The Milwaukee Brewers 2024 season came to an abrupt halt after blowing a ninth inning lead during an elimination game of the Wild Card Series against the New York Mets. By virtue of this, the Brewers' offseason planning has started much sooner than anticipated.
Which Brewers' position players are projected to return in 2025 and who might leave?
In 2025 the Brewers are set to return a lot of their young core that includes 2024 rookies Jackson Chourio, Joey Ortiz, Oliver Dunn, and Tyler Black along with sophomores Sal Frelick, Brice Turang, and Blake Perkins. Garrett Mitchell will be entering his third big league season, but he unfortunately has spent more time injured and unavailable since making his MLB debut in September of 2022
Arbitration eligible players like William Contreras and Jake Bauers are also likely to return next year. They will join veteran Christian Yelich in which he projected to enter spring training healthy and without restrictions.
Rhys Hoskins, who has a player opt out option this offseason, is a bit of a question mark. Outside of potentially losing Hoskins, shortstop Willy Adames and catcher/designated hitter Gary Sanchez are unrestricted free agents this winter.
Projecting the Brewers' 2025 starting lineup
For the sake of this article we are going to assume that Willy Adames receives a monster contract from a different organization and that Gary Sanchez signs elsewhere. We also will operate under the assumption that all arbitration and pre-arbitration players return in 2025 as well as Rhys Hoskins.
Hoskins can receive $4 million if he opts out but he would be passing up an $18 million 2025 salary. Even though he finished the 2024 season with 26 home runs and 82 RBI, by OPS+ he was a below average hitter by two points which makes re-testing the free agent market not make a ton of sense.
That being said, without adding an external free agents, here is how the Brewers lineup currently could look leading into 2025 against right-handed pitchers.
1) | Brice Turang - 2B |
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2) | William Contreras - C |
3) | Christian Yelich - DH |
4) | Jackson Chourio - LF |
5) | Garrett Mitchell - CF |
6) | Rhys Hoskins - 1B |
7) | Sal Frelick - RF |
8) | Joey Ortiz - SS |
9) | Tyler Black - 3B |
Here is how a Brewers lineup against left-handed pitchers could look.
1) | Jackson Chourio - LF |
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2) | Blake Perkins - CF |
3) | Christian Yelich - DH |
4) | William Contreras - C |
5) | Sal Frelick - RF |
6) | Rhys Hoskins - 1B |
7) | Brice Turang - 2B |
8) | Joey Ortiz - SS |
9) | Andruw Monasterio - 3B |
Knowing Brewers GM Matt Arnold, the Brewers likely will not enter 2025 with a lineup that looks like the two mentioned above. Moves are going to be made in order to address holes, fill needs, and provide depth. It will be fun to see how the lineup comes together this offseason.