Brewers’ October Offense Will Hinge on Brice Turang's Hunt for Redemption

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Despite having an exceptional year, the Milwaukee Brewers are in a very familiar position. After finishing with the best record in baseball a year ago, they once again find themselves atop the league, with a 99-59 record and just four games left to play. They have one of the best 1-2 rotation punches in baseball (Jacob Misiorowski and Logan Henderson); a potent lineup; and an elite bullpen. No one player will make or break their postseason, but the closer the NLDS gets, the more one player stands out as disproportionately important. That player is Brice Turang.

After Milwaukee used their first-round pick on Turang in the 2018 MLB Draft, he’s turned into one of the many homegrown studs on this roster. After breaking out offensively in 2025, he's taken things a step further this season. He’s slashing .265/.365/.444, and if he can pick up one more stolen base this week, he’ll record the first 20/20 season of his career.

Naturally, the Brewers hope and expect that Turang will be a weapon when the NLDS rolls around, but everyone is also aware that it's not that simple. Milwaukee sneaked past the Chicago Cubs in five games in last year’s NLDS. Their lineup lit up Cubs pitching at key moments, putting crooked numbers on the Cubs like haymakers until the challengers hit the mat. Turang, however, did not shine. He went 3-for-20 in that series, including eight strikeouts. Two of those three hits went for extra bases, but you need more than that from a lineup anchor if you’re going to make a deep postseason run. The NLCS was a reset for him—a fresh chance to make good. He did not.

Instead, Turang went 1-for-15 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, with six of those 15 outs coming via strikeout. Across both series, Turang went 4-for-35 with two runs scored, three RBIs, two walks and 14 punchouts. He was the poster boy for the team's offensive ineptitude in their season-ending parade of losses to Los Angeles.

That performance is still relevant now. Firstly, it highlights just how streaky Turang can be. In 2025, his month-by-month batting average splits were all over the place. He hit .317 in March and April, followed by .207 in May, .333 in June, .209 in July, .343 in August and .294 in September before an abysmal October.

This year has been similar. Turang hit .291 in March and April, .231 in May, .252 in June, .309 in July, .175 in August and now .364 in September. That last number is obviously a major positive for the Brewers. Turang is red-hot right now, and when he’s seeing the ball well, he can be one of the most dangerous hitters in this lineup.

But there’s a problem. There will be five off days between the end of the regular season and the start of the NLDS, and that means Turang will have to find a way to carry this momentum into October. We saw what happened last year.

Moreover, unlike last year, there's a major yellow flag in Turang’s performance data this season. His 25.2% strikeout rate ranks in the bottom quarter of the league. As good as he’s been this month, he’s striking out in 26% of his plate appearances in September. That’s completely fine if he’s doing damage when he makes contact, but that becomes a lot tougher to do when you’re facing the best pitching in baseball. Milwaukee is going to see some of the best arms in the league once the postseason begins. The margin for error gets smaller, and the opportunities to take advantage of mistakes become fewer.

None of this is to say Turang is destined to fail come October. In fact, the opposite could very much be true. When he’s on, which he certainly is right now, he’s capable of carrying this lineup for stretches. That doesn’t need to be a three-run homer, either. He can beat you in several different ways. As for concerns about quality of competition underlying raw production, Baseball Prospectus's DRC+ bakes that in via its modeling of players' expected contribution, and by its reckoning, Turang has been clearly better this year (114, where 100 is average and higher is better) than last year (109).

The playoffs aren't a crapshoot, but functionally, they feel like one for those of us who can only watch them unfold. Turang is the player whose dice-roll feels like it has the most riding on it this fall. The Brewers need the best version of him. It's impossible to know whether they'll get it or not, for another week or so.