4 budget free agent targets for the Brewers that would help them contend in 2025

Paul DeJong - INF

With the loss of Adames creeping closer and closer, the Brewers are going to need to find somebody to fill the void he'll leave in the lineup. Tyler Black could come up and see time at third base with Joey Ortiz and his outstanding glove taking over at shortstop, but that scenario is far from etched in stone.

Frelick may begin to see time at third base as well, so there's another option the Brewers have in their pockets. Another one could be to target longtime division rival Paul DeJong, who's coming off of quite the bounce-back season.

DeJong, 30, hasn't had an OPS+ north of 100 (league-average) since 2018, but he remains a legitimate power threat who can play some respectable defense at multiple positions. For the vast majority of his time on the Cardinals, he played exclusively shortstop. This year, he logged a ton of time at short and third base for the first time in his career.

That kind of flexibility could be valuable for the Brewers, and his bat furthers that. After an awful 2023 showing split between the Cardinals, Blue Jays and Giants, the eight-year veteran landed a cheap "prove it" contract with the cellar-dwelling White Sox. In 102 games there, he hit just .228 but he also recorded 18 home runs and a .706 OPS which isn't enough to set the world on fire, but his OPS+ fell just one percent short of league-average.

DeJong is not going to be the big needle-mover that the Brewers will need, but he's a great supplementary piece. He had a 92 OPS+ in 37 games with the Royals post-deadline and showed throughout the year that he's got some thump in his stick.

The Brewers aren't going to need a ton of help around the infield, but DeJong will be cheap and can be plugged in all around the infield. Let him come aboard as an oft-used utilityman and keep the rest of the infield picture largely the same as it was this season.