A look at the Brewers’ payroll after William Contreras, Luis Rengifo deals

The Milwaukee Brewers finally eased fans' nerves this week, avoiding a contentious arbitration hearing with catcher William Contreras. Instead, the team and their backstop agreed to a one-year deal worth $9.4 million, plus a club option for $14.5 million next year (which would be Contreras' last year in arbitration).

That marked the second notable catcher move of the week for the team, as the Crew also added Gary Sánchez on a $1.75 million salary for the 2026 season.

They then added another infielder to the mix (likely with designs on having him fill Caleb Durbin's shoes at third base) by signing Luis Rengifo to a one-year deal worth $3.5 million.

All of those numbers will now be folded into the team's payroll, which already stood above last year's total prior to the Rengifo deal. Nevertheless, there remains a slight amount of wiggle room for the front office to work with.

Updating Brewers' payroll numbers after recent slew of signings

There are a lot of outlets and payroll trackers out there, but for the sake of simplicity, we'll roll with FanGraphs' roster resource. Including Rengifo's contract, they have the Crew pegged at a $131.5 million payroll right now, which is just $8.5 million above where they finished last season.

In that sense, one could suggest that the Brewers are done adding. Rengifo more or less fills the third base opening they created when they traded Durbin, and there's so much pitching depth on the roster that another signing would be more luxury than necessity.

However, in a world where the Los Angeles Dodgers are paying $60 million per year to Kyle Tucker, signing a utility man and backup catcher and avoiding an arbitration hearing with your starting catcher isn't exactly going to bridge the gap in the National League. The largest payroll in team history clocked in at a shade over $135 million in 2022, so there is at least a little room underneath that mark at the moment.

It's also worth keeping in mind that between the money owed to Sánchez, Rengifo, Jake Bauers, and Brandon Woodruff, the Crew are set to clear about $30 million from their books next offseason. Some buyouts, raises in arbitration, and other payroll modifiers will lessen the impact of that freedom, but it stands to reason that adding another player on a short-term deal shouldn't preclude any future moves for the front office.

We'll have to wait and see if Milwaukee opts to do anything else before Opening Day arrives, but it's at least reassuring that the front office should at least have some wiggle room in the payroll for in-season transactions, which they've been highly successful with in recent years.