Brewers continue to be paired with familiar free agent they certainly won’t sign

Every winter brings its share of recycled rumors, but few are as stubborn as the continued attempts to reunite the Milwaukee Brewers with Devin Williams. For the second time this offseason, a national insider has floated the idea that Williams could return to Milwaukee on a one-year deal to rebuild his value. And for the second time, Brewers fans are wondering whether the rest of the baseball world stopped paying attention the moment Williams boarded his flight to New York.

On paper, the logic is easy enough: Williams was a superstar in Milwaukee, he cratered in his first year with the Yankees, and the Brewers have long been one of baseball’s best incubators of relief talent. If he wants to reset his market, why not go home? But in reality, the idea ignores everything that’s happened since the Brewers made the decision to trade him in the first place.

Brewers keep getting linked to a Devin Williams reunion that makes no sense

Mark Feinsand of MLB.com laid out the hypothetical reunion in his annual team-by-team match column, saying, “What better place to sign to re-establish his value than Milwaukee, the site of his greatest successes?” He even goes as far as calling Milwaukee an “ideal landing spot” for a short-term prove-it contract.

In theory, sure. In practice? Absolutely not.

The Brewers didn’t just trade Williams because they thought his value had peaked — they traded him because they saw the opportunity to cash in on his value while lowering payroll. His command issues had been bubbling beneath the surface. And most importantly, his arbitration years were about to get expensive.

Now imagine the optics of bringing him back.

The Brewers are not in the business of undoing their own smartest decisions. They didn’t sell high on Williams just to re-purchase the depreciated version a year later. That’s not how this front office operates, and it’s certainly not how a mid-market team survives.

And that brings us to the biggest roadblock of all: the cost. Even after a down year, Williams isn’t signing for pennies. A one-year deal probably still pushes into the $10–12 million range, which is money the Brewers have made clear they’d rather use spreading out depth across the roster.

Could Williams thrive somewhere else on a prove-it deal? Absolutely. But the place for that is a team with money to burn and no emotional baggage attached. What it is not, and will not be, is Milwaukee.

So while these reunion rumors may continue popping up from national outlets trying to connect easy dots, Brewers fans and the Brewers front office know better. The franchise looks smart for moving on — and even smarter if they stay away.