long ball

I don’t love the sound of that!

I have a tough time seeing the Brewers option Harrison and Perkins in favor of Henderson and Lockridge. i dont necessarily disagree with it in a vacuum, but given Perkins and Harrison have considerable big league service time at this point, they’d be on “my” opening day roster. (obligatory caveat of the opening day roster doesnt matter and all of these guys will see a lot of big league time in 2026)

Wild he’s already been retired so long. I also didn’t know he lived in mequon. I lived there as a kid.

It is kinda crazy to look back at the opening day roster last year and realize how many of those guys were a bit of a surprise to make the opening day roster. Bauers was on a minor league deal. Patrick was a surprise. Isaac Collins was a surprise. Thomas was a rule 5 guy. Then there were a host of guys we knew would make the roster, but ended up playing minimal roles on the team. Cortes, Civale, Rodriguez, Alexander, Hudson, Peguero, payamps, Capra, Dunn, and Mitchell. Hopefully we make it through the wbc/spring training healthy. The only surprises I can envision right now would be from injuries. the only pitchers on the 40 man who I’d be surprised to see on the opening day roster would be Peralta, crow, Drohan, or Rodriguez. Even guys like McGee and Yoho are intriguing enough that it would only take 1 bullpen injury for them to get the nod. McGwire (C) , Eddys Leonard (INF), Black (1B) and Lockridge (OF) are probably the first men up in case of spring training injuries.

Adamczewski is probably the lowest ranked position player prospect that I personally see as a pretty good bet to be an average or better big league starter (~2 WAR). Obviously the LF positional adjustment for WAR will mean he will have to hit a ton Lara has a nice floor of a premium 4th outfielder even if he doesn’t hit much. the group of Wilken, Burke, and Adams is interesting to have them all stacked together too. I don’t think all of them will turn into big league contributors for us, but I think there’s a pretty good chance at least one of them does.

I think the picture at third base, CF, and the bench is clearer than that rotation competition. The rotation competition is certainly fascinating with many good options. I know the depth in the rotation is very important and having so many optionable arms there is by design. I also wouldn’t want to be the manager who has to tell Gasser or Sproat or Henderson that they’re going to AAA to start the year, but I’d rather have 5 good healthy starters in AAA than run into a rash of injuries or slow ramp ups during camp.

Fans on social media/message boards complain about the Yelich contract and how it’s holding us back… You know the guy who makes about the same as Ian Happ. I can’t imagine what they’d say in the final few years of those deals you cited.

I voted for a C. kept woodruff which was a surprise. That’s probably the most positive move. the trades were more about long term roster building than they were about competing in 2026. So there are some long term positives but also some short term losses, especially with trading Freddy. coaching staff shake ups are hard to judge, but hopefully we see a bounce back for stolen bases with this group. Sammy Peralta adds an optionable bullpen shuttle guy. He’s probably further down the shuttle depth chart though. Akil Baddoo doesnt so much for me, but I understand it. gary Sánchez is a good low risk back up catcher addition that I like. Rengifo was basically necessitated by the Durbin trade. I do think he’s a slight downgrade from Durbin, but in conjunction with the Durbin trade I think it’s a net positive. im not sure what kind of roll any of the minor league signings may end up with, but we’re likely to get some value from at least one of them in 2026 overall they operated like the Brewers usually do which isn’t going to be flashy. I do like this roster better than the 2025 roster was at the end of spring last year. it is disappointing not to see them make a bigger improvement for the 2026 season coming off such a successful 2025 campaign. That’s why I’m only rating it a C.

I assume you’re adding him as a possible DFA candidate. He’s probably be next on my list too, but I like McGee. I thought he was pretty good at times. The tough thing about being the last guy in the bullpen and being added as the “fresh arm” is that he’d get abused at times. When he was only asked to go one inning he was pretty good. When they made him soak up multiple innings it didn’t go as well. I do appreciate that being a single inning guy in a shuttle/low leverage role makes you less useful. Your main job in that role is to eat innings to give the main guys a day off. I think he survives the year in the org.

I think Wallus has the right group here and loosely defined roles seem right too. to add to the Zastryzny discussion… Andrew Chafin only got a minor league deal this off season even though he had a relatively strong year in 2025. Chafin has a better track record of health and performance so I’m not sure he’d garner much trade interest even as teams deal with the attrition of spring training. What I personally see as most likely is that he will make the opening day roster if healthy. But he hasn’t stayed healthy much over his career. If he’s ineffective he’s a Dfa candidate since he’s on a minimum deal and has no options. I probably like Zastryzny more than most, but this is the life of a non-leverage reliever who is out of options. the shuttle squad basically comprises of everyone left on the 40 man roster who isn’t on the active roster. Regardless of whether they’re pitching as a starter or reliever in AAA. The quality of the arms on the 40 man right now is really good. Aside from Zastryzny, I really only see Sammy Peralta and Carlos Rodriguez as possible DFA candidates if they need space at some point this year. I think the rest are big leaguers or have high enough upside to stick around.

I think you guys all have the right guys and general order in place. We all know that this will change over the course of the year, but it’s fun to talk about so I’ll bite. Turang Chourio Yelich Contreras Frelick Vaughn Mitchell Rengifo Ortiz (I do think we will see a fair bit of Bauers in LF and Chourio in CF if Mitchell gets hurt, but I don’t think that changes the batting order construction in any meaningful way.)

Wallus, I agree with your top 5. im going to rank it in tiers to add a little more context locks: while healthy, these guys are in the rotation. woodruff (and he’s your opening day starter if he is heakthy coming out of camp) priester Misiorowski Leg up on the rest: Harrison- pedigree, amount of big league experience, and left handed. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t start the year on the roster and in the rotation. patrick- based on what he did last year and his age, I think he starts in the rotation. Even though it’s tempting to let him air it out as a high leverage reliever. next group up: I think these guys are big league starters now, but due to depth they’re probably starting in AAA as starters assuming health. I haven’t ordered these guys since it might depend on team need. I predicted in the “bold predictions” thread that 8 guys get at least 10 starts and these guys are in that group. Sproat Gasser Henderson stretched out, but they’re relievers; Murphy already kinda alluded to this, but I think these guys stretch out to a few innings but are ticketed for the Pen. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Hall and maybe others get the 1-3 inning “opener” starts from time to time: Ashby Hall Zerpa Drohan Deep depth/emergency starter: Crow Rodriguez- probably just an emergency spot starter at this point or emergency bullpen bulk guy. there are probably a few guys not on the 40 man who warrant inclusion too, but I’ll start with just these guys for now.

I’m pleasantly surprised. I was expecting Eddys Leonard and Hamilton to wind up as the 3b platoon to start the year. he’s nothing special, but it at least takes away some of the risk we took on by trading Durbin. im satisfied.

8 pitchers get at least 10 starts. Another 2 get at least 5 starts.

Brewers seem to have a “type” for their back up catcher behind Contreras. Decent enough defense with above average power. it’ll work for the 150-200 PA he gets.

I expect everyone on the 40 man to pitch important innings next year. Hall, Ashby, and Zastryzny have all dealt with injuries the last few years. I expect Drohan is likely going to stretch out in spring, but factor more into the bullpen shuttle.

So I read everything on the mlb website regarding the brewers tv, but I’m still slightly confused. I am an out of market fan (Illinois) and I’ve subscribed to mlb tv for 20ish years. 1) the $100 option- is this exclusively for in market fans? Or if I only want brewers games as an out of market fan can I buy the $100 option. 2) the $200 option- is this exclusively for in-market fans? If I as an out of market fan purchase this bundle, would I be subject to blackouts on brewers games when they’re playing the cubs and white Sox? basically my goal is to be able to watch all brewers games, even when they play the cubs and white Sox. I used to be able to watch cubs and white Sox on my cable package- but that’s more difficult has become more costly and comber some as those teams have created their own RSNs.

*Insert spider man meme of Dunn/Capra and Leonard/Hamilton* Ultimately I think we see this play out a lot like 2025. We start the season with an extremely underwhelming platoon of Eddys Leonard and David Hamilton at third base while Jett Wilkins gets “time to work on his third base defense” at AAA. Then some time in April, after Williams has had his service time manipulated…, he gets the call at third base. Sprinkle in some Brock Wilken as well at some point if he’s hitting tanks in AAA. the main issue I see is that Williams was already the main contingency plan at SS in the event that Ortiz is putting up a ops+ of 60 again. Or Mitchell gets injured and Blake Perkins is putting up an ops+ of 80 in every day work. I like the trade return we got and I agree that Durbin doesn’t have a ceiling higher than he showed in 2025. I am definitely nervous about the hole created at 3b. I’m nervous about contingency plans for SS and CF. I thought we needed an extra SP, but there were reasonable options available in free agency. Sure Harrison is hopefully a huge add for us, but it came at a cost of some stability on the offensive side of the roster. this feels like an unnecessary risk. I will mention one thing… we may be seeing an influx of rookies in 2027. Made, Quero, Fischer, Pratt, Lara, Burke, and Adams could all conceivably be pushing for an every day job in 2027. Now I don’t expect all of them to turn into big league regulars or all be plug and play instantly, but if they wanted to spread out the influx of young guys by creating a spot for Williams… that does make some sense to me.

I’m not going to lie, this thought also crossed my mind this morning. It’s crossed my mind several times over the course of the last few years. This roster construction with a bunch of swingman lefties and 5/dive righties made the thought creep in again. I’d be interested it seeing them try it, but I just don’t think it is sustainable over the course of a full season. it also doesn’t really align with the “win today” approach. if you have a 1 run lead after getting 3 from Gasser and 4 from Misiorowski … how hard is it to stay away from Megill and Uribe? I think it’s more of a strategic deployment like we saw last year a handful of times.

Aside from our own trade, there have been a bunch of minor transactions this morning. Seems like the 1-year veteran contracts are starting to roll in. Probably continue throughout the week as teams report to camp. Fedde was interesting, but I liked him more as a swing man than a true rotation option. Adding Harrison and Drohan this morning orobably makes it less likely we add a veteran arm anyway.

This is definitely surprising. I don’t know a lot about the guys we got back, but here are my take aways on each player in the trade. Durbin- almost like the Isaac Collins trade maybe? Selling high now before he reverts to a bench/utility role? I like Durbin and he played really well for us last year, but i also don’t think he has a very high ceiling. Arm strength will prevent him from being an elite defender and I’m not sure there’s a lot of improvement we can look for in the offensive profile. So if he’s a 3 win player at his ceiling, but likely to revert to a bench role for us in the next year or so then I understand selling now. Monasterio- he’s a solid enough utility player. But batting right handed was maybe a small roster tweak they wanted to address with their utility infielder. Seigler- ya I won’t say I’m upset that the Seigler experiment has ended. harrison- well he fits right into that group of Patrick, Henderson, Sproat, and Gasser for that 4 and 5 spots in the rotation. I thought we needed one more depth piece for the rotation- likely a veteran free agent. However, I don’t think we need that anymore. May still sign a rehabbing guy like Montgomery, but I don’t think we need a low upside innings eater like Quintana at this point. Drohan- holy lefties. Kinda seems like he might ride the bullpen shuttle in 2026 and beyond. Hamilton- he’s probably your Monasterio replacement but he bats lefty. So he might be a better roster fit than Monasterio? overall: probably a good value for the Brewers. We improved our rotation depth, something I think we needed. We added another arm to the bullpen shuttle- something I think we needed. the infield alignment is hazy to me. I’m not sure I’d believe there’s another significant move out there (like adding parades). If I had to guess today… Eddys Leonard and David Hamilton platoon somewhere on the infield to start the year. Then we will see a mixture of Jett Williams and Brock Wilken start to fill those innings starting in May.

They won’t. just have to hope that over a short sample of playoff games we run into enough or we get hot as a group. power is expensive. the Brewers aren’t paying for it and haven’t developed a lot of it.

Skubal winning his arbitration hearing is rather interesting. while this is definitely a win for the players, I at least a little concerned with what it means for low payroll teams in the future. If Skenes continues on his trajectory, does that mean the pirates timeline for trading him moves up? Is there any trickle down effect to earlier years of arbitration for this caliber of player? How does it affect more modest level of players entering their final year of arbitration? does Trevor megill now ask for $12m in arbitration next year instead of like $7m? He could compare himself to $14m helsley got or the $10m pagan got in free agency. Does Vaughn ask for $15m+? ultimately, we can only hope that we develop a player like skubal in the future where monstrous arb salaries are a concern. But even your every day players, leverage bullpen arms, or rotation arms could see a big boost in their final arb year. edit: I misunderstood the cba clause that allowed Skubal to compare himself to free agent contracts. He had to have 5+ years of service AND special accomplishments. So unless Contreras, Vaughn, or Megill wins mvp or the cu young this clause won’t really apply to them.

I hope Mitchell is healthy both for his own sake and for the Brewers. He’s been good when healthy and I think he’s our preferred option in CF when healthy. isaac Collins essentially filled in for Mitchell last year once he got hurt with Chourio playing CF. I wonder what the contingency plan is for CF in 2026 if Mitchell is out for an extended period of time. More Bauers in the OF with Chourio in CF is intriguing. Lockridge could potentially be that “late bloomer” or flash in the pan minor league veteran who contributes more than expects. The beauty of Jett Williams coming back in the Freddy trade is that he could be the contingency plan for SS or the OF in case we need it. Probably the most likely and maybe boring outcome is just more Blake Perkins in CF. (FWIW I’d be fine with Perkins being the primary starter in CF if we can get some more offense out of SS and the rest of the offense performs as well as last year)

Ya I saw that teams get about 50% of what they were previously getting through the RSN on average. So this is likely a short term hit to the revenue which stinks for a team who is already in the bottom third in terms of player payroll.