was the best he’s had in a stint at the highest level.

If the Brewers can get him even halfway from those numbers to the .304/.488/.797 line he put up in Triple A last season, they'll have their replacement at first. He’s out of minor-league options, though, and is set to make $1.7 million or so. It wouldn’t surprise me if he signed for the projected value, or even less, rather than go as far as exchanging figures.

Devin Williams (4.056 years) $6.5 million
Now we are on to the heavy hitters. The 2020 Rookie of the Year was drafted 54th overall in the 2013 MLB Draft, electing to sign with the team rather than go to college. After going through Tommy John surgery and participating in the 2019 All-Star Futures Game, Williams was called up in August and made his major-league debut. During the shortened 2020 season, he earned Reliever of the Year honors in the NL, with a 0.33 ERA, 0.63 WHIP and 17.7 strikeouts per nine innings. He received votes for both the Cy Young Award and MVP.

After a few years as the setup man, Williams took over the closer role when the Brewers traded Hader to the Padres. He had a few bumps in the road toward the end of the 2022 season, but he has not missed a step ever since.

Entering the 2024 season, Williams is in the same situation as Hader was in when the Crew traded him. However, Hader’s salary was almost two times more than what Williams is projected to make this year. At $6.5 million, it is decent pay for a closer of his caliber. Once he is a free agent after the 2025 season, he’ll be one of the highest-paid relievers in the league. The Crew will probably strike a deal by the Thursday deadline, but it remains to be seen if they plan to keep the pitcher beyond the 2024 season.

Willy Adames (5.105 years): $12.4 million
After the Brewers traded Orlando Arcia to the Braves in 2021, they were expecting to ride with what they had in the infield. After a month with a combo of Keston Hiura, Pablo Reyes and Jace Peterson working the infield, though, the team traded for Adames (along with Trevor Richards) in exchange for J.P. Feyereisen and Drew Rasmussen.

Adames, who was an international signing in 2012, was one of the three players who were acquired by the Tampa Bay Rays in the David Price trade in 2014. The shortstop was a steady hitter for the Rays, hitting a respectable .254/.320/.420 with 43 home runs in three-plus years with the team.

Before he was traded to the Brewers, he was hitting .197/.254/.371 in 2021. Adames had an immediate impact on the team, hitting 20 home runs with an .886 OPS and a 137 OPS+ for the balance of the campaign. In the span of a few months, Adames became a fan favorite, and has earned his role at short. His impact was so big, he even received a few MVP votes.

In 2022, Adames led all of shortstops in the National League with 31 home runs. Although his batting average has been declining over the last two seasons, he has been seeing the ball a bit better, increasing his walk rate to 11.1 percent in 2023.

Adames is now in his final year of club control and is expected to get roughly $12.4 million through arbitration this season. If the Brewers want to keep morale high, they should come to a deal by noon. If this has to go to an arbitration hearing, there’s a chance it could result in the same outcome as Burnes’s case last season. Speaking of which, we have one last player to talk about.

Corbin Burnes (5.049 years): $15.1 million
Well, here we are again. Burnes is now in his final year of arbitration and the last year the Brewers can keep him before he goes into free agency.

Burnes was another home-grown talent in the Brewers organization. Drafted in the fourth round of the 2016 draft, Burnes made his debut in 2018. He was utilized as a sixth- or seventh-inning pitcher, depending on how available Hader was. He stretched back out as a starter in 2019, but that was when he and the Crew tried a set of adjustments that utterly backfired. His career was sidetracked, but the sides worked together to ensure it wasn't derailed.

In 2020, he found his new, cutter-centric arsenal and his groove, with a 4-1 record and a 1.72 ERA in nine starts. Since then, Burnes has been a part of the Cy Young Award conversation every year. He won the award back in 2021.

I can go on forever about Burnes's accolades and why he deserves the money that is getting paid to him, but it would all be things that you’ve heard before. He’s expected to make $15.1 million this season. There was only the faintest hope of an extension before last year's hearing. After it, there was none. There is a good chance the sides could go to another one this year. However, coming to an agreement may be the best for both Burnes and the Brewers organization. The team is still listening to trade offers for the burly righty, too, so last year's victory in the hearing (which set the salary for 2023 and creates the platform for 2024) was important, and the salary (or the range set by the exchange of figures) he gets for this season will be, too.

Over the last couple of years, fans like me believed the Crew had the potential to keep one of Woodruff, Adames, or Burnes. However, with Woodruff gone and now these two on their final year of arbitration, there is a good chance the team will lose all three. The best person to get a small extension is Adames but we will have to wait and see.

By the end of the week the team will still be on a projected $95-100 million payroll. Whether the Brewers are willing to add more is a mystery, but it is expected that all these arbitration-eligible players will play a key role for the Brewers this season. Do you think the Brewers sign all these players by the deadline? Will there be an arbitration hearing for one of them? Let us know.