long ball

So passan reported that the Mets are open to moving Senga, Nimmo, and McNeil. I was going to write a long winded post about how McNeil would be an interesting trade target if the Brewers are willing to move Turang to SS full time and the Mets were willing to cover a fair bit of the money he’s due… then I saw he had surgery for thoracic Outlet syndrome and now I’m no longer interested.

Is it really 9-10? This is how I see it in the rotation when healthy: (4 guys) freddy, woody, Misiorowski, and Priester Other rotation options (3 guys) henderson, Patrick, and gasser Guys who might just be relievers? (3 guys) Ashby, Myers, and hall deep depth/spot start only (2 guys) Crow and CRod so to me it’s more 7-8 guys. (Myers is the 8th guy for me right now). This is good depth and I really like our options. It’s not so deep that I want to trade away from it though. I totally understand the rationale for trading Freddy if they decide to do it, but I think our rotation depth might be a tad overstated.

That Naylor contract isn’t that bad, but I think we see why the Brewers don’t play in the free agent market. locking into a 5 year deal with a good, but not great, hitter at a non-premium defensive position is just begging to have an upset fanbase in 3 years when you’re paying a 1 WAR first baseman $40m over the next 2 seasons. (This is a comment on how we would react, not necessarily how Ms fans will react)

Given they’re all on the older side already, I don’t see a ton of improvement and we may have seen their best seasons already. Everyone else has basically nailed my opinion on Collins. I don’t have much to add here. Patrick was really good in 2025 and I think he showed that his floor is probably an excellent reliever. Durbin is the most interesting guy to me to speculate on. He relies so much on soft contact and HBP that his results could fluctuate quite a bit while still being essentially the same player. I maybe he could increase his walk rate a few points along to what he did in the minors, that could raise his floor if some of the hits/hbp disappear.

Ya the only reason to non-tender him is if they just want to cut costs at that position. There are no free agents who will sign for that much or less who are likely to be better than Vaughn. Worth to roll of the dice, imo. i also don’t think we have anyone internally to capably fill the role either.

That’s not really true. Teams may not use their catcher as a PH, but Contreras has been used as a DH a ton when he’s not the starting catcher. 2023: 108 starts at C, 29 DH 2024: 119 starts at C, 35 DH 2025: 128 starts at C, 22 DH

I’m ready to see him at the MLB level. Hes 23 and only has 1 minor league option heading into 2026 so you may as well see what you have in him. (Of note, I was surprised somewhat to see Dinges is only 1 year younger than Quero). I wouldn’t be surprised to see them try to pull off a split majors/minors deal with a veteran catcher like they did with Haase a couple years back id like to see Quero catch 30-35% of games (Contreras caught 80% of games last season so this is admittedly a big change). By comparison, Contreras caught 60 mlb games as a 24 year old with Atlanta in 2022 before becoming our primary starter in 2023. Now I understand Contreras probably had a more advanced bat at that point than Quero does now, but it doesn’t seem to have had any lasting affects on his ability to develop defensively with the brewers. I think we are at the point where we should back off Yelich more than we did in 2025 with the hope he’s fresher down the stretch and in the playoffs. He’s also at the point where I don’t need him in the line up against lefties. Opening up more DH opportunities for Contreras. I really like Contreras, but if I’m blueprinting his future with the Brewers it’s going to end with a trade next off season and hopefully Quero is the next man up.

Definitely an interesting idea. I don’t follow our prospects as closely as I have in the last, but Id want to keep Made and Peña at minimum. the high upside of Buxton is intriguing. He probably becomes our best player immediately. The contract is palatable. The contract also runs concurrently with the Yelich deal and ends after the 2028 season. But Turang and Frelick would also be down to 1 year of control at that point and potentially moving on from all 4 of those guys at the same time would be quite the transition. A transition made a lot harder since we would’ve been trading some of our biggest prospects for Buxton in the first place. I’d guess this is just fun forum chatter rather than a real possibility.

Chourio and Frelick- obvious every day starters. Would be ideal if one of them could transition to CF full time, but I’d be hesitant to count on that. mitchell- I’d suspect he has minimal trade value, he has options, and his arb projection is barely above the minimum. When he’s heathy, he’s probably our best current option in CF, but I wouldn’t count on anything more than that right now so we will need to plan for his injuries. Collins- I’d prefer he gets developed into a true utility man who can play corner outfield, 3b, and 2b as needed. The switch hitting ability and the walk rate give him a high floor and roster flexibility. I would not want to count on him as a 400+ PA player though. He has options. perkins- I’d probably be ready to move on from him if he is super 2 eligible, but he’s probably the only guy we currently have who could go play CF the majority of the time when Mitchell inevitably gets hurt. That alone probably makes him the 5th outfielder-he does have options as well. yelich- he’s a DH. I wouldn’t count on him playing anymore OF than he did in 2025. lockridge- perfectly fine minor league depth. Can fill in at all 3 spots and has 2 options left. now I think this leaves us in a spot to be selective. If we run into a situation like the Grandal, Moustakas, or Quintana situation where a guy we like goes late into the off season and can be signed to a 1 year deal, we have the space and flexibility to add an outfielder. Grisham maybe takes a pillow contract? Yastrzemski, Refsnyder, Kepler, Lane Thomas- all on the older side and maybe a 1 year deal with a lower price point. Tough to know who will linger on the market at this point. Maybe Andujar?

Ok at first glance I was thinking no, but now I’m more “probably no, but it depends” Pros: age 32-36 seasons is on the old side but not on the realllllly old side. The actual contract value isn’t bad or too high for our payroll. He’s probably our best hitter for at least the next couple of years. He’s apparently available and it’s not common for guys with this amount of “affordable” team control to be available. Potential complications: we’d have to be comfortable moving Turang to SS for at least 2026 and possibly beyond. Then when Made is ready we’d have to be comfortable moving Marte to another position (probably corner infield or corner outfield). I’m operating under the assumption that Made will be on the Chourio trajectory and be here at some point in 2027. Obviously we’ve all seen the rumors of Marte being a malcontent and or distraction. We’ve heard repeatedly that the Brewers have a “no ******** policy” and I think it’s unrated how important it is to bring in guys who fit the culture. I obviously have no idea what Marte is like and if he’s a good teammate, but the Brewers would have to be sure he will fit their culture before committing to the contract and trade capital it will require. cons: this is a bit of a shift from the brewers recent approach. It potentially complicates their goal of long term success by trading away controllable players and locking in a high salary on the roster for the next 5 years.

Woodruff has always been my favorite of that crop of pitchers who debuted at about the same time (burnes, Peralta, and Hader the others) if I were running the team and felt pretty food about his shoulder situation, I’d extend the qualifying offer. if the brewers feel good enough about his shoulder to offer the qualifying offer that probably means woodruff declines it. If he declines the QO, I’m guessing he finds a new team in free agency. I don’t think the brewers are in a position to offer a free agent a multi year contract. (I’m not assuming payroll will go up at any point- not arguing for or against raising the payroll, just finally accepting the reality ever since the RSN fiasco).

Made is probably the only guy for me. Turang probably going to be in line for a large deal and I don’t think it’ll be with us. I like Contreras but I have no interest in paying for his 30s. frelick just isn’t a skillset I’d want to extend. (Cloud throw Durbin under this camp too). we have seen them extend Freddy and Ashby in the past so it is possible theyd sign one of these pre arb guys to an extension, but probably not going to happen with Misiorowski. Feels like the type of talent who will go year to year till free agency. Patrick is 27 and gasser is 26 so they probably aren’t candidates. Priester just turned 25 and has 5 years of control left… he might be a guy who would be interested in an extension just due to bouncing around 3 orgs already. My fear with Priester is that we might already at his ceiling so I’m not sure he’s the guy you’d want to commit to past his team control I don’t think they’ll extend a reliever.

i think Coleman crow will be added to the 40 man, but I’d be somewhat surprised if anyone else is. I actually would be shocked to see them cut ties with McGee. He has 1 more option left and we need some shuttle squad guys.

Not to pile on more, but I agree with the other posters. If he signs a 1 year deal with a team that doesnt end up contending, maybe he would make sense as a mid season acquisition. I don’t think we can roster him for a full season though.

We will probably see a handful of these moves to add fringy guys who still have an option. Need to replenish the shuttle squad a little bit.

Did anyone read the New York Post article about Devin Williams the other day? I’m not a subscriber so I couldnt read it, but Heyman alluded to Williams being a difficult personality in his tweet teaser. I think this thread already brings up enough reasons why he probably isn’t a fit for this roster. I’ll share another that hasn’t been posted yet. we need some roster flexibility. We have 3 long stretches without an off day next year. if our core pen is Megill, Ashby, Hall, Koenig, and Uribe. That leaves 3 spots. we already have Anderson, Mears, and Zastryzny who are out of options. Some or all of these guys might get moved this off season as is. I’m guessing only 1 of these guys lasts to opening day. we also have the pre-arb starters who don’t end up in the rotation but might be too good to stash in aaa. Probably at least 2 of Gasser, Henderson, Patrick, and Myers. I think they’ll need to keep at least that 8th bullpen spot fluid through the season for the aaa shuttle squad. by adding Williams (or really any other reliever who can’t be optioned) that really puts us in a roster crunch given the way we use our pitchers.

I gave my thoughts on Freddy in the other thread so I won’t repeat it, but I’d like to keep him. so I’ll tier my rotation like this veteran lock 1) Freddy young guy locks 2) Priester 3) Misiorowski young guys to battle it out ranked in order of current preference 4) Henderson 5) patrick 6) gasser 7) myers guys I think should be in the bullpen and I don’t really think they should stretch them out 8) Ashby 9) Hall Probably added to the 40 man this winter 10) Crow woodruff: If they can work something out with him I’d be happy to have him back. if both Freddy and Woody are back, they might not need to sign a veteran. If 1 or both are gone then we probably need to bring in a veteran. Tough to pin point who that will be because it’s probably similar to a Quintana situation where it would happen late in the off season.

I’m with you for the reasons you stated. Imagine how excited we would be to sign a guy as good as Freddy for $8m (almost impossible). One other thing would be if we traded Freddy, were left with only one SP who has a full year of service time under his belt. While I’m as excited as the next fan for the young crop of starters we have, the rotation needs some veteran stability. Even if we have Freddy on the roster, we probably want another veteran similar to a Quintana or a Fedde to help take up some innings. outside of the purely baseball/payroll purposes, I just like Freddy. He’s a personality I want to root for on my favorite team. It’s fun to root for guys like Freddy on your favorite team. Now I liked having Burnes, Hader, and Williams on the team because they were all very good- they weren’t as loveable as Freddy (personal opinion here). So I hope they take the Adames route with Peralta and if he finds a home elsewhere during free agency I will live with it.

I was wondering if the brewers would go with Sal in CF when we faced taillon, but to get bauers bay in the line up rather than Collins. I’m guessing this is a hint that Priester is the bulk guy tonight. Can afford to have worse OF defense with him on the mound.

I got all my worrying out of my system during the off day. Brewers are going to beat the dodgers and head to the World Series !

For as good as Ashby was during the regular season, possibly our best reliever, he makes me nervous. This probably isn’t fair, but he didn’t perform well last year in the playoffs and his only good outing during the nlds was with a sizable lead. I really hope he turns it around tonight.

They may need to play this series slightly more straightforward when it comes to the starter/bulk pitcher. Only the 2 travel days as off days. 3 games in 3 days in LA. we will need more from Priester both in quality and quantity of innings. quintana may or may not start, but we will need probably at least 1 game where he goes 3-4 innings. I do think there’s a decent chance we go back to a 13 man pitching staff. Remove gasser and Lockridge and add back Hall and Myers. If Henderson is available maybe he gets a shot. I still think most bulk/starters only go 3-4 innings and the rest is pieced together by the rest of the staff.

I’m all in with Peralta pitching tonight. I think it’s the correct call both for this series and if we advance to the NLCS. we can always bullpen game 5 if needed (which id guess they’ll do). Pushing it off to game 5 allows additional rest days for guys like Misiorowski, Quintana, and Priester who may all figure into that bullpen game if needed. i was confident going into this series. I actually thought the brewers would sweep them. We had a chance, but I think the brewers will finish it off tonight.

I find it very interesting to see lockridge starting in CF. I know Perkins is better against lefties, but it’s just interesting to see them trust Lockridge enough to start him in the playoffs. I have liked what I’ve seen from him as far as being able to put together a competitive at bat. I’m less impressed with his defense in CF. Might see some shuffling as we get into their bullpen.

I’m on the play Chourio in left train. Priester is pitching- hopefully he gives us 4-5 IP. Probably not many fly balls for him out there while Priester is in the game. if we have a lead, Lockridge defensive sub late In other news… needing to go back to work after my lunch break is going to be a daunting task. I won’t be able to focus on much of anything.