The Brewers can't compete with big markets when it comes to paying players. If a guy wants $300 million or $30 million a year, it's not going to happen. It could be half those amounts and the Brewers are going to be outbid.
The only level playing ground the Brewers can operate on is management and organizational hires, and that's probably not going to be the case much longer either. Milwaukee just happens to have a really, really good home grown guy who may be willing to spend his career in the town, and all it will take is paying the going rate. This shouldn't be any kind of hard decision.