Brewers' 2025 NLDS roster riddled with easily justifiable surprises

Yesterday, the Milwaukee Brewers made several announcements regarding their 2025 NLDS roster. The first of which was the long-awaited news on the injury status of Brandon Woodruff. The Brewers' veteran right-hander went down with a lat strain during the final weeks of the regular season and will miss the team's first postseason series, but remains a possibility to return for the later rounds. Then, Matt Arnold, revealed to team insiders that Jacob Misiorowski would be included on the postseason roster, despite many believing his second-half performance was enough to keep him off of it.

However, as Saturday morning arrived, there were still several outstanding question marks regarding the Brewers' roster. Fans didn't yet know which group of relief pitchers the team would opt for in the NLDS, and the strategy when it came to the position player group that Milwaukee would carry was still unclear.

Now, with the team's release of their NLDS roster just a few hours before first pitch, all of those questions have been answered. Brewers fans may be surprised by some of the inclusions, but there's justification to every choice that was made.

Rhys Hoskins, DL Hall, and Tobias Myers left off Brewers' 2025 NLDS roster, Brandon Lockridge and Robert Gasser included

The main decision that Pat Murphy and Matt Arnold needed to make ahead of the NLDS was whether or not to include their veteran first-baseman, Rhys Hoskins, on their initial postseason roster. Hoskins, despite having plenty of postseason experience as a Philadelphia Phillie, made just one start for the Crew since returning from a left thumb sprain in the middle of September. That lack of playing time was a result of the team's other two first basemen, Andrew Vaughn and Jake Bauers, swinging hot bats at the time of Hoskins' return.

Instead of including a third first baseman on the roster, albeit one who could change the game with one swing of the bat and has done so in similar situations before, the Brewers elected to include one of the fastest players in the sport, Brandon Lockridge. After coming over in a deadline trade with the San Diego Padres, Lockridge spent about a month filling in for injured Brewers outfielders before being relegated to Triple-A for the final month of the season. Despite not playing a big-league game since August 28, Lockridge gets the nod for the NLDS roster because of the havoc he can wreak on the basepaths and the excellent glove he offers in the outfield. Don't expect him to start any games, but expect him to impact most of them in some regard.

The attention then turns to the bullpen, where the Brewers made the surprising choice to include Robert Gasser, who threw just 5.2 big-league innings this season. After a long recovery process from a Tommy John surgery that he underwent last summer, Gasser triumphantly returned to the Brewers' roster for the final weeks of the regular season, and now gets a chance to continue proving himself in the postseason.

Gasser, who will likely pitch in a multi-inning relief role should the Brewers need it over the next week, is the choice over other options like DL Hall, Tobias Myers, and Rob Zastryzny. While Hall might not yet be at full strength and appeared in just one game down the stretch, both Myers and Zastryzny were hitting their stride in the final days of the regular season, making their omission from the postseason roster a bit of a surprise.

Even still, the Brewers' postseason pitching staff, which includes both José Quintana and Chad Patrick, neither of whom were locks for the NLDS roster, looks scary heading into the playoffs. Paired with a position player group that just got much faster and stronger defensively with the inclusion of Lockridge, there's no reason not to be excited about the group that Murphy and Arnold elected to roll out against their division rivals this week.