Brewers reach deal with key bench player ahead of impending non-tender deadline

For fans of transactions, Friday is going to be the day for you. Now that we've reached the non-tender deadline, teams around the league including the Milwaukee Brewers must determine whether they're going to extend 2025 contracts to their eligible players or cut them loose by non-tendering them.

The Brewers had 10 players up for raises this offseason in arbitration, but Jake Bauers and Bryse Wilson were removed from that equation when they were outrighted off of the 40-man roster and later banished to the free-agent market.

That leaves Hoby Milner, Aaron Civale, Devin Williams, Joel Payamps, Eric Haase, William Contreras, Nick Mears and Trevor Megill as the rest of the bunch.

Early on Friday ahead of the nontender deadline, Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the Brewers and Haase have avoided arbitration. The catcher will remain with the Brewers on a one-year deal for an as-of-now undisclosed amount. MLBTR predicted Haase would earn $1.8 million in arbitration after making $1 million in 2024.

Brewers avoid arbitration with important bench piece

It appears that the Brewers have secured their backup catcher to start the 2025 campaign. Haase, 31, made it into just 30 games for the Brewers this past season, but he recorded five home runs with an .819 OPS along the way. Haase carries a ton of pop in his bat and has multiple double-digit home run totals over the course of his seven-year career.

He will be a rarely used backup since Contreras has the starting gig locked down and is one of the game's best offensive backstops. There's not much playing time to be had when you're backing up someone like Contreras, but this is clearly a risk Haase is ready to take on again.

Most importantly is that Haase will be a cheap stopgap until top prospect Jeferson Quero is ready to make his big league debut. The 22-year-old made it into exactly one game in Triple-A this past season, drawing a walk before going down with an injury that took him out of action for the rest of the year.

The Brewers are no strangers to rostering three catchers at a time (see: Contreras, Haase, Gary Sanchez in 2024), so Quero may not fully replace Haase once he comes up to The Show, but he'll certainly eat into the veteran's playing time.

More from Reviewing the Brew