Jeff Passan puts damper on Brewers' Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta situation

For Milwaukee Brewers fans, the first few weeks of the offseason have felt like a roller coaster. Hours after their team was eliminated from the NLCS by the dynasty that is the Los Angeles Dodgers, rumors started to float about the availability of their ace, Freddy Peralta, on the trade market during the winter. Additionally, the Brewers were expected to hand out a qualifying offer to Brandon Woodruff during the offseason, which many fans were initially anticipating Woody would turn down.

Then, the tides started to shift and it looked as if the Brewers were going to be able to retain both Peralta and Woodruff for the 2026 season. At the GM Meetings in Las Vegas last week, Milwaukee's President of Baseball Operations, Matt Arnold, told MLB insiders that the team expects Peralta to be atop their 2026 starting rotation, pouring water on the trade rumors that had been circulating around the league. Then, starting pitchers, such as Shane Bieber of the Toronto Blue Jays, who is in a very similar position to Woodruff, started accepting contract options that made the $22.025 million qualifying offer look far more appealing for Woody.

Hope was stirred that the Brewers would hang on to both Peralta and Woodruff and enter the 2026 season with a starting staff that gave them an excellent chance to win the NL Central for the fourth straight year. The combination of Peralta and Woody's experience and the talent of the young arms that Milwaukee also rosters would make for a starting staff that would force offseason evaluators to be more bullish on the Brewers than they usually are.

However, the rollercoaster has once again started to descend into a rapid progression of twists and turns. On Tuesday morning, much to the delight of baseball fans, ESPN's MLB insider, Jeff Passan, published his major 2025-26 offseason preview, and while the Brewers weren't a frequent character in his story, he did drop one piece of vital information that could have major implications on the team's offseason.

According to MLB insider Jeff Passan, Brewers are unlikely to keep both Peralta and Woodruff this offseason

Passan's impressively comprehensive run-down of the 2025-26 MLB offseason (link provided below) detailed just about every single player who has been rumored to be traded this winter. When it came time to report his information on Peralta, Passan included a simple, but powerful sentence, writing, "If Brandon Woodruff accepts a qualifying offer, it drastically increases the chances of a Peralta trade. If Woodruff hits free agency, Peralta almost certainly will stay."

Jeff Passan's 2025-26 MLB offseason preview, intel, updates

Passan's report shouldn't necessarily come as a surprise to Brewers fans who have witnessed their team's front office operate in the last decade. The team seemingly never goes "all-in" on one single season, rather opting to do just enough to keep them in the playoff race, but not too much to sacrifice their chance of returning to the postseason the following year and beyond.

The difference this year, however, is what both players in question mean to Milwaukee, and how retaining them would impact the Brewers' future. Both Peralta and Woodruff have been fan favorites seemingly since they took the mound in a Brewers uniform for the first time. Woody currently stands as the longest-tenured Brewer and has been through thick and thin with Milwaukee. Last June, Peralta expressed his want to remain in Milwaukee once his contract expires after cementing himself as the team's ace in the previous two seasons. Clearly, both players mean something bigger to Milwaukee than their play on the field, and that feeling is reciprocated by what the city has given to both Peralta and Woody.

Then, there is the impact that retaining both players has on the future of the organization. The argument in favor of parting with one or both starting pitchers during the 2025-26 offseason is to prolong the team's current period of winning by bringing in younger, controllable players who can impact the roster for several years to come. In Woody's case, which is currently out of the Brewers' hands until he accepts or declines the qualifying offer before 3:00 p.m. CT today, retaining him would mean the loss of a draft pick that the team doesn't yet have if he accepts the offer, as well as a significant financial commitment. Not trading Peralta would mean sacrificing a sizable trade package that could reinforce the team's farm system, but with one of the best in baseball already, the Brewers don't need prospect capital as much as the average MLB team.

Keeping both Peralta and Woodruff on the qualifying offer, for the 2026 season would not cost the Brewers a single dollar past the 2026 season. Sure, there's the opportunity cost of not trading Peralta and not getting the draft pick compensation for losing Woodruff to another team in free agency, but it's not like the Brewers are hamstringing themselves for several years to come by keeping both experienced arms in their rotation for the 2026 season.

Either way, Woodruff's decision, which will have to come before the evening rolls around, is bound to have a significant impact on the rest of the Brewers' offseason.