Jack Stern

Image courtesy of © Katie Stratman-Imagn Images It was easy to see that the Brewers valued Brandon Lockridge’s speed and defense the moment they acquired him at the 2025 trade deadline. The 28-year-old’s sprint speed of 30.1 feet per second ranked seventh among all baserunners, and he has accrued 5 Defensive Runs Saved in just 394 ⅔ career big-league innings in the outfield. That profile fit in nicely with Milwaukee’s existing team identity. Lockridge’s approach has been geared toward maximizing the havoc he can wreak on the bases rather than hitting for power. In 196 games across the 2023 and 2024 minor-league seasons, he reached base at a .396 clip and stole 86 bases while hitting just five home runs. That offensive profile has yet to translate into success in the majors, where Lockridge has hit .226/.268/.308 for a 62 wRC+ in 160 plate appearances, but his defensive value has kept him slightly above replacement level in 79 games. Like Blake Perkins, Lockridge doesn’t need to do much offensively to be a productive fourth outfielder. However, the Brewers are high on him to an extent that suggests they see more potential in his bat. They acquired him for veteran starter Nestor Cortes in a deal that also saw them pay down the remainder of Cortes’s salary. Milwaukee also shipped Isaac Collins to Kansas City last week, a move that opens up more playing time for Lockridge next season. A fifth-round pick of the New York Yankees in 2018, Lockridge was scouted during his early prospect days as a power-speed threat who regularly pulled the ball in the air. He popped a combined 39 home runs over his first three full years in the system. Serious swing-and-miss issues stalled Lockridge’s progression, though, with a 68.5% contact rate and 26.9% strikeout rate holding him to a .230/.300/.379 line (90 wRC+) in Double-A in 2022. By 2025, Lockridge’s contact rate improved to 80.6% in Triple-A, but the home runs have evaporated because he’s stopped pulling balls in the air. His 50.1% hard-hit rate ranked in the 92nd percentile of Triple-A hitters this year, but his 8.1% pull air rate ranked in the 11th percentile. In the big leagues, Lockridge hit 36.9% of his batted balls to the opposite field, the fifth-highest rate among hitters with at least 100 plate appearances. Many hitters who typically prioritize going to the opposite field stand further back in the batter’s box. This gives them time to let the ball get deep over the plate and still make decent contact, rather than meeting the ball before their hands and barrel have a chance to work through it. Lockridge, however, doesn’t set up like a hitter with an extreme opposite-field approach. He stands a few inches closer to the pitcher in a much wider stance than most of his oppo-minded contemporaries, meaning he typically makes contact in front of the plate. The biggest reason Lockridge rarely pulls the ball in the air is not where in a pitch’s flight he makes contact; it’s his swing path. Despite making contact in front with decent tilt, Lockridge’s average attack angle of 5 degrees was only half the league average, meaning his barrel doesn’t switch to much of an upward trajectory by the time it reaches the ball. In other words, he’s often chopping at it – swinging down and leveling out, instead of swinging down to lead into a slight uppercut as his hands work through the pitch. That choppiness was immediately on display in his Brewers debut, initially in a productive fashion. He notched his first hit with a 104.4-mph grounder through the right side. VndNNndfV0ZRVkV3dEdEUT09X0JnTllVbEpRVjFFQVdRTlFBQUFIQkFCU0FGa0NWVmdBQmwxWFZBWUFWUVJWQndjRg==.mp4 He later smoked a 102.1-mph liner to right on a hanging breaking ball. VndNNndfV0ZRVkV3dEdEUT09X1Z3TlpBRkZTQUFZQUNGWUZBd0FIQ1FkV0FGaFhVRkVBVVZJQkFRWlhWQUlHVkFGUw==.mp4 That’s not a fundamentally bad swing – it can produce worm-burner and line-drive singles, just like those two hits – but it may not be the best utilization of Lockridge’s athleticism in the box. Despite posting a solid 40.5% hard-hit rate during his small sample as a Brewer, he slugged just .370 with an 86 wRC+. Lockridge may be capable of a more balanced profile, and Pat Murphy prefers the versatility of a more vertical bat path for the right hitters. He and the Brewers shouldn’t try to turn him into a power hitter – his speed is his greatest asset – but some small tweaks to get him meeting the ball at a better angle could yield a valuable payoff. View full article

Image courtesy of © Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images Every team must look ahead at all times to remain competitive. Not getting stuck in the past—or, in certain situations, the present—is especially crucial for the Brewers, who aim to compete every year in baseball’s smallest market. Shipping Isaac Collins and Nick Mears to Kansas City for left-handed reliever Ángel Zerpa was their latest forward-thinking move. It was also a reminder that the front office, like most these days, looks well beyond surface-level results when projecting a player’s future performance. The Brewers gave away more 2025 value in the trade than they brought in. Collins and Mears combined for 2.6 rWAR this season, with the former finishing fourth in National League Rookie of the Year voting. Zerpa, meanwhile, contributed just 0.3 rWAR and a 4.18 ERA (99 ERA+) out of the Royals’ bullpen. Despite their recent success, both Collins and Mears had unclear outlooks in Milwaukee. Collins overperformed his expected results based on his quality of contact, and his defense fell off badly in the second half. Mears lost a tick of velocity, leaving him without a fastball that could miss barrels and tanking his strikeout rate. The Brewers, undoubtedly aware of those trends, moved them into lesser roles down the stretch. Collins received just 10 postseason plate appearances, and Mears was omitted from their NLCS roster. Both players might still be viable big-leaguers next year. Even if his hitting regresses, Collins’s plate discipline should still get him on base often, and Mears’s slider is still lethal against right-handed batters. While other players passed the pair on Milwaukee’s depth chart, their respective strengths fit nicely on a Kansas City roster with low-floor outfielders and shaky relievers. Zerpa, meanwhile, is trending more clearly in a positive direction. Whereas Collins’s and Mears’s peripherals suggested their performance was actually slightly below average at the plate and on the mound, Zerpa’s well-above-average 3.38 SIERA and 3.36 DRA (74 DRA-) were career bests. His 117 Stuff+ tied him with new teammate Abner Uribe for 16th among qualified relievers, pointing to his greater potential to be a significant piece moving forward than the players the Brewers gave up. The best pitch in Zerpa’s arsenal is a 96.4-mph sinker. It sinks more than expected from his arm angle, which helped him post an elite 62.3% groundball rate in 2025. Switching his focus to that sinker (at the expense of a four-seamer that also had heavier action than a hitter would anticipate out of the hand, but with a deleterious effect instead of a beneficial one) has been a major change for Zerpa. Here are the inches by which his average movement has varied from the estimated "dead zone" for each flavor of heater for each of the last three years, according to Pitch Leaderboard. Pitch Four-Seamer Sinker Season Horiz. DZ Delta Vert. DZ Delta Horiz. DZ Delta Vert. DZ Delta 2023 0.6 -1.5 0.7 -0.3 2024 -0.3 -2.3 1.5 -1.2 2025 0.2 -2.3 1.8 -1.7 The Brewers like sinkers (especially deceptive ones), so their vision for Zerpa likely centers around keeping things simple and letting that power sinker do most of the work. From there, they should branch out by tweaking the rest of his arsenal to complement his best pitch better. Zerpa will always be a ground-ball pitcher first, but he has good enough stuff to run an above-average strikeout rate. Some pitch models like his slider even more than his sinker. His flat four-seamer can coax swings underneath it at the top of the zone, when set up properly. A sparingly-used changeup has shown flashes of being a decent fourth pitch. Yet, Zerpa’s whiff rate has consistently been among the lowest in baseball since his debut. Those whiffs have not shown up because Zerpa lacks deception. That’s where the Brewers come in, as perhaps the best organization to help him. Their pitching coaches preach the value of masking pitches as effectively as possible out of the hand. It’s why they emphasize throwing multiple fastball variations, and it’s why they often prefer short, tight sliders that hold the same plane as a heater over bigger curveballs. Zerpa’s slider will be a great place for them to start. It evolved into more of a slurve this year, after some mechanical tweaks impacted how he spun the ball. Zerpa threw that more vertical breaking ball more frequently toward the back foot of right-handed hitters, where it induced more rollovers. Their groundball rate against the pitch jumped from 40.1% in 2024 to 62.5% in 2025. However, that newfound movement pushed Zerpa’s breaking ball further into a liminal space when it came to deceiving hitters. It didn’t mirror his fastball out of his hand (like Mears’s or Trevor Megill’s breaking balls), nor did it have the kind of break that could miss bats regardless of tunneling (like Uribe’s or Aaron Ashby’s). Zerpa’s slider has always been easier to pick up than others at release. In the visual below, captured from a right-handed batter’s perspective, the yellow tracer (the slider) immediately separates from the rest of his arsenal. The difference is slightly less perceptible to left-handers, who have a much tougher angle against Zerpa, but it’s still there. Part of the issue is that Zerpa has a relatively wide spread of release points. Most hitters cannot reliably perceive an arm angle difference of a few degrees in real time with the naked eye, but Zerpa’s varies enough based on what kind of pitch he’s throwing that it can become an issue. Pitch Type Arm Angle Sinker 25.9° Slider 33.5° 4-Seam 30.2° Changeup 34.9° Of the 23 pitchers to throw at least 10 innings for the 2025 Brewers, 15 had less than a 3-degree difference between their average arm angle on their primary fastball and their primary breaking ball. Zerpa’s 7.6-degree difference between his sinker and slider would have been the fourth-highest. To make pitch recognition harder for hitters, Zerpa and his new coaches could shorten his slider to a harder pitch with more gyrospin, or develop a cutter as a bridge pitch and mold his breaking ball into a sweeper. The goal should be to focus on what he does best (inducing grounders) and tightening up the rest of his arsenal from there to make him a more well-rounded late-inning reliever. Even if he doesn’t take that next step, Zerpa’s solid peripherals, three years of club control, and the roster flexibility afforded by his remaining option year give him good odds of being more valuable to the Brewers than Collins and Mears would have been. After both had career years, the front office took advantage of the opportunity to cash them in for the kind of reliever they’ve turned into a bullpen weapon several times. View full article

Image courtesy of © Matt Marton-Imagn Images Quinn Priester made incredible in-season strides shortly after joining the Brewers via trade in early April. They first found success by leaning on his two best existing pitches—his sinker and slider—before working a retooled cut fastball and more curveballs into his mix. In 157 ⅓ innings, Priester posted a career-best 3.32 ERA and 82 DRA-, with an excellent 56.7% ground ball rate. Even after all that progress, there was still something missing from his arsenal by season's end: a reliable changeup. As the Brewers have emphasized mixing fastball variations, they've largely avoided throwing mediocre changeups, and Priester was no exception. He threw his changeup at a decent rate early in his career, but after joining the Brewers, he only used it sparingly for a few starts—before ditching it almost entirely. Without a slower pitch to break away from lefties, Priester attacked them with more cutters and curveballs in addition to his sinker. It created noticeable platoon splits: righties managed just a .275 xwOBA against him, but lefties posted a .317 mark. The Brewers used an opener ahead of him five times during the regular season against lineups with left-handed sluggers at the top, and his postseason usage suggested they were shielding him from those matchups with added urgency. To become a more well-rounded starter, Priester will need another weapon against opposite-handed opponents. When talking in early June about his sinker-slider pairing, pitching coach Chris Hook kept coming back to the changeup. They were still working at it on the side, he said, adding that he expected it to become a more significant factor in the future. "I think the changeup is there," Hook said. "We've got to get to a point where we can trust it and throw it in spots that it's good for him, but he's got to be on time [mechanically] to be able to do it." That point, seemingly, never arrived. For the rest of the season, Priester threw just 10 changeups. Even if his execution improves to the Brewers' liking, he would benefit from adding a little more depth to the pitch. In 2025, the average right-handed sinker and changeup differed by 7.5 mph, 3.4 inches of spin-induced vertical movement, and 9.1 inches of total vertical drop. For Priester, those figures were 5.5, 2.7, and 6.5, respectively, meaning his changeup lacked separation from his heavy sinker. Notice in the movement plot below how close the green cluster of changeups is to the orange cluster of sinkers. As someone who slightly cuts the ball at release and relies on seam effects to make it sink, Priester could be a candidate for a kick changeup, which incorporates a spiked middle finger to promote more sidespin. Another option may be a split-change, which became a weapon for Tobias Myers after he adopted it midseason. Regardless of what it takes to get there, it's clear that Priester will need more dependable offspeed stuff to close one of the remaining holes in his arsenal, and the Brewers want him to develop it. "He's showing me that he's able to do it," Hook said. "I look forward to the day that he's going to be able to incorporate the changeup as well." View full article

Image courtesy of © Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, the Brewers agreed on Thursday to sign outfielder Akil Baddoo to a major-league deal. The 27-year-old owns a career .224/.305/.369 line (87 wRC+) across parts of five seasons with the Detroit Tigers. His most successful big-league stint was his rookie campaign, in which he hit .259/.330/.436 (108 wRC+) after the Tigers selected him in the 2020 Rule 5 Draft. Swing-and-miss issues and a lack of hard contact started catching up to him after that, though, and he has since bounced on and off Detroit's roster. Baddoo spent most of 2025 with Triple-A Toledo, pairing a .385 on-base percentage with 15 home runs for a 136 wRC+. That wasn't enough to secure a more stable future in a talented Tigers' outfield, so they outrighted him off their 40-man roster in June, and he elected minor-league free agency at the end of the season. In Milwaukee, he'll join an outfield with a plethora of left-handed outfield options, including Sal Frelick, Jake Bauers, Garrett Mitchell, Tyler Black, and switch-hitters Isaac Collins, Blake Perkins, and Steward Berroa. There's some uncertainty throughout that group, but Baddoo falls into the same boat. Barring injuries or underperformance, that could be a tough roster to make out of spring training. While Baddoo's deal is reportedly a big-league contract, he does have one option year remaining. At first glance, he looks like minor-league depth with some upside, should the Brewers need to change things up on the grass during the season. Because the Brewers' 40-man roster entered Thursday at 39 players, no corresponding move is necessary to add Baddoo. The roster is now full. View full article

Image courtesy of © Benny Sieu-Imagn Images Freddy Peralta has been the most popular Brewer in trade speculation this offseason, but the New York Post’s Joel Sherman reported on Monday evening that Milwaukee has also received calls about reliever Trevor Megill, including from the New York Mets and New York Yankees. It’s best to take most rumors with a grain of salt during hot stove season, but if Megill is indeed drawing interest from multiple contenders, the Brewers should strongly consider selling high on him. Generally speaking, relievers are baseball’s most volatile players and often have short shelf lives. What worked for three to six outs at a time one season could be less effective the next. Even if their performance quality remains similar from one year to the next, their results can fluctuate more in smaller sample sizes than those of starting pitchers or position players. Given the fickle nature of the position, consistently cycling through relievers each year is typically the shrewdest way to build bullpens. Acquire them when their value is low, roster them for a few seasons when they’re at their best, and trade them away before they regress or become free agents. The Brewers have adhered to that pattern during their sustained run of competitiveness. They traded away All-Star closers Josh Hader and Devin Williams for controllable talent as they neared free agency, backfilling them with in-house arms and breakout scrap-heap pickups like Joel Payamps, Jared Koenig, Grant Anderson, and Megill himself three years ago. (To further illustrate the point, Payamps crashed and burned in 2025, after the Brewers transformed him into a reliable high-leverage arm for two seasons.) This situation is slightly different. Unlike Hader and Williams, Megill has two full seasons of club control remaining before he’ll reach free agency. The Brewers have not reached the crossroads with the 32-year-old that they did with their previous two closers. Even so, they should be motivated to move him for the right return. No one can dispute the quality of Megill’s performance with Milwaukee—a 2.88 ERA, 2.99 SIERA, 85 DRA-, and 31% strikeout rate in 128 innings are sparkling numbers—but it is fair to question whether his best work is behind him. Megill’s stuff dominates when things are clicking, but he lacks the shapes and angles to miss enough barrels when he’s not at his best. When he’s properly sequencing his 99-mph backspin fastball and hard knuckle curve, they rack up whiffs and chases. When he isn’t, that straight fastball yields plenty of hard-hit fly balls. Since 2023, batted balls against it have had an average exit velocity of 92.3 mph and an average launch angle of 18°. Even though Megill threw harder than ever in 2025, his fastball whiff rate declined for the second consecutive season. While he successfully adapted by leaning more on his curveball as the year progressed, things could get dicier if his fastball loses another bit of effectiveness for any reason. Season FB Run Value FB xwOBA FB Whiff% 2023 1 0.309 22.00% 2024 9 0.282 25.40% 2025 1 0.336 20.50% Those concerns are particularly relevant after a late-season elbow scare. A flexor strain limited Megill to 47 frames in 2025 and sidelined him for nearly all of September. He was noticeably diminished when he returned for the postseason, and while his velocity was trending in the right direction throughout October, it never quite returned to its pre-injury level. The Brewers deemed Megill fully recovered after their season ended in the NLCS. Even if his elbow is entirely healthy, though, it’s worth noting that he enters his mid-30s without having reached 50 innings in a big-league season. None of this is to say that the front office must prioritize selling Megill for any return. Given his contractual situation, they should aim higher than the two-player package they received for Williams last year. However, Megill’s star is likelier to dim than to continue brightening next season, and Abner Uribe is poised to anchor the bullpen after closing games in his absence. If a fair deal for Megill is available, the Brewers should take it. View full article

Image courtesy of © Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images For most of this season, Isaac Collins was a bona fide contender for National League Rookie of the Year. Through August, the 28-year-old hit .274/.371/.425 (126 wRC+) and tied Drake Baldwin for the most fWAR (2.5) among NL rookies. Yet, by the time October rolled around, Collins had been effectively relegated to a bench role. He received just 58 plate appearances in September, his fewest in a month since April, and started just one of Milwaukee’s nine playoff games. That was partially due to the emergence of Jake Bauers, who posted an OPS north of 1.000 in September and whose bat has always carried more upside. However, Collins’s production waned during that same stretch, as he hit just .191/.345/.319 (97 wRC+) during the regular season’s final month. He only reached base once via a walk in 10 postseason plate appearances. After the Brewers’ season ended, Pat Murphy reinforced that they saw what Collins is capable of, but would not commit to giving him a significant enough role in 2026 for him to bounce back closer to that form. “You have to get that opportunity,” Murphy said. “The key for him is going to be, does he get the opportunity to do that? If he does, I think he’ll be even better because he’s a student of the game and he’s aware of what makes him good.” Collins is a microcosm of Milwaukee’s 2026 outfield picture. It’s a deep group of athletes with the tools to be regulars but uncertain outlooks. Sal Frelick and Jackson Chourio are locked into starting roles; flanking them on the depth chart are Collins, Bauers, Garrett Mitchell, Blake Perkins, Tyler Black, Brandon Lockridge, and Steward Berroa, each of whom comes with questions. The concern surrounding Collins is the legitimacy of his breakout performance. His excellent plate discipline and swing decisions are no fluke, but his hitting ability looks less reliable. While Collins’s 122 wRC+ and .344 wOBA were third among NL rookies with at least 350 plate appearances, his 99 DRC+ and .319 xwOBA suggest he performed more like a competent hitter with batted ball luck on his side than a truly good one. His future production largely hinges on repeating a 20.4% pull air rate that helped him post better power numbers than his quality of contact would typically yield. His actual level of talent in the field is also uncertain. Collins looked like a Gold Glove candidate for much of the year, accruing a Fielding Run Value of 5 through July by using his instincts as a former infielder to get great jumps in left field. Across August and September, though, he limped to a -5 Fielding Run Value as poor routes became more detrimental to his defensive efficiency down the stretch. If Collins projects as an on-base specialist with little pop who plays unremarkable corner outfield defense, it should force the Brewers to reconfigure their outfield. Internal shuffling could mean more starts for Bauers and Mitchell, but there’s an argument to be made that the club would benefit from bringing in a right-handed outfield bat to offer more stable offense than Lockridge or the switch-hitting Berroa. Collins has three minor-league option years remaining, so the Brewers could send him to Triple-A should they decide there is no suitable role for him on the 26-man roster. It may not come to that – even if his 2025 proves mostly a fluke, he could still be useful off the bench – but they should be keeping their options open in the outfield. View full article

Image courtesy of © Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images A spring training oblique strain and a handful of underwhelming starts limited Tobias Myers's opportunities in the Brewers' starting rotation in 2025. In those starts, Myers wasn't mixing speeds much, eschewing what had been an effective changeup the year before. Rediscovering a proper offspeed offering became one of his focuses with Triple-A Nashville, and he ultimately landed on a split-change. It was a small tweak, but its impact could ripple into next season. The splitter significantly altered Myers's identity as a pitcher, and it could be his ticket to more innings in 2026. After settling on that new pitch, Myers said he expected to throw it plenty. It immediately became a weapon against hitters from either side of the plate, holding opponents to a .131 wOBA while inducing whiffs on 39.2% of swings. Myers not only made it his preferred weapon against left-handed hitters, but even used it at roughly the same rate as his cutter and slider against righties. Those shifts in usage prompted different sequencing. Myers hit his stride as a rookie once he and the Brewers established his fastball-cutter-slider triad, particularly against right-handed batters. That meant tunneling pitches to start right down the middle, with the heater staying true over the plate and the secondaries breaking low and to the glove side. Myers needed more tricks in his bag against lefties, including more elevated fastballs and cutters, but the back-foot slider was still a significant part of his approach down the stretch. By August, Myers's focus shifted to setting up a splitter that emphasized depth, tailing in the opposite direction of his slider and cutter. That meant working more on the north-south game, shifting his fastball usage further up and in to righties. Going to a mostly fastball-splitter pairing against lefties (nearly 80% of his pitches in such matchups after he debuted the latter on July 23) led Myers to zero in on the bottom of the zone with both offerings. Those new plans of attack made him a more well-rounded pitcher. In 2024, righties managed just a .275 wOBA against Myers, but lefties posted a more capable .320 mark. After he debuted the splitter in the big leagues on Jul. 23, 2025, lefties floundered to a .229 wOBA, compared to .278 for righties. His strikeout rate remained below-average at 18.5%, but he generated whiffs on 25.4% of swings, a higher rate than in his successful rookie campaign. It wasn't all sunshine and roses, as righties did more damage against Myers's fastball in that time, particularly in the inner third of the zone. That may necessitate returning to his former sequences in some of those matchups, even if it means limiting his usage of a highly successful splitter. Even if his 2025 season did not transpire as he may have preferred, Myers took advantage of the opportunity it afforded him to mature as a pitcher. He arguably profiles better as a starter now than he did a year ago, though it may be tough for him to crack a deep Milwaukee rotation—particularly if the club retains Freddy Peralta. In any case, Myers's contributions next season might be closer to his rookie year than his sophomore campaign. The split-change is a difference-maker for the late-blooming righty. View full article

Image courtesy of © Mark Hoffman-USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images The payment breakdown of Major League Baseball's 2025 pre-arbitration bonus pool became public on Tuesday. Eligible Brewers players received a combined $4,742,392 in bonuses, making Milwaukee the first club with at least 10 recipients in a season since the pool's implementation in 2022. Here are the players and their earnings, as reported by the Associated Press. Brice Turang ($1,155,884) Caleb Durbin ($707,139) Isaac Collins ($631,766) Sal Frelick ($507,232) Jackson Chourio ($414,477) Quinn Priester ($307,705) Chad Patrick ($305,643) Abner Uribe ($271,917) Aaron Ashby ($228,384) Joey Ortiz ($212,245) For many of those names, that's a solid chunk of change compared to their base salaries. Turang led the way with a bonus that was 149% of his 2025 salary, after a season in which he posted a career-best 124 wRC+ and started to transmute his raw power into in-game results. Durbin and Collins about doubled their earnings after emerging as legitimate Rookie of the Year candidates in their first full big-league seasons. Priester and Patrick, who stabilized the rotation at times throughout the year, added about 40% of their league-minimum salaries. MLB introduced the pre-arbitration bonus pool as part of the 2022-2026 collective bargaining agreement to reward players for producing early in their careers. It's meant to ameliorate the tension created by the fact that when young stars first reach the majors, they have virtually no earning power. Every team pays into a $50-million pool, which is then distributed to all players who are not yet eligible for arbitration—including those (like Chourio and Ashby) who signed extensions. Award-based bonuses are bestowed based on a player's finish in MVP, Cy Young, Rookie of the Year, or All-MLB Team voting. The remaining funds are awarded using a WAR-based formula. Most of this year's Milwaukee recipients will be eligible for more bonuses next year. Only Turang is arbitration-eligible in 2026, due to his Super Two status. Jacob Misiorowski, Logan Henderson, and Robert Gasser are among the candidates for added earnings a year from now, depending on how much they contribute next season. For now, the length of this list underscores the depth of Milwaukee's corps of players under long-term team and cost control, and the combination of these payments and their forthcoming playoff shares should make the clubhouse a happier place come spring training. View full article

Image courtesy of © Mark Hoffman / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images With nearly the entire roster that won a franchise-record 97 games in the regular season still under club control for 2026, the Brewers need not pursue much turnover this winter. If there’s any area that could use reshuffling, it’s a portion of the bullpen. In an era where many bullpens are tasked with covering more than 40% of a team’s regular-season innings with a 13-pitcher limit, front offices need the flexibility to shuttle a handful of relievers between Triple-A and the big leagues throughout the season to pace workloads. The current makeup of the Brewers’ projected 2026 relief corps leaves little room to do so. Six of Milwaukee’s best eight relievers will carry at least one minor-league option into next season, but four of them – Abner Uribe, Trevor Megill, Jared Koenig, and Aaron Ashby – are valuable high-leverage arms who must remain on the roster if healthy. In practicality, that leaves Grant Anderson and DL Hall as the Brewers’ lone optionable arms, and even those two boast unique strengths that could keep them on the roster nearly full-time. The rubber-armed Anderson appeared no worse for wear after logging 69 2/3 innings, while Hall was a useful long reliever who occasionally opened for right-handed starters with pronounced platoon splits. Perhaps the Brewers feel those two spots offer enough flexibility as they are, but they could benefit from adding another optionable slot to their bullpen. At minimum, the casualty would have to be one of Nick Mears or Rob Zastryzny, the two relievers on the 40-man roster who cannot be optioned. Mears’s importance to next year’s team is debatable after an up-and-down 2025. After an illness in spring training delayed his debut, a diminished fastball upon his return proved much easier to barrel and led to fewer strikeouts. However, mechanical changes unlocked nearly pinpoint control, allowing him to post a 0.51 ERA and 1.89 FIP over his first 19 appearances and emerge as Pat Murphy’s preferred fireman. The relative lack of strikeouts and the heaviest workload of his big-league career seemingly caught up to Mears in the second half. His walk rate nearly tripled from 3.6% before the All-Star break to 9.9% after, and he limped to a 5.59 ERA and 6.34 FIP. Interestingly, though, his fastball qualities improved. While it was still hit hard when put in play, Mears rediscovered that extra tick of velocity, raising its stuff grades to just above average and reintroducing more whiffs. Split FB Velo FB Stuff+ FB StuffPro FB Whiff% FB xwOBA 1st Half 95.1 95 0.1 12.1% .376 2nd Half 96.1 102 -0.2 21.5% .369 Through one lens, Mears flamed out after an unsustainable workload and could be in for regression in 2026. Through another, he’s due for a better year because his stuff is trending in the right direction. While the Brewers tendered him a contract for next season, his unclear outlook and lack of roster flexibility could make trading him for a lottery ticket a tempting option. Zastrynzy, meanwhile, has dealt with injuries in both of his seasons in Milwaukee but has pitched to a 2.12 ERA, 4.09 FIP, and 4.27 SIERA over 29 2/3 innings when healthy. His strikeout and walk rates have been below average, but he has generated whiffs and weak contact at outstanding rates. The greatest knock against Zastrynzy may be that he’s redundant at times in a bullpen that already features Koenig, Ashby, and Hall as left-handed options. Mears and Zastrynzy profile as useful middle relievers in the right bullpens, but Milwaukee may not be the best fit for both at once. The Brewers could use another flex spot for shuttle arms like Craig Yoho, Easton McGee, and Sammy Peralta, to say nothing of the stable of minor-league starters they could deploy out of the bullpen throughout the season. The offseason is still in its infancy, but at this moment, moving one of their non-optionable veterans is the easiest way to create more breathing room on the depth chart. View full article

Image courtesy of © Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images Brandon Woodruff will continue his tenure with the club into 2026, as Ken Rosenthal reported on Tuesday afternoon that the Brewers' former ace is accepting Milwaukee's qualifying offer. Woodruff's future with the Brewers was a major offseason storyline, for a few reasons. For starters, his injury woes over the past three seasons made it difficult to confidently project his value on the open market. The 32-year-old has taken the mound just 23 times over the last three years, pitching just 131 ⅔ innings. He made his return from shoulder surgery this year, but a right lat strain ended his season in September after 12 starts. Both Woodruff and the Brewers said his shoulder remained fully healthy, though, and they extended him a $22.025-million qualifying offer, an unprecedented salary commitment to a pitcher for the franchise. Some outlets projected he would land a three-year deal north of $60 million in free agency. He'll instead take the short-term route, with Rosenthal also noting that the two sides could still agree to a new multi-year contract with a lesser annual value. Woodruff's return brings some clarity to his short-term future, but it also raises new questions—the first being what he'll contribute on the field. He predictably lost three ticks of fastball velocity this year, but his pitch shapes and strong command remained intact, and he added a cutter during his rehab. That allowed his stuff to play just as well as it did in his prime, culminating in a 3.20 ERA, 2.18 xERA, and 81 DRA-. It's difficult to imagine the Brewers committing more than $20 million to their former ace if they did not expect additional velocity and durability from a fully healthy shoulder in 2026. Even so, it's an uncharacteristic gamble for a front office that usually prefers to maintain financial flexibility with more measured investments. That leads into the second question: how the Brewers will construct the rest of their pitching staff with Woodruff back in the fold. Cot's Contracts now projects their 2026 luxury tax payroll to exceed $130 million. Woodruff's presence in the clubhouse and on the books could make trading Freddy Peralta more palatable, especially with Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser, Tobias Myers, and Coleman Crow on the 40-man roster as capable rotation options. Plenty of moving parts remain throughout the pitching mix, both on and off the field. Some answers will become clearer in the coming weeks, while others will not until next summer. The only certainty, for now, is that Woodruff is still a Brewer. View full article

Image courtesy of © Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images After spending nearly a month with the Brewers as a member of their taxi squad from late September through their postseason run to the NLCS, Jeferson Quero has returned to game action in winter ball. In the hitter-friendly Venezuelan Winter League, he has slashed .269/.356/.558 with four home runs. "He's a great kid, and he's a good player, and we're seeing it in winter ball right now," Brewers president of baseball operations and general manager Matt Arnold said earlier this week at MLB's annual GM Meetings in Las Vegas. "He's doing great. I feel like I get a new highlight emailed or texted to me every [day]. 'Hey, he hit another homer.' It's cool." With veterans Eric Haase and Danny Jansen no longer in the organization, Quero is the only full-time catcher on the 40-man roster, other than William Contreras. (Anthony Seigler is there, too, but has been predominantly an infielder for the last three seasons.) The Brewers could add a veteran to the mix this offseason to bolster their depth, but barring such an acquisition, Quero is in line to make his major-league debut next year as Contreras's backup. "We're always looking for depth, and competition is a good thing," Arnold said of Milwaukee's catching mix. "But I think Jeferson is a really special kid." A couple of years ago, it seemed Quero's moment would come much sooner. He breezed through three levels in his first two years of full-season ball, despite being nearly four years younger than his average peer at High A and Double A. His strong bat-to-ball skills played just fine against older pitching, and the hope was that he could translate more of his raw power into games down the line. Defensively, his elite throwing arm and mature handling of pitching staffs turned heads. Entering his age-21 season, Quero looked like the complete package and appeared on the cusp of reaching the majors. The Brewers selected his contract in November 2023 to protect him from that winter's Rule 5 draft, and he began the following season in Triple-A Nashville. Unfortunately, a pair of injury-marred seasons slowed what had been a quick ascent. Quero's first regular-season plate appearance of 2024 would be his last, as he suffered a torn labrum in his right shoulder on a dive back into first base and underwent season-ending surgery. A hamstring injury delayed his return to play until June 2025, after which the Brewers frequently utilized him as a DH to ease him back into the rigors of catching. When he did catch, Quero was not his usual self behind the plate. Most notably, his dominance over opposing running games (quantified by Baseball Prospectus as Swipe Runs) cratered. Season Framing Runs Blocking Runs Swipe Runs CS% CDA 2022 5.4 1.5 4.3 31% 12.3 2023 7.0 -0.5 4.5 35% 10.7 2025 -0.3 -0.2 -1.1 19% -1.6 In Quero's defense, that framing number should be taken with a grain of salt in a small sample of 34 games, and many of the successful steal attempts against him occurred on poorly-located pitches that put him in a suboptimal throwing position. Even so, it was clear that his formerly 70-grade arm was much closer to good than elite after major surgery. After he posted a subpar 29.7% hard-hit rate with an unremarkable 90th-percentile exit velocity of 102.8 mph, Quero's power surge in winter ball could be a sign that he's finally closing in on full strength after two trying years. His outlook in 2026 hinges heavily on his throwing and receiving trending toward their previous levels, along with improving his plate discipline to maximize his contact skills. While his walk rate was in line with the Triple-A average, his 36.8% chase rate ranked in the 11th percentile of hitters. Quero could still benefit from more minor-league seasoning, but the Brewers could instead work on those swing decisions at the big-league level, especially if he's only playing in a part-time capacity. They may also be more patient with the flaws in his game, because they hold his intangibles in such high regard. Quero's demeanor in spring training impressed Pat Murphy, who dubbed him "maybe my favorite prospect that's ever been with the Brewers." He's also an excellent game caller, and he showed an impressive knack for reading swings and sequencing pitches while catching live at-bats during the team's five-day bye before the NLDS. Those positive first impressions (coupled with a sparse free-agent catching market) could make the backup role Quero's to lose come spring training. "Whether that's on Opening Day or a couple years from now, I'm very excited about his future," Arnold said. DiamondCentric's John Bonnes contributed reporting to this story. View full article

Image courtesy of © David Banks-Imagn Images Pat Murphy has now taken home hardware in each of his first two campaigns leading the Brewers, as the Baseball Writers' Association of America named him the National League Manager of the Year for the second straight season on Tuesday night. Murphy received 27 of 30 first-place votes. The 66-year-old became the third manager to win the award in consecutive seasons in either league, joining former Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox and Tampa Bay Rays manager Kevin Cash. Stephen Vogt, a repeat winner in the American League, joined him a few minutes later as the fourth. Murphy downplayed the recognition a year ago, deferring praise to his players and coaching staff. He struck the same tone in a conference call on Tuesday night. "I think there's a lot of other coaches on our staff that do it better than I do," Murphy said. "I think I get far too much credit for things like this, you know what I mean? Players win games." Because it's impossible to accurately quantify a manager's role in his team's success, the award effectively credits club-wide efforts to one person. The skipper of a team that overcomes adversity or outperforms external projections is often in line for votes. The Brewers have checked those boxes the last two seasons, going 93-69 in 2024 and a franchise-best 97-65 this year, winning the NL Central over the much bigger-spending Chicago Cubs both years. "We had the right who," Murphy said. "We had guys that are aware and hungry, and that makes the manager look good at the end of the day." Even so, Murphy has been integral in setting the tone for those players with his handling of interpersonal relationships inside the clubhouse. From that standpoint, he may be even more deserving of the award this time around. The Brewers didn't just improve on their previous season; they did so after a 21-25 start that had them in fourth place in the division on May 17. Murphy, who has often applied elements of an aggressive management style from his college coaching days to the big leagues, benched players on a few occasions for poor fundamental play and called multiple team meetings. He also publicly stated that the group had "misplaced [its] edge" and challenged his players to perform more competitively. The turnaround did not come immediately, and Murphy's efforts to correct course could have alienated players if not executed properly. Ultimately, though, the Brewers responded. Milwaukee went 76-40 through the rest of the regular season, securing baseball's best record, winning the division by five games, and advancing to the NLCS for the first time since 2018. "I think this year, the way we started—as opposed to [2024], we started so hot, and things were clicking—[2025] didn't start like that," Murphy recalled. "There were so many injuries and so many question marks, and so many guys searching for their best self. I think what clicks is the resiliency they had and the desire they had to get on it as quickly as possible." The Brewers' run ended unceremoniously when they ran out of steam against the Los Angeles Dodgers in an NLCS sweep. That came, in part, because Murphy and the staff allowed players to assume heavy workloads during the regular season. That's the sometimes detrimental product of his "Win Tonight" mentality, which can be a double-edged sword for a scrappy roster. Striking the proper balance between managing for tonight and for future wins remains an area for improvement moving forward, but it's hard to quibble with the results under Murphy's leadership. View full article