Brewers Clearing House: Colin Rea Put On Waivers, Owen Miller Traded, Wade Miley & Gary Sanchez Options Declined

The allure of any winter is seeing what new faces will wear Brewer blue on the next Opening Day. To do so, room has to be made for these new faces, often done through trades and declining and club or mutual options. 

The biggest recent move made was to place Colin Rea on waivers. He had a $5.5 million team option for 2025 with a $1 million buyout, an affordable contract for a starter who has thrown nearly 300 innings over the past two seasons for the club. This decision may have been driven by the 8.31 ERA he had in the final month of the season, a performance that was poor enough to omit him from the postseason roster entirely. Despite his imperfections, Rea filled a crucial role for the team with the litany of starting pitcher injuries that devastated the Brewers’ rotation. Unfortunately, it seems that the return of big arms like Brandon Woodruff and a potential acquisition of another starter has pushed him out of the picture.

The team’s decision to pass on Wade Miley’s mutual option was a similar yet less surprising move. Mutual options are rarely exercised because if a player has played poorly and is incentivized to exercise their end of the deal, teams are rarely as enthusiastic. On the other hand, if players have exceeded their mutual option value, front offices are more than willing to keep them around, but the player would likely want to seek more value in the open market. Miley fit the first case, pitching just seven innings in 2024 before being sidelined by injury. He would have cost the team an exorbitant $12 million against a $1.5 million buyout, a price tag far too hefty for a pitcher with a K/9 of 5.7 and FIP of 4.80 over his tenure with the team.

Gary Sánchez also had his $11 million mutual option turned down in exchange for a $4 million buyout. He had some great moments with the Brewers, but with an OPS+ of 93 over 280 plate appearances and the offensive surge of Eric Haase, there wasn’t much of a reason to keep him around. He was also unremarkable defensively and spent most of the season as a designated hitter, which makes his case even less compelling. 

Finally, Milwaukee traded Owen Miller to the Rockies for cash considerations. He had been an interesting plug-and-play utility guy over the past two years but couldn’t hit well at the major league level. His bat was serviceable during his two seasons with the Nashville Sounds, slashing .278/.350/.411 over 497 plate appearances, but he could never carry that success forward. With Rhys Hoskins picking up his player option and the other parts of the infield showing great upside, Miller’s hopes of finding long-term playing time with the Brewers were slim to none.

So what’s next? The biggest roster gap seems to be the rotation, especially with two of their starters all but gone and Frankie Montas’s $20 million mutual option likely to get declined. Brandon Woodruff will be back next year, and Freddy Peralta’s $8 million club option was exercised, but the team would still need one or two arms at the back of the rotation, especially if Woodruff needs time to ramp back up. Acquisition-wise, much of this depends on whether the front office will make a concerted effort to retain Willy Adames in his free agency. If they decide to make a big offer to keep him around, payroll for the rest of the team will have to adjust accordingly. If not, they have more budget bandwidth to spend on whatever they’d like, probably a new shortstop or third baseman if Joey Ortiz returns to his old position. 

It’s still extremely early, so don’t expect any signing activity to occur in a few weeks. Speculation and rumors will fill the winter air like the smell of eggnog and baked cookies, but it would be surprising if any major deals are actually finalized before December. For now, sit back and enjoy the big market teams fighting over the future of Juan Soto and other marquee names Milwaukee will say they can't afford.