Predicting the Brewers 40-man roster

Milwaukee has swapped an outfielder and bullpen arm for another outfielder and bullpen arm; is that enough?

Summarized by AI ⓘ

What is the story about?

The Milwaukee Brewers have had a fairly quiet offseason thus far. Just to quickly recap the few major transactions they have made, here’s the list:

11/2: RHP Shelby Miller, LHP Jordan Montgomery, & RHP Erick Fedde elected free agency
11/3: C Danny Jansen’s mutual option declined by Milwaukee, becomes free agent
11/3: RHP Coleman Crow added to 40-man roster
11/4: 1B Rhys Hoskins’ and LHP Jose Quintana’s mutual options declined by Milwaukee, become free agents

11/18: RHP Brandon Woodruff accepts qualifying offer
12/11: OF Akil Baddoo signed to a major league contract
12/13: RHP Nick Mears and OF Isaac Collins traded to the Royals for LHP Ángel Zerpa

From the 40-man roster to close out the season, that means only five losses (Jansen, Hoskins, Quintana, Mears, and Collins) and three additions (Crow, Baddoo, and Zerpa). Woodruff is a net-zero, and Miller, Montgomery, and Fedde were all either on the 60-day IL (Miller & Montgomery) or DFA’d (Fedde) by the end of the regular season.

Adding in the players

who were activated from the 60-day IL at the conclusion of the season (Garrett Mitchell & Logan Henderson), and the Brewers 40-man roster sits at 39. Let’s take a look at the layout of those 39 players as it stands.

Pitching

Among the 21 pitchers on the current roster, 13 of those players could reasonably start games for Milwaukee. That includes (alphabetically, by last name):

Aaron Ashby
Coleman Crow
Robert Gasser
DL Hall
Logan Henderson
Jacob Misiorowski
Tobias Myers
Chad Patrick
Freddy Peralta
Quinn Priester
Carlos Rodriguez
Brandon Woodruff
Ángel Zerpa (if the rumors of Milwaukee looking at him as a starter are true)

At least a couple of those guys will likely not be in the majors come opening day; Crow and Rodriguez are the obvious answers, and it’s possible Milwaukee could start Myers, Patrick, and Henderson in Triple-A as well. The team could also be looking to trade an arm or two from this list (Peralta is obviously top of mind) to add depth elsewhere or in what is already a deep farm system.

On the relief side, the eight remaining names from the 40-man roster include:

Grant Anderson
Jared Koenig
Easton McGee
Trevor Megill
Sammy Peralta
Abner Uribe
Craig Yoho
Rob Zastryzny

Let me just emphasize again that this group will change before opening day. There will be a few injuries, and odds are somebody will have a bad enough spring to warrant a DFA. But as it stands right now, here’s my prediction:

Grant Anderson
Aaron Ashby
DL Hall
Jared Koenig
Trevor Megill
Jacob Misiorowski
Chad Patrick
Freddy Peralta
Quinn Priester
Abner Uribe
Brandon Woodruff
Ángel Zerpa
Rob Zastryzny

Anderson, Hall, Patrick, and Zastryzny are probably the biggest question marks among that group, and any of them could reasonably be swapped for Robert Gasser, Logan Henderson, Chad Patrick, and Sammy Peralta. Gasser, Henderson, Myers, and Peralta all have options remaining, while Zastryzny is the only bubble player listed here out of options, making him a lock unless Milwaukee wishes to DFA him.

One consideration that could be taken into account is the amount of lefty options. While the starting rotation is short on lefties (Ashby, Gasser, Hall, and Zerpa are all candidates to be in both the rotation and the bullpen), the bullpen has Koenig and Zastryzny along with any of the aforementioned four players who don’t slot into the rotation. Most teams carry three-ish lefty options, so it seems unlikely the Brewers would carry five, let alone six. Food for thought.

Catcher

The Brewers only have two catchers on their current 40-man roster, with William Contreras and Jeferson Quero. Given that Milwaukee still has a 40-man spot open, my money would be on the Brewers adding another catcher before the season to give Quero at least a little bit more time to develop in the minors. If Matt Arnold and Co. opt to stick with Quero as the backup option, I think he’d perform well enough to warrant some playing time, especially given his plus-plus defense.

Infield

The Brewers have eight players in the infield on their 40-man roster:

Jake Bauers
Tyler Black
Caleb Durbin
Andruw Monasterio
Joey Ortiz
Anthony Seigler
Brice Turang
Andrew Vaughn

I’d expect Black and Seigler to start the season in the minors, giving Milwaukee six infielders on the active roster.

Outfield

With two catchers and six infielders on the active roster, that leaves space for five outfielders. Here are the eight currently on the 40-man roster:

Akil Baddoo
Steward Berroa
Jackson Chourio
Sal Frelick
Brandon Lockridge
Garrett Mitchell
Blake Perkins
Christian Yelich

Chourio, Frelick, and Yelich are all locks for the roster, leaving five players for the last two spots. Berroa is the clear odd man out, and frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was DFA’d before the season. Lockridge seems likely to start the season in the minors, meaning we have Baddoo, Mitchell, and Perkins to discuss for that final spot.

I could reasonably see any of them being the odd man out, depending on if the team is prioritizing offense (Baddoo and Mitchell over Perkins) or defense (Perkins would be the top fit in that scenario). I’ll take Mitchell and Perkins over Baddoo, with a short leash on both players, especially if Baddoo keeps playing as well as he did in Triple-A in 2025 (.281/.385/.483 with 15 HRs, 48 RBIs, 71 R, and 25 SBs over 103 games).