The underrated aspect of the Brewers’ 2026 roster that should encourage fans

It's a conversation that bears repeating in the wake of the Freddy Peralta trade, as the Milwaukee Brewers continue to expertly navigate their competitive window despite trading away so many great players over the past few years: This team is deep.

The rotation picture is a little less clear without the staff ace, but look anywhere else on the roster, and the Crew likely have at least two capable options to fill any given role. That depth is only more pronounced with Jett Williams — who isn't even on the 40-man roster yet — in tow, and the arrival of Brandon Sproat will hopefully fill some of the gaps left by Peralta and Tobias Meyers.

There's no guarantee that the Brewers will be able to ride this roster to the promised land, but it's a formula that's yielded four division titles in the past five years. If nothing else, Milwaukee has proven it knows how to do more with less.

Brewers' depth remains team's strongest asset after Freddy Peralta trade

There's no denying that losing Peralta will hurt the Brewers' ceiling; that's simply the nature of giving away one of your best players in any offseason.

But with so much depth on the roster, it's not hard to imagine the Crew weathering any storm that faces them in 2026. William Contreras is backed up by top prospect Jeferson Quero behind the dish; Williams and Andruw Monasterio are so versatile that they may both be able to play at least five positions each; there are nine outfielders on the 40-man roster, including Jake Bauers and Tyler Black; and a pitching staff led by veteran Brandon Woodruff will feature 20-something arms Jacob Misiorowski, Chad Patrick, Quinn Priester, Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser, Aaron Ashby, DL Hall, and Sproat throughout the season.

Now, the caveat to all of this is that depth doesn't necessarily lead to exemplary results in the postseason. Over the course of a 162-game season, it behooves a team to have multiple answers for any number of problems that could arise (i.e., injuries, underperformance, trades, etc.). In the one-series format of the postseason, however, it's often better to have stars littered around the starting lineup rather than a bunch of above-average players hanging around on the bench.

That being said, the Brewers overcame some of their playoff demons last year, beating the rival Chicago Cubs in the NLDS en route to their first NLCS appearance since 2018. The ceiling may be lower with Peralta now in New York, but the floor in Milwaukee is so high that it'll just take a little bit of extra luck for a roster this deep to crash the Fall Classic.

The 2026 iteration of this team may be the ultimate version of the depth-over-stars model they've been perfecting in recent years, and the whole baseball world will be carefully watching how they perform.