long ball

I agree. I think the more valid question is “should the brewers acquire a SP” and to that question I think the answer is yes. They’re not going to all of a sudden go pay market rate for a free agent SP. we haven’t done that since Melvin was GM. if they sign a FA SP it’s going to be someone looking for a job at the end of the off season who will sign for less because they’re desperate. Likely, they’ll look to build SP depth much like they did last year, through trade. one caveat being Woodruff. If he wants to pitch, the brewers probably bring him back (at a significantly reduced salary).

There really aren’t a lot of good options on the free agent market after Bauers and Ty France. A report over the weekend indicated France could sign before the lockout and if he does, that probably means it won’t be with the Brewers. He’d be nice because he is a better defender than Bauers/Vaughn, you don’t need to platoon him, and he’s likely going to be cheaper than Bauers. Downside, he probably still requires a multi year deal and I don’t think the Brewers would do that. so that moves us to Lowe. He’s a better option than Josh Bell or Dominic Smith, but if that’s the route… I hope one of our first base prospects is ready to help the brewers at some point in 2027.

I’d disagree that we gave up a lot for Zerpa. Mears and Isaac Collins were two spare parts who weren’t in their future plans. but the case to non-tender Zerpa is he’s projected for $1.3m, we might get half a season from him at best, even before the injury his track record is pretty meh. I can understand the argument either way, that’s why I said I thought it was 50/50

I like this. This is basically how I hope it plays out too. Who they get back for Ortiz and Vaughn aren’t that important, but the roles they’re getting back is what I agree with. I could do with or without a veteran reliever like Senzatela. Just hard to roster a guy like that all year curious what you want to do with Zerpa? I’m 50/50 on whether they should tender him a contract. I’m not confident they’d want to spend over a million on him for a partial season. What’s your back up plan if Bauers declines the QO?

I’m one of those who mentioned a made extension. I don’t think the brewers will do anything notable before the lock out either way. Just the stuff they have to do like resolve the Bauers QO, tender/non tender decisions, and rule 5 protection. id clarify for my own list specifically though, that I don’t care whether a made extension happens before opening day or not. If it happens along the same time line as Pratt/Lara that’s fine with me too, but a pre-debut extension is what I’m asking for (or a Konnor griffin style deal where he’s extended shortly after his debut)

1) Resolve first base. Maybe it’s as simple at Bauers accepting the QO. If he declines, the situation gets more interesting. I’m personally fine with transitioning to Vaughn and a lefty complement, but Bauers was our best hitter last year. Losing him would be a big loss. I don’t think I’d advocate for a multi year deal with Bauers though. 2) I think we need to add a starter or 2. I kinda think there’s a non-zero chance Sproat gets Tobias Myers’d. If he does, we definitely need 2 starters. I wouldn’t go so far as to say we need to add a guy who can start playoff games though. Maybe it’s a veteran starter in the Brett Anderson or Jose Quintana mold. Or maybe it’s an undervalued minor leaguer like Drohan. Or maybe a former prospect whose star has faded like Harrison. I know we have 9 SP on the 40 man already, but who knows what you’ll get from Priester and Gordon/Crow are more depth guys to me. And if they want to try Ashby, hall, or Patrick back in the rotation then it’s shifting the hole to the pen. This might involve trading guys off the big league roster like Ortiz or Mitchell, 3) extend Made. It won’t be cheap, but I’d just love to have him locked it. I know he will basically be on the same time frame for team control as Chourio, but it would be nice to have him stretched out a little longer (assuming no change in the 6 full years of service time to reach free agency) I’ll just mention it, I’m not interested in extending Contreras, but I also don’t want them to trade him. Let 2027 play out and be ok with losing him in free agency

Reasonable idea. Mariners are pretty locked in at their 3 infield spots though. Unless they want to move one of those infielders to a corner OF spot I don’t know if Ortiz would be in their radar. now that they’ve dumped Castillo, do they still need to offload SP?

I really hope Yelich can turn out something like a 2025 George Springer age 35 monster season. Rack up a 3.5-4 WAR season and he has a shot at 50 career WAR. I think he’s a decent veterans committee HoF candidate, but unlikely to get their by the BBWAA. as for retiring his number, I think it should be. I appreciate that it’s much easier to make the playoffs than it was during the 80s due to playoff expansion, but he’s the pivotal member of this era of Brewers baseball. Heck he’s spanned 2 separate eras of brewers baseball really. I’m not passionate about this, but it would be a shame to not honor this WS team with a retired number. (Maybe Chourio Turang or Misiorowski get there, but their careers are so young)

I think both could be trade candidates, and I think you framed it appropriately. I’d argue we are in a better position in 2027 to cover for trading Mitchell and/or Ortiz than we were in a position to cover for Durbin in 2026. Offensively, I’m not too worried about covering for Ortiz if they decide to trade him. Even if he’s a roughly league average hitter, we could see something similar as soon as Made is promoted. They just need to cover third base for a month or two while that all works itself out. Ultimately Ortiz and Hamilton (and Jett Williams) are likely bench players in the near future for this team. So those 3 may be interchangeable as far as the roster construction goes. Jett may be the ideal bench piece since he’s already proven he can play infield and outfield (however we just to figure out if he can actually hit). I am however slightly concerned with trading Mitchell. Obviously I know about his injury history and that’s certainly a relevant factor, but I think it will be harder to cover his offense if they decide to trade him. It would take a fair amount of faith in a rebound season from Frelick and offensive development from Lara. I’d hope for both, but it leaves you thin there offensively in 2027 especially if your two main back up plans are Lockridge and Jett. if Bauers doesn’t return for 2027, I am concerned with how they’ll fill that hole offensively. He was our best hitter and it would be a huge loss so taking hits elsewhere in the line up offensively is harder to stomach than if Bauers is retained. ultimately the brewers have some flexibility here. They’re good enough that they’re highly likely to make the playoffs even if it takes a few months for them to round into form (much like it was in 25 and 26). I think in my ideal world, Bauers is retained (preferably on the QO, but we will see about that soon enough). That makes the rest of the line up construction a little more flexible.

I listened to this earlier. Really glowing remarks about the brewers culture. in the corporate world, culture is often viewed as very important. Corporations bring in high priced consultants to help cure bad culture. it only stands to reason that culture is an important element not only in the dugout and clubhouse, but also in the front office and non-baseball operations as well.

If the Brewers don’t deviate too far from their standard team building strategy, I think the only way Bauers in a Brewer in 2027 is if he accepts the QO and that’s probably the right decision. I understand the logic on both sides when it comes to predicting if he will accept the QO. Selfishly, I hope he does accept the QO. I think he should be seeking a multi year deal though. Luckily for the Brewers, he has to make a decision quickly. If he declines, we as fans can probably move on to other ideas at first base for 2027.

The only potential role I see for Black on the 2027 team is if they do not re-sign bauers, and they want a placeholder lefty bat the share time with Vaughn for the first couple months of the year until they decide to promote either Burke or Fischer. realistically though, I’m with you. He’s barely hit at AAA. Propped up by a good walk rate. Has no real defensive home. He’s now out of options. He might not last the offseason on the 40 man roster.

I agree with the overall sentiment of the piece. The Brewers have a chance to remain a World Series contender (through at least 2029 which is the end of Turang’s team control and before the pitching staff starts getting really expensive). Contreras is quite the polarizing player. Trueblood wrote the piece yesterday, and posted on blue sky weeks ago, that Contreras should be extended. I tend to side with Jack on this one that I’m not interested in extending Contreras (even though there is no obvious heir apparent). either way, this team is going to get expensive toward the end of the decade when these pitchers get into their arbitration years and that Chourio contract starts getting expensive around the same time. The churning of this roster will need to continue. We probably aren’t going to be major players in free agency and as long as our player development keeps doing their thing we won’t need to be.

I find it mildly interesting that most people who cover this team expect Bauers to decline the QO while many who cover the league more broadly either predicted he would not receive the QO or will accept the QO.

I was first going to scoff at Hamilton being too short for first base… but he’s the same height as Vaughn lol (not that Vaughn is a strong defender there) I don’t think Hamilton is a good enough hitter to be any part of the succession plan at first base. creative thinking, but not reasonable.