sveumrules

Fingers won AL Cy Young and MVP in 1981, plus was a big part of the 1982 team before injury knocked him out down the stretch. Over his two prime level seasons with the Brewers he had 157 IP of 1.83 ERA and 7.5 rWAR. He followed that up with a decent comeback season in 1984 throwing 46 IP of 1.96 ERA and 1.6 rWAR before falling off the cliff in his final season. Hoffman only had one good year with the Brewers (54 IP of 1,83 ERA and 2.4 rWAR) before falling off the cliff.

Silver Slugger finalists were announced today and the Brewer have a few contenders... First Base Matt Olson 122 wRC+ | 41 HR | 99 R | 83 RBI Rafael Devers 136 wRC+ | 37 HR | 88 R | 98 RBI Alec Burleson 125 wRC+ | 26 HR | 89 R | 116 RBI Jake Bauers 143 wRC+ | 26 HR | 93 R | 86 RBI Second Base Brandon Lowe 121 wRC+ | 35 HR | 94 R | 96 RBI Brice Turang 127 wRC+ | 21 HR | 102 R | 100 RBI Outfield Pete Crow-Armstrong 157 wRC+ | 45 HR | 119 R | 107 RBI James Wood 142 wRC+ | 30 HR | 106 R | 77 RBI Jordan Walker 119 wRC+ | 29 HR | 97 R | 102 RBI Seiya Suzuki 134 wRC+ | 26 HR | 96 R | 86 RBI Fernando Tatis Jr 131 wRC+ | 25 HR | 96 R | 83 RBI Jackson Chourio 130 wRC+ | 25 HR | 96 R | 75 RBI Utility Sal Stewart 112 wRC+ | 32 HR | 87 R | 112 RBI Bauers 143 wRC+ | 26 HR | 93 R | 86 RBI Tatis Jr 131 wRC+ | 25 HR | 96 R | 83 RBI Team Cubs (114 wRC+ | 220 HR | 850 R) Nationals (103 wRC+ | 210 HR | 820 R) Dodgers (111 wRC+ | 204 HR | 801 R) Brewers (107 wRC+ | 154 HR | 832 R) Apparently the voters assessed the offense as pretty dang good (must not have been regular IGT readers).

Because it takes a village to build what the Brewers have built over the last decade since Stearns / Arnold arrived. Here is the link to their staff directory page from MLB.

The good, appears to have a disciplined plate approach with 71 BB to 52 K this year and 241 BB to 223 K for his career. His 1.08 BB/K ratio from 2023 to 2026 is the best in the Brewers system (Dylan O'Rae is 2nd at 0.89) and ranks 13th out of 1,044 minor leaguers with at least 1,000 PA over that time frame. The bad, struggles to throw out runners. Had a 15.4 CS% this year compared to a 20.6 CS% for the Southern League as a whole. The maybe, power. Had 18 home runs over 386 PA this year with the juiced ball versus 15 HR over 1,214 PA prior to this season.

Last year there were 88 pitchers in all of the minor leagues who threw at least 60 IP during their age 18, 19, or 20 season. The Brewers had 12 of those 88 pitchers - Manuel Rodriguez (133 IP), Jarrette Bonet (118 IP), Ethan Dorchies (113 IP), Tyler Renz (97 IP), Enderson Mercado (96 IP), Carlos Carra (96 IP), Josh Knoth (87 IP), Miqueas Mercedes (79 IP), Jayden Dubanewicz (79 IP), Diustin Mayroquin (69 IP), Hayden Robinson (63 IP), and Joey Broughton (60 IP). The most any other organization had was Pittsburgh with six. Four other teams (ARI, ATL, CIN, LAA) had five each.

Your eyes do not deceive you...85.6 FG% and 95.9 XP% in 2025 versus 83.7 FG% and 94.4 XP% so far this year.

I'd personally have Misio fourth given the rest of the NL field... Ohtani (7.4 fWAR | 6.4 bWAR) Turang (5.9 fWAR | 7.3 bWAR) Misio (7.4 rWAR | 6.6 fWAR | 6.5 bWAR) Sanchez (6.3 rWAR | 6.2 fWAR | 8.1 bWAR) De La Cruz (6.4 fWAR | 5.6 bWAR) Gabriel Moreno (5.4 fWAR | 6.7 bWAR) Bregman (5.5 fWAR | 5.8 bWAR) Pages (4.5 fWAR | 6.0 bWAR) Otto Lopez (5.9 fWAR | 6.1 bWAR) ...don't play fantasy so I rarely look at runs scored or batted in, but that Turang finished with 100 RBI has got to be one of the most incomprehensible things about this season. If someone told me at any point between 2018 and 2024 that Brice Turang would have a 100 RBI season, I probably would have sarcastically responded "sure buddy, and the Brewers are gonna win the World Series too I betcha"

We'll see how things play out but I think Bauers accepting the QO, Vaughn getting traded, Adams getting backup 1B, and Fischer / Burke starting the year in AAA for some needed seasoning would be the best possible outcome.

Raleigh signed when he was still three years from free agency. The yearly breakdown on his 6/$105M is... ($10M signing bonus) $1M | $11M | $12M | $23M (x3) | $20M vesting option ($2M buyout) The main difference is that Cal only got 3/$34M for his first three years while Contreras is already making $14.5M before the big money would start kicking in to cover what would have been his free agent years. I'd guess that Contreras and his rep want to eclipse the current $23.1M AAV record for a catcher on any extension that is signed, so something like 5/$120M minimum. If they wanted to stick with his $14.5M for this year that would be $26.375M per the last four years. Throw a $9.5M signing bonus on there with the WS windfall, keep Bill's salary at $14.5M this year, and it would be an even $24M per the last four years.

Between having the QO attached, only one good year, and the CBA uncertainty, Bauers has plenty limiting his market this year. Accept the QO, have another good year, and he’d be better positioned for a long term payday with a two year track record, no QO hanging over his head, and the labor situation sorted so teams know what parameters they’re working with.

2027 Steamer projections are out and they LOVE them some Luke Adams... 228/337/424 (114 wRC+) 10.7 BB% | 23.2 K% Only 87 players are projected for a 114 wRC+ or higher. Some other Brewers prospects of note... Blake Burke 231/292/416 (94 wRC+) 6.9 BB% | 29.5 K% Andrew Fischer 206/291/414 (93 wRC+) 9.8 BB% | 38.5 K% Josh Adamczewski 240/312/375 (92 wRC+) 8.7 BB% | 24.8 K% Jett Williams 226/306/382 (92 wRC+) 9.5 BB% | 25.6 K% Jesus Made 244/303/369 (87 wRC+) 7.2 BB% | 19.9 K% Braylon Payne 224/279/403 (86 wRC+) 6.4 BB% | 33.0 K% Matthew Wood 216/310/344 (85 wRC+) 10.9 BB% | 20.9 K% Cameron Wagoner 4.02 ERA | 4.10 FIP Tyson Hardin 4.16 ERA | 4.18 FIP **League average ERA/FIP was 4.18 in 2026**

MLBTR Top 50 Free Agents article has Bauers accepting the QO for whatever that is or isn't worth.

If any kind of cap/floor situation is agreed upon it would most likely be slow rolled over a few seasons to give teams some time to adjust.

Bauers doesn't turn 32 until October of next year, he'll be playing his age 31 season in 2027. Goldschmidt has 1,050 PA over the last three years against RHP with a 77 wRC+. He should be a short side only platoon bat at this point with 517 PA of 157 wRC+ vs LHP over that same stretch. Between the strikeouts and limited professional reps at 1B, Fischer has plenty to work on in AAA if Bauers does indeed accept the QO. If he doesn't sign a pre-debut extension and the new CBA doesn't drastically change how service time is calculated he'd likely spend some time in AAA to start the season anyway to get that extra year of team control. Pratt & Lara signed pre-debut extensions and they still let them marinate for awhile. Ward isn't as extreme as Goldy, but still does most of his damage versus southpaws (130 wRC+ vs LHP last three years compared to a 106 wRC+ vs RHP), is two years older than Bauers, and put up -8 DRS | -7 FRV in his 353 innings at 3B (with most of that coming all the way back in 2018). It'd be a pretty big risk to assume he could play competent defense as a primary 1B for a full season (especially on a team with World Series aspirations).

The QO is worth $23M this year. That is about 852% of his 2026 salary.