6 players who are entering their final days on the Brewers

Frankie Montas

One of the Brewers' top trade deadline adds, Montas has done an excellent job on his new club. The right-hander has made seven starts for the Crew and has improved his numbers across the board. His 3.92 ERA is over a full run lower than it was in 19 starts for the Reds, while he's raised his strikeouts per nine by two full punchouts, lowered his walk rate and is allowing almost two hits less per nine innings than he was in Cincinnati.

The results have been great, and he's been a welcomed presence in this rotation. The aforementioned second-half successes from Brewers starters has a lot to do with Montas's performance and he should be celebrated for that.

However, his $20M mutual option for next season is a rather significant chunk of change for the Brewers. While Montas has been solid for the club, is he ultimately going to be worth that much money on a small-market team?

In the upcoming free agent pool, there's going to be quite a bit of high-end starting pitching available, as the likes of Shane Bieber, Walker Buehler, old friend Corbin Burnes, Yusei Kikuchi, Jack Flaherty, Charlie Morton, Max Scherzer, Blake Snell and Nathan Eovaldi all could be available. This is without mentioning 2023 AL Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole, who has an opt-out this offseason as well.

The pitching market is going to be full of options, but few have excelled the way Montas has this year, especially for the Brewers. He, like Adames, is pricing himself out of Milwaukee by the start.