Six Brewers to remain in Milwaukee for 2026 season after quiet non-tender deadline

Earlier this week, the Milwaukee Brewers agreed to pay Brandon Woodruff a $22.025 million salary for the 2026 season, after the fan favorite starter accepted the team's qualifying offer. The contract, which gives Woodruff the highest single-season salary of any pitcher in Brewers history, will unsurprisingly have a big impact on Milwaukee's small-market payroll. Consequently, some expected Woodruff's contract to result in the front office shedding payroll in various ways, with the most publicized method being a trade of Freddy Peralta and his $8 million salary.

There also existed speculation that the players whom the Brewers choose to tender contracts to for the 2026 season would be impacted by Woody accepting the qualifying offer, with the justification being that if Milwaukee's payroll was in a tight spot, they might use the non-tender deadline as a way to save some money. Players like Jake Bauers, who signed a one-year $2.7 million contract earlier today, and Nick Mears, who is projected by MLB Trade Rumors to make $1.6 million in 2026, could have been replaced by cheaper, less proven players if the Brewers' payroll was in a rough spot.

However, after Bauers signed his contract earlier today, which was roughly $700k more than he was expected to make through the arbitration process, it became clearer that the payroll was not hamstrung too severely by Woodruff's record-breaking contract. As a result, the front office was expected to have a quiet non-tender deadline with William Contreras, Andrew Vaughn, Trevor Megill, Brice Turang, Garrett Mitchell, and Mears all being easy players to retain, so long as the payroll is in a good spot. With no news coming of a non-tender prior to 4:00 p.m. CT, confirmed by an X post from MLB.com's Adam McCalvy, a quiet deadline is exactly what Matt Arnold and company had.

Brewers to officially tender contracts to six remaining arbitration eligible players

Given the arbitration salaries that each of the six remaining players is expected to bring in this winter, the decision to tender each of them contracts was an easy one. From All-Star closer Trevor Megill, expected to make roughly $4-5 million, to Platinum Glove Award winner and Silver Slugger finalist Brice Turang, expected to make roughly the same, to 2024 MVP candidate William Contreras, projected to bring in just north of $11 million, the Brewers agreed to bring back several players today whose value on the field far exceeds their value on the payroll.

The Brewers’ 40-man roster, which included each of the seven players listed above prior to today, remains at 39 as the baseball world awaits the next big offseason milestone: The Winter Meetings, which will take place from December 7-11 this year.

With Woodruff returning and the Brewers not electing to "non-tender" any players this year, Milwaukee's roster could be due for very little movement this offseason. That said, with several DFA candidates remaining on the 40-man roster, plenty of trade candidates on the market this winter, and a fanbase hoping for their team to return to the World Series for the first time since 1982, it's more than possible that Arnold and the Brewers' front office have a few cards up their sleeves.