Milwaukee Brewers Complete 2021-2022 Offseason Preview

Brewers 2022 Arbitration Eligibles (14)

Josh Hader, Brandon Woodruff, Omar Narvaez, Corbin Burnes, Willy Adames, Eric Lauer, Luis Urias, Brent Suter, Adrian Houser, Daniel Vogelbach, Rowdy Tellez, Jace Peterson, Luke Maile, Jandel Gustave

This is a very large arbitration class, and one that isn’t likely to be trimmed very much either. This group is filled with core pieces to this team, including growingly expensive options Josh Hader and Brandon Woodruff, as well as first-time eligibles Corbin Burnes, Willy Adames, Eric Lauer, and Adrian Houser.

The Brewers have five players projected to earn salaries of $4MM or higher in 2022, with Josh Hader projected to earn the highest salary of the group, around $10MM.

Woodruff is in his second year of arbitration and his salary is likely to more than double for next season. Omar Narvaez, who took a pay cut ahead of the 2021 season had a tremendous bounceback year and will get a nice raise in his final year of arbitration. Narvaez will be a free agent after the 2022 season, barring a contract extension.

Other first year arbitration eligible players like Burnes, Adames, Lauer, Urias, and Houser are very important pieces of the roster.

Who are the non-tender candidates of this group? It’s a rather short list. With two first basemen eligible for arbitration, plus Keston Hiura still in the organization, one or both of Vogelbach and Tellez could be non-tendered this winter. Luke Maile was a third string catcher that only played in a small handful of big league games in 2021, and he could be on the chopping block as well.

The Brewers do seem to like Jace Peterson, but a growing price tag may lead to try to find utility production elsewhere.

Jandel Gustave was up and down this year, but his price tag isn’t too large and especially with bullpen options like Brad Boxberger and Hunter Strickland hitting free agency, the Brewers may opt to keep Gustave for depth instead of cutting him loose.