Ranking 5 trade candidates Brewers could shop around this offseason

1B Jake Bauers

It appears likely that Rhys Hoskins will opt-in to his 2025 contract and return to the Brewers next year. Should Hoskins return, it seems highly unlikely that the Brewers would retain both Jake Bauers and Tyler Black as well, which is why both are on this list of trade candidates.

Bauers somewhat surprisingly made it through the entire season on the big league roster as the backup first baseman, despite hitting just .199 on the year. He added some power off the bench, including a clutch home run in Game 3 of the NL Wild Card, but there simply wasn't enough overall production.

Some may ask what Bauers could actually net you in a trade. Well, he performed in 2024 about the same as he has for his whole career and the Brewers traded two low-level prospects in Jace Avina and Brian Sanchez for him. Both prospects had a lot of upside but also were high risk and were very far away from the majors. That's probably similar to what the Brewers could expect to net in return for a Bauers trade this winter.

If the Brewers don't trade Bauers, they could simply non-tender him instead. Bauers is projected to earn $2.3MM in arbitration next year and he has two years of team control left. He's a likely non-tender candidate just like he was in New York a year ago when the Brewers decided to trade for him.

The Brewers can shop Bauers around the trade market before the tender deadline and if a team wants to make a deal for Bauers, it would not be surprising to see that deal get done. It's probably a 50/50 chance Bauers gets traded this offseason and if he doesn't, a non-tender is the fallback option.

Probability of being traded: 50%