Offseason Outlook: Milwaukee Brewers

The Brewers may consider trading a longtime rotation stalwart this winter but would be justified mostly standing pat coming off an MLB-best 97 wins.

Guaranteed Contracts

• Christian Yelich, DH: $84.5MM through 2028 ($4MM deferred annually; includes buyout of ’29 club option)
• Jackson Chourio, OF: $74MM through 2031, with club options on 2032 and ’33
• Aaron Ashby, RP: $14MM through 2027, with club options on 2028 and ’29

Option Decisions

• Freddy Peralta, SP: $8MM club option with no buyout
• William Contreras, C: $12MM club option with a $100K buyout (arbitration-eligible if declined)
• Brandon Woodruff, SP: $20MM mutual option with a $10MM buyout
• Jose Quintana, SP: $15MM mutual option with a $2MM buyout
• Rhys Hoskins, 1B: $18MM mutual option with a $4MM buyout
• Danny Jansen, C: $12MM mutual option with a $500K buyout (Rays responsible for buyout)

2026 guaranteed contracts: $54.5MM
Total future commitments: $188.5MM through 2031

Arbitration-Eligible Players (service time in parentheses; salary projections via Matt Swartz)

• Jake Bauers (5.084): $2MM
• Andrew Vaughn (4.142): $7.8MM
• William Contreras (4.112): $11.1MM
• Nick Mears (4.022): $1.6MM
• Trevor Megill (4.002): $4.2MM
• Garrett Mitchell (3.040): $1MM
• Brice Turang (2.165): $4.4MM

Non-tender candidate: Bauers

Free Agents

• Rhys Hoskins, Danny Jansen, Shelby Miller, Jordan Montgomery, Erick Fedde

With 97 wins, the Brewers were the best regular season team in baseball this year.  Roughly a third of the way through the season, the team’s record sat at 25-28 after a May 24th loss to the Pirates.  They were 6.5 games back in the NL Central.  The Brewers were a third-place club with a 10% shot at making the playoffs.  That’s when they emerged as the best team in baseball, as Milwaukee played .661 ball from that point forward, even including a .500 September.  By the end of July, the Brewers had an NL Central lead they would never relinquish, earning them a first-round playoff bye.

Powered by Andrew Vaughn, Jackson Chourio, and William Contreras on offense and an unconventional pitching attack led by Jacob Misiorowski, the Brewers and Pat Murphy took down the Cubs and former manager Craig Counsell in a five-game NLDS.

2025 marked the Brewers’ seventh playoff appearance in eight years, and their first series win since the impressive run began in 2018.  Unfortunately, the Brewers proved no match for the Dodgers in this year’s NLCS, with L.A. powered by dominant starting pitching.

The Brewers have had a remarkable run of success on payrolls that have typically landed in the bottom third of MLB.  David Stearns’ seven-year run heading up the front office ended in 2022, with Matt Arnold taking over as GM.  The club has maintained its excellence under Arnold.  The Brewers’ front office is the envy of owners everywhere, prompting Mark Attanasio to promote Arnold to president of baseball operations last week.  Upon getting the promotion, Arnold made sure to thank “the guys that I work with every single day” – Matt Kleine, Karl Mueller, Will Hudgins, and Matt Klentak.  It would not be a surprise to see a few of those assistant GMs poached to run other teams’ front offices in the coming years.

As MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy and Jordan Bastian explained here, longtime friends Murphy and Counsell have “have alternated positions of power over the years.”  Much as the Brewers transitioned seamlessly from Stearns to Arnold, Murphy picked up where Counsell left off in winning a pair of division titles in his two years as manager.  Murphy’s contract is up after 2026, and you’d have to imagine an extension is coming.

According to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, the Brewers’ year-end 40-man roster payroll ranked 23rd in baseball at $115MM.  The club has been as high as $135MM.  Regular season attendance was up 4.4% this year.  Given two additional postseason games compared to 2024, total attendance at American Family Field increased by 7.6%.  The Brewers’ commitments total around $95MM at present, including an obvious $8MM club option on Freddy Peralta.  Arnold may make some trades and let his free agents go in fitting with the team’s way of operating, but he shouldn’t be under direct financial pressure to cut payroll.

That brings us to the linchpin of the Brewers’ offseason: Peralta.  The 29-year-old righty was poached from the Mariners in the Adam Lind trade a decade ago, behind the advocacy of Kleine.  Peralta inked a team-friendly deal in February 2020.  He’ll be eligible for free agency after the 2026 season.

Peralta ranks 17th among starting pitchers in WAR since 2021, and eighth in regular season starts since ’23.  He posted a strong 28.2 K% this year alongside a career-best 2.70 ERA.  Perhaps he’s more of a 3.50 type pitcher, but Peralta is immensely valuable as a durable #2 starter making $8MM.