The Milwaukee Brewers consistently defy preseason predictions despite having a low payroll.
This offseason, the Brewers traded away key players like ace Freddy Peralta and third baseman Caleb Durbin.
While rivals like the Chicago Cubs spent heavily, the Brewers’ total free agency spending was only $6.5 million.
Players and management embrace their underdog status, citing a strong team culture and creative roster-building as keys to their success.
PHOENIX — Here we go again.
The Milwaukee Brewers are too cheap.
Too foolish, trading away their ace.
Too reckless, trading away their young star third baseman.
Surely, this will be the year their luck finally runs out, leaving their fans drowning their sorrows in beer, stuffing their faces with cheese curds, and screaming every time they hear, ‘Go Cubs Go,’ at Wrigley Field.
The Brewers hear the mockery, the taunts, the ridicule and the malice.
Their reaction?
‘Honestly, we just don’t care,’ Brewers outfielder/DH Christian Yelich says. ‘It’s the same story every year.’
So go ahead, bring it on, but please, don’t take it personally if they laugh in your face.
‘It’s funny to us, because we don’t feel like we’re underdogs,’ Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick said. ‘We know we didn’t go out and spend a lot of money, so that can kind of give you the underdog edge.
‘But it’s still a little weird to us because we win every year.’
Indeed, the Brewers have dominated the NL Central for the past eight years. They’ve won three consecutive division titles, four of the last five, and in five of the past seven full seasons (excluding the COVID-shortened 2020 season). They have averaged 92.6 victories a year since 2020, including a franchise-record and major-league leading 97 victories last year.
And not once was there a single season in which they were preseason picks to win the division.
‘I don’t mind it, it comes with the territory,’ Brewers GM Matt Arnold says. ‘If people want to overlook us, that’s fine. Really, we embrace being underdogs here.’
Now, here they are this year, without ace Freddy Peralta, and without starting third baseman Caleb Durbin, joining that Brewers tradition where Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes and All-Star closers Josh Hader and Devin Williams were dumped the past three years.
This was a winter where their hated rivals, the Chicago Cubs, spent $209 million in free agency, while also acquiring Miami Marlins front-line starter Edward Cabrera in a trade.
The Brewers spent a grand total of $6.5 million.
The Cubs filled their third-base spot by signing Alex Bregman to a five-year, $175 million contract.
The Brewers filled their vacancy with Luis Rengifo on a one-year, $3.5 million deal.
So, is anyone shocked that the Cubs are heavy favorites to win the NL Central, even running away with it?
The Brewers simply shrug their shoulders, yawn and grin.
‘We kind of defy what’s going on,’ starter Brandon Woodruff, 33, the longest-tenured Brewer, tells USA TODAY Sports. ‘We’re not supposed to be doing what we’re doing with our payroll and our market.
‘You see what we spend, and it’s like how we going to win again. Then, you think, well, we did that last year without spending, we can do it again.’
What’s new?
The Brewers are always counted out in March, and in October, everyone’s scratching their head and wondering how they pulled it off?
‘I get it, we’re a small market, everyone keeps writing us off,’ Brewers All-Star closer Trevor Megill says. ‘The top team is the Dodgers, and you hear everyone saying, ‘How are we or anyone else going to beat them this year?’ Well, people forget we’re the ones who won the most games last year.’
In many aspects, the Brewers are the Major League Baseball Players Association’s dream team. They’re a perennial playoff team year after year despite a bottom-10 payroll, proving a salary cap isn’t necessary for small-market teams to win.
‘Our team is a great example of why you don’t need a salary cap,’ Megill says. ‘Get creative. There’s more than one way to win a baseball game. Just because you pay guys all of that money, doesn’t mean they’re going to the playoffs.
‘Growing up watching 90’s baseball and the Yankees were doing exactly what the Dodgers are doing. Everyone thought it was cool because it was happening in New York. But now that it’s the West Coast, everyone seems to have a problem with it. I think it’s great for baseball that we have a team that’s willing to go out there and spend, while teams like us that are underdogs to write their own stories.
‘Growing up, it was the Angels. Who the hell were the Angels in ’02 (winning their first World Series)? They still do the damn rally monkey nearly 30 years later. So, when teams like that pull it off, it’s great for baseball.’
The Brewers, simultaneously, can be the union’s worst nightmare, too, proving you don’t have to spend big bucks in free agency. They had the second-lowest payroll among all playoff teams last year at $115.1 million, a cool $206 million less than the Dodgers.
The Brewers have only two players earning more than $10 million this year with outfielder Christan Yelich ($26 million) and Woodruff ($22.025 million). Exactly half of the Dodgers’ team is earning at least $10 million, including eight players in excess of $20 million.
‘We prove,’ Frelick says, ‘that you don’t need to sign 10 players to $100 million deals to be good and to compete.’
No, but it sure does help, covering up any mistakes with money.
Look at the Dodgers. They dropped $72 million last season on free-agent closer Tanner Scott, who flopped in his first year. What do they do? Turn around and throw another $69 million at closer Edwin Diaz this winter, pushing Scott to a setup role.
‘I don’t have any problem with teams spending money as a player, that’s what you want to see,’ Woodruff said. ‘Obviously, the Dodgers have more money than anybody. They’re the juggernauts of Major League Baseball. But you’re not going to get mad at them for spending money.
‘It shows the rest of the league, hey, maybe you can spend a little more money here, too.’
While the Dodgers may be driving Bentleys and Mercedes to their ballgames, with the Brewers getting around in Jeeps and pickup trucks, the two teams have averaged more than 90 victories a season, with four division titles in the past five years.
They just have different styles of getting there, with the Brewers having to trade away potential free agents and prospects to get what they desire, while the Dodgers can reach into their bank account.
‘It’s crazy, but I feel like the money doesn’t really matter,’ Brewers shortstop Joey Ortiz says. ‘The biggest payroll doesn’t mean that you’re going to win ballgames, and the lowest payroll doesn’t mean that you’re going to be the worst team in the league.
‘I feel like we kind of use it as a chip on our shoulder a little bit. We just show up, handle business, and see where we are at the end of the season.’
Says Brewers first baseman Andrew Vaughn: ‘We just drown out the outside noise and play our game. Once you’re on the field, it’s just baseball, not how much money you’re making.’
Still, the Brewers are constantly faced with money decisions, and budgetary concerns. The Dodgers can spend $240 million on outfielder Kyle Tucker to replace Michael Conforto and not even blink. Brewers owner Mark Attanasio paid only $223 million for the entire franchise.
The Brewers hated the idea of having to trade Peralta, their homegrown and lovable two-time All-Star who went 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA last season. Yet, he’s a free agent after this year, and when they couldn’t reach an agreement on a contract extension, they felt the urgency to trade him. They sent him and reliever Tobias Myers to the New York Mets for prized pitching prospect Brandon Sproat and shortstop/center fielder Jett Williams, who immediately became the Brewers’ No. 3 prospect.
‘Losing Freddy was tough,’ Brewers pitcher Aaron Ashby said. ‘Here’s a guy who helped create a really awesome starting rotation here, and just a pitching culture. He was a huge piece of our success, and a model for everyone.’
While everyone anticipated that Peralta likely would be traded once Woodruff accepted his $22.025 million qualifying offer, the trade of Durbin to the Boston Red Sox was stunning. Durbin, who finished third in 2025 NL Rookie of the Year balloting hitting .256 with a .721 OPS, exemplified the Brewers’ blue-collar, gritty team. He was traded along with infielders Andruw Monasterio and Anthony Seigler for left-handed pitchers Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan and infielder David Hamilton.
‘It’s difficult because Durbin represented how we played, what we were about,’ said Brewers manager Pat Murphy, the two-time NL Manager of the Year, who received a three-year, $8.95 million contract after the opening of camp. ‘He was as excited about getting on base by a hit-by-pitch as he was getting a line drive hit. He was all about just getting on base for us.
‘I know we got a lot of pitching depth, and you look at the future, but it’s still tough. I always want to remember this deal was about the big picture.’
The deal certainly raised eyes throughout the industry, even with the Brewers replacing Durbin with the signing of Rengifo to a one-year, $3.5 million contract. Yet, inside the clubhouse, they didn’t blink. They’ve watched Arnold work his magic over the years, stealing pitcher Quinn Priester from the Red Sox last season (13-3 with a 3.32 ERA) and hitting the jackpot by acquiring Vaughn from the White Sox, who hit nine homers with 46 RBI and a .869 OPS in 64 games.
‘It’s kind of how it is here,’ Brewers center fielder Blake Perkins says. ‘They make these trades every year, and everyone gets a little skeptical like, ‘I don’t know about this,’ and they work out great.
‘The big thing they do here is their due diligence on the type of people they want in the clubhouse that mesh well with everybody. They’re big on that. Everyone’s talented in this game, but they make sure everyone meshes well seamlessly. This team is perfect for me.’
Said Arnold: ‘We’re not looking for Boy Scouts everywhere, but you’ve got to have the right guys, guys that are willing to compete and play hard. There’s a certain brand of player that we’re looking at who fits in our clubhouse.’
It’s this culture why Woodruff says it was a no-brainer to accept the qualifying offer as a free agent to return to Milwaukee. He loves the city. Adores the fans. And feels completely at peace in the clubhouse.
‘There’s no place I’d rather be,’ said Woodruff, the Brewers’ 11th-round draft pick in 2014. ‘Everyone gets it here. I know we’ve traded away some pieces, but the front office does a great job here. They don’t make moves just to make moves. Sometimes the public doesn’t necessarily see it, but they always have a reason behind it.
‘I mean, they’re obviously trying to set up moves for the future and to keep us competitive, but at the same time, we know how to win baseball games.’
They’ve got the NL Central flags to prove it.
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