long ball

Suarez at $15m/1 year would’ve been a nice addition to this roster. We could’ve figured out how he fits in. Probably doesn’t even need to be an “either/or situation”. in a vacuum I’d say Suarez is a better player than Durbin in 2026. However, teams don’t operate in a vacuum. They constantly have to weigh talent, payroll, development, and club house fit. How Suarez fits into the defense isn’t a simple answer. DRS has always been down on his defense at third while FRV has been overall positive prior to 2025. No idea what the Brewers internal valuation would be on his defense, but they didn’t acquire him at the trade deadline when he went for a relatively low trade package. I think you could argue he was a more important target at the trade deadline than he was this off season. DH is occupied by Yelich and Contreras. it’s also worth noting that a $15/1 deal may not have even been an option for the Brewers. It’s possible suarez prefers the reds even if the brewers presented an equivalent offer.

I think the Reds got a pretty favorable deal there. Nice addition for them. Their line up definitely needed some help.

Ashby probably fits in this conversation for a different reason. His contract, even if he stays a reliever, is reasonable for how good he is, but the Brewers probably wont want to pay $7m+ for a reliever. 2026 $5.5 m 2027 $7.5m 2028 $9m club option 2029 $13m club option a high payroll team likely doesn’t hate spending that on a reliever as good as Ashby. Even that last club option.

Slow morning at work so I was playing around with innings pitched by our top 8 on the SP depth chart (I left Ashby, hall, and Zerpa out since I’m pretty sure they’ll be relievers). I totaled up all minor league, mlb, and mlb playoff innings. That’s the first number and the second number is their career high in innings (combined minors, majors, and mlb post season innings in a given year) woodruff: 106.2, 186.2 (2021) priester: 166, this was career high Misiorowski: 141.1, career high patrick: 171, career high gasser: 46.1, 137 (2022) sproat: 141.2, career high henderson: 103, career high crow: 50, 128 (2022) so Priester, Misiorowski, Patrick, and Sproat could probably give us a semblance of a full season if healthy. Gasser, Woody, Crow, and Henderson probably less so. So I actually feel better about potential inning restrictions than I did before looking into it. I also learned that the bulk of your starts are coming from your 6-8 guys (duh). now my main concern is basically giving away games due to having to trot out a non-competitive SP. I think we mostly did this in 2025. Even though we used 17 starters, Hall, Ashby, and Zastryzny were essentially planned openers. So that narrows it down to 14 starters and only 3 of those are what I’d last as “last resort” types. Combined they made 7 starts between Alexander, E Rodriguez, and Zimmerman. That’s pretty good if you ask me. where I’m seeing the potential issue is that our 9, 10, and 11th options last year were probably better than they are right now. Last year those 9-11 guys ended up being Civale, Cortes, and Gasser. Obviously those guys weren’t that good. Civale and Cortes were likely being counted on for much larger roles. But if we can add a veteran stabilizer (similar to Quintana last year) and maybe a rehabbing wildcard who might be ready mid season (canning, Montgomery, or Cortes) then I think I’d feel a lot better about the stability of the rotation depth. 1 injury at a time we can handle, but if we get hit with a rash of injuries like we did at times last year our depth is currently a big question mark for me. as an aside, I’d surely hope that they were willing to include Myers in the Freddy trade because they knew they would backfill the deficit it created on our SP depth chart by adding externally in a separate move.

In the brewers.com post from Mccalvy this morning Murphy was lobbying for a veteran starting pitcher. So I’m hopeful we end up with a quintana like addition this spring as well. Heyman tweeted yesterday a list of like 15 teams still eyeing starting pitching. The brewers weren’t on it, but there are still 15-20 free agent starting pitchers who are worthy of a big league deal. So there will be someone out there for us and I think they’ll be patient to find the cheapest one they think they can work with.

Of course as soon as this was published they signed a back up catcher. I’m guessing McGuire is probably a hair ahead of Quero for that job to start the year now. My only minor disagreement is i think Gasser is a slight favorite over Henderson and Sproat to land in the rotation to start the year. Gasser is older, left handed, and was trusted on the post season roster last year. He killed it in AAA while coming back from injury. I just think all else being equal I’d have Gasser in the rotation. Of course Sproat and Henderson will hopefully pitch a ton of innings for the brewers in 2026 so it’s really just splitting hairs when trying to predict the opening day roster.

Nothing particularly surprising about any of the position players. Either catcher depth or guys who could reach the bigs in 26/27. kuehner is interesting. He’s a bit on the older side since he turns 25 next month. I wonder if he’s going to be transitioned to a reliever with the potential of joining the shuttle squad at some point in 2026.

How far in the future are you wondering? Frelick and Turang are mainstays in the line up, but their last season of team control is 2029. Assuming neither is extended, how far in advance of free agency are they traded? Probably somewhere between 1-2 years. if I had to predict the 2028 opening day line up: DH Yelich C Quero and Dinges time share 1B Andrew Fischer 2B Turang SS Made 3B Peña LF Chourio CF Lara RF Frelick Durbin and Williams as super subs. (Notably absent: Joey Ortiz, Pratt, Burke, Wilken. Probably a mixture of trade, minor league depth, and failure to pan out) this is off the cuff and I am not married to this or prepared to defend it :)

Bishop Letson also gets a brief call out as a guy who just missed their top 100.

Ya it definitely feels like there are some competing priorities here for the organization if the focus on SS for Williams truly is from the Brewers and not just the player. Made is the best prospect of the group. I assume he is at AA to start the year. Ultimately no one is in his way and they’d move other players around to accommodate him. we all assume Pratt would start in AAA, but here comes Williams. Pratt is much more likely to be a factor at SS for the brewers long term, but Williams is the one who has a better chance at providing Joey Ortiz insurance in 2026. They always could move Turang to SS and play Williams at 2nd if they pull the plug on Ortiz. However, Williams might also be the Garrett Mitchell injury insurance in CF as well. So ultimately it probably makes sense to have Williams see time at SS, 2nd, and CF.

The Keith law write up on our guys seems a tad more optimistic than some. So that’s good to see. espn should have their list out soon too since Kiley McDaniel said he submitted it to the editor today. overall having 5-7 guys rank in the various top 100 is pretty promising and probably 4-5 of those guys will see time with the brewers this year.

lol ya… kinda like that Francisco Cordero trade. It was like we were trying to field half a roster from 1 transaction. overbay and capuano turned out to be decent contributors (I’m going off of memory so if they actually stunk in hindsight I’m sorry). Moeller, Spivey, Counsell all pretty much stunk for us. Maybe if De La Rosa didnt get traded he could’ve worked out for us too, but our pitching development wasn’t all that great at the time.

With the number of veteran free agents out there I’d be surprised if we didn’t add at least one of these guys. signing a guy coming off of injury makes some sense, Montgomery, canning, or even Cortes. These guys are unlikely to be ready at the start of the year but would likely be ready at some point during the year and we could insert them into the rotation after they’ve ramped up and there is a need. Probably something with a club option for a second year. otherwise, Quintan- or Fedde on the cheap make sense. If we have a little extra in the budget maybe Littell or Nick Martinez. it would be kinda cool to sign Verlander. He wasn’t so bad last year and the guy wants to accumulate wins. If he doesn’t care about how much his contract is… we could probably offer 150 innings and a chance to win 10 games. I think it’s an extreme long shot for him to get to 300 wins since he’s 43 and hasn’t won double digits since 2023. He’s 34 away.

That Sexson trade basically brought us our whole starting line up from the d backs. I think we got like 6-7 guys.

I don’t think the Brewers should be immune to criticism and i think it’s even a reasonable take to say they shouldn’t have traded Freddy, but if you’re looking for a nuanced take I don’t think you’ll find it at outkick.

I think there’s a very high probability of Contreras being traded next off season. as far as speculating on trade partners and trade return it’s too early for me to speculate given a number of factors.

Pretty easy to agree Woodruff, Priester, and Misiorowski are rotation locks while they are healthy. I think beyond that I’d rank this as my hierarchy: 4) Patrick (I know he impressed out of the pen but he’s close to a rotation lock for me) gap 5) Gasser (only lefty and that’s why I lean toward Gasser having the leg up going into spring training) 6) Henderson 7) Sproat gap 8) Crow 9) Hall/Ashby/Zerpa (these are relievers to me, but stretch them out by all means I you desire ) 10) Carlos Rodriguez (last option on the 40 man as of today… really just an option as a spot starter or bullpen shuttle squad)

On the BF pod last week when Jack and Spencer were discussing a theoretical Mets trade package, Spencer said it looks like Williams could stick at short stop. Take that for what it’s worth. In my opinion, ultimately I think it’s only super duper relevant that he could play SS in 2026 or possibly 2027 for the brewers if needed. Since we all hope Made or Pratt is our long term future at SS I’m not that concerned if he doesn’t stick at SS beyond 2027. CF is also an immediate and long term question mark so if he ends up in CF that wouldn’t be a bad consolation prize.

I’m disappointed that they ended up trading Freddy, but I’m not surprised. I like Myers more than many, but Murphy lost trust in him and I’m not sure he was ever going to fit back into a prominent role on this team so including him in the trade also makes sense. I think both the players we got and their fit make a lot of sense. Sproat probably is 6th or 7th on the rotation depth chart today, but I’m sure he will pitch plenty of innings for us in 2026. even though Williams probably isn’t going to start the season in the bigs, once you’re at aaa you could make your debut any day. With his positional flexibility to play CF or SS he could get the call at either position in the event of another Mitchell injury or Ortiz continuing to be lost at the plate. I do think they should add a veteran starter to add a little stability and to eat some innings. My guess is it would be someone for $8m or less. overall I think it was a reasonable trade.

I mean any minor league deal is probably fine, but not much out there on the free agent market that warrants a major league deal as far as the bench goes. we are a bit thin at SS, but I kinda figure if Ortiz is out for an extended period of time it would be either Mona or Turang to play there. M Seigler and Eddys Leonard are probably first guys up if/when there is a need. But if we get later in the season, then Pratt and Wilken may be options. I guess I’m not all that worried about our depth on the infield at this point.

Maybe, but a lot of those guys have options. We see every year the Brewers start the year with some random guys who stick around for a bit before they hit the curb. Last year it was Payamps, Elvin Rodriguez, and Anderson (maybe some other guys I’m forgetting too) This might be a better plan. He’s unlikely to be ready for the start of the season and they can do a realllllly slow ramp up and insert him onto the roster when he’s healthy and they’re a a need.

I know it’s not real exciting, but I wonder if Erik Fedde might be brought back. Maybe on a minor league deal if he can’t find a major league deal. I know the peripherals were not great, but he did end up pitching some important innings for us down the stretch. tough seeing him last a full season on the big league roster though.

Hector Gomez does have some ties in the Dominican Republic baseball circles. I’m not sure how that really helps him with trade rumors though there are definitely some guys from the dodgers who are interesting, but if they aren’t trading us andy pages I just assume do business with another team if we insist on trading Freddy. They’re direct competition for winning the pennant and are possibly the only NL team who is already clearly better than we are

The dodgers do feel like a bit of a runaway train

Unless it’s a split deal or minor league deal I’m not sure I agree they should be adding a catcher. Quero probably isn’t good enough to manipulate the service time. Murphy has lauded his ability to manage a game which to me is enough to get him onto the big league roster at this point. this is probably the last year with Contreras so let’s get quero as much experience in the bigs to see if he could be the primary catcher in 2027. developing Quero is also an excuse to get Contreras more DH appearances. I don’t need to see Yelich facing many lefty starters at this point.