2026 arbitration salaries reveal necessity of Brewers' roster construction strategy

MLB teams spent their Thursday agreeing to contracts for the 2026 season with their arbitration-eligible players, or at least that was the hope. There always remains the possibility that players and teams can't reach an agreement, and the two parties have to rely on a third-party arbitrator to decide the player's salary for the upcoming season.

When it comes to the Milwaukee Brewers, Matt Arnold and company were able to agree to contracts with five of the team's six arbitration-eligible players before today's deadline. Listed below are the players who signed contracts today and the salaries they will earn in 2026.

Andrew Vaughn - $7.65 million
Trevor Megill - $4.7 million
Brice Turang - $4.15 million
Ángel Zerpa - $1.095 million
Garrett Mitchell - $950,000

The lone arbitration-eligible player who the Brewers didn't agree to a contract for the 2026 season with prior to today's deadline was All-Star catcher William Contreras, who is expected to bring in a salary somewhere in the $11-12 million range. Contreras and the Brewers will each have to submit a formal salary offer before 7:00 p.m. tonight, which are the two figures that the arbitrator will decide between should the two parties not reach a contract agreement before a hearing is necessary. You might remember that the same thing happened last year, and just before the two sides would have gone to a hearing, Contreras agreed to a one-year contract with a club option for the 2025 season, which Milwaukee declined earlier this offseason. Stay tuned for a report of the exact filings that Contreras and the Brewers submitted.

On a brighter note, the Brewers were able to reach agreements with five key players heading into the 2026 season. Additionally, Milwaukee appeared to do relatively well with their contracts, seeing as the only one that exceeded MLB Trade Rumors’ incredibly accurate predictions was the $4.7 million contract that closer Trevor Megill earned (MLBTR predicted a $4.2 million deal for Megill). Despite both Brice Turang and Andrew Vaughn having strong cases for higher salaries next season, following their impressive 2025 campaigns, the Brewers were able to secure each of the two lineup regulars for contracts that are lower than MLBTR's projections and, perhaps more importantly, avoid hearings with each of them.

The day also serves as an excellent reminder of why the Brewers operate the way they do, filling their roster with players who have yet to hit free agency rather than paying the high salaries that are commanded on the open market.

Arbitration agreements remind Brewers fans of the benefit of having talented players who have yet to hit free agency

Take, for example, the salary that Megill brought in. On the free agent market, an All-Star closer like Megill likely would have earned an annual salary in the range of $15-20 million this winter. Those are numbers that the small-market Brewers can't fathom handing to one relief pitcher, which is why they rely on finding guys like Megill, who have been cast off by their former clubs in the early stages of their careers, and turning them into elite high-leverage weapons. The strategy requires an excellent player development program, which the Brewers have smartly invested in during the recent past -- it's cheaper to invest in player development than in the free agent market.

However, Megill isn't the only example. Players of Turang and Vaughn's caliber each would have brought in far higher salaries on the free agent market than they did earlier today. Another way to look at it is that the Brewers couldn't afford to construct a roster as talented as theirs while relying on the free agent market, which is why they so often target players who have multiple years of team control remaining, like Vaughn, knowing the production they are going to get out of those players will be far more affordable in arbitration than in free agency.

A day like today is when Milwaukee's front office's exceptional roster construction strategies are on full display. It's a day when the modest salaries of All-Star caliber players who have yet to hit free agency are revealed, showing just how important it is that cash-strapped teams like the Brewers continue to prioritize players who have years of arbitration eligibility remaining. It truly is the only way that a team like the Brewers can remain competitive year in and year out.