These are the offseason questions facing the Milwaukee Brewers in 2025

For the fifth straight postseason appearance, the Milwaukee Brewers are left coping with an early-round playoff exit, a series loss at the hands of the New York Mets in the National League wild-card round, two games to one. Just like that, a 93-win season and a third division title in four years are diminished under the weight of a recurring postseason theme, where the Brewers have lost 11 out of 13 playoff games since Oct. 20, 2018.

Could 2025 be different? Here are the questions that need answering.

How can the team fix its postseason issues?

What's challenging is the myriad ways the Brewers have lost playoff games.

Defense failed them in the 2019 wild-card game and in Game 1 of 2024; the offense went quiet in 2021; and top starting pitchers couldn't hold leads in 2023. Two of the game's most elite closers in Josh Hader (2019, 2021) and Devin Williams (2024) have taken season-ending losses. The players, the general manager and even the manager have changed. Is there a clear strand to the struggle?

The easy answer would be to build a team strong enough to skip the wild-card round entirely, though if the Brewers were in the American League this year, their win total would have done just that. Is it as simple as being more aggressive in the offseason and at the trade deadline to acquire difference-makers instead of improvements around the fringes? Easier said than done, of course.

But what Milwaukee hasn't had in the postseason is a complete team. Though the Brewers were able to stitch together a starting-pitching staff in 2018, it had to get creative. In 2021 and 2023, the Brewers couldn't pair strong offensive showing with elite starters. In 2024, they built around defense and pitching with a patchwork starting rotation and an offense that was consistent but lacked power.

The Brewers' issues stem in part from a problem that's been ongoing for years; their difficulty of producing impact bats in the farm system. Perhaps 2024 represents a breakthrough on that front: Garrett Mitchell had a strong year, phenom Jackson Chourio broke through , Brice Turang and Sal Frelick emerged as top defenders and all four delivered big playoff performances.

Milwaukee has been a 15-year cold streak of producing their own home-grown offensive talent, a trend that you could argue dates back to 2007 when the team drafted Matt LaPorta (eventually traded for CC Sabathia) and Jonathan Lucroy.

That inhibits their ability to arm the big-league team and possess the necessary trade capital to strike for a big name in the offseason or at the trade deadline. Granted, the deadline seems to be losing its value as a market for difference-makers with so many teams still in the hunt at July's end, adding importance to the offseason. Which brings us to...

Will the Brewers spend money this offseason?

Milwaukee has gone gradually down in payroll over the last three years and won more games each season, though it did make a medium-sized free-agent splash last offseason in signing Rhys Hoskins. The results can most charitably regarded as "mixed."

The way team representatives have spoken about Willy Adames implies that Milwaukee won't be bringing him back now that he's in line for a lucrative free-agent deal. If not even for Adames, it's hard to imagine that Milwaukee will stray from its offseason modus operandi: Simply not engaging with the top crust of the free-agent market.

Even though the Brewers have some obvious needs at third base (Alex Bregman) or starting pitcher (Max Fried, Blake Snell) or even first base (Pete Alonso, Christian Walker), it would be an upset if the Brewers began shelling out cash now, particularly after the team's reduction in payroll hasn't correlated with worse performance.

What will the team get next year from two of its cornerstones, Christian Yelich and Brandon Woodruff?

Christian Yelich's back problems cut short what was an outstanding season, and his presence in the postseason would certainly have gone a long way to solving some of the shortcomings Milwaukee ultimately had. Getting him to the finish line won't be easy, but perhaps back surgery this season will renew Yelich on the health front. He was a no-doubt All-Star Game starter this year, but next year will be his age-33 season. Is there any way he can replicate 2024, by far his best season since his run of dominance in 2018-19?

Then, there's a wild card in Brandon Woodruff, who underwent surgery to repair his anterior capsule after the 2023 season and didn't pitch at all in 2024. The Brewers signed him to a two-year contract hoping they could get one more year out of him in 2025. As we saw with Aaron Ashby, shoulder injuries are unpredictable. Ashby missed 2023 and was ineffective for 2024 … until he wasn't, becoming an excellent bullpen option late in the season. The Brewers surely hope Woodruff becomes available much earlier and at a greater volume of workload, but that's a tough ask.

Who plays the corner infield spots in 2024?

First base and third base are question marks for Milwaukee, yet again.

If we operate under the assumption that Joey Ortiz will shift from third to shortstop once Willy Adames will sign a free-agent deal elsewhere, that leaves a vacancy at the hot corner, one that's been just as difficult to fill as first base for the Brewers in recent years. Top prospect Brock Wilken was hit in the face with a pitch earlier this year and never got on track at Class AA Biloxi, and fast-rising Luke Adams won't turn 21 until April and is still too far away. Could Oliver Dunn be the answer after an injury-riddled 2024 season? Dunn has the defensive acumen but probably still needs time to acclimate as a big-league hitter. More likely, it seems the Brewers will need to find an answer outside the organization.

Rhys Hoskins posted a .722 OPS this year, below league average by OPS-plus, but it stands to reason he'll pick up his player option and return for $18 million next season. Perhaps he improves in his second full year back from ACL surgery, but he's probably best suited as a designated hitter, and Jake Bauers might be a non-tender candidate. That could leave first base as an opportunity for an offseason addition. The Brewers have famously struggled to employ a consistent talent at first base since Prince Fielder, though that conventional thinking belies the excellent seasons authored by Eric Thames and Jesús Aguilar in a run from 2017-19.

Will Devin Williams be traded?

Williams may have surrendered the runs in the 2024 postseason that ended Milwaukee's season, but he's still one of the best relief pitchers around. He will be entering the final year before free agency, and if we follow the Brewers' traditional pattern, he seems like a prime offseason trade candidate. Williams has been a dominant force when healthy, though the Brewers have shown a knack for developing relievers, including this season. Will the Brewers be able to get big-league talent for a relief pitcher, even one as superb as Williams?

Who's in the starting rotation in 2025?

The starting rotation in 2025 is absolutely anyone's guess.

Freddy Peralta figures to be back, with the Brewers possessing team options in 2025 and 2026 on his team-friendly contract. His numbers regressed slightly in his age 28 season in 2024, and even though he was the team's best option, he hasn't been able to consistently match his overpowering stuff with effectiveness deep into ballgames.

Tobias Myers seems to have the greatest likelihood of netting a spot, and then comes far more questions than answers. The team would be tempted to bring back Colin Rea and Aaron Civale, though he won't come ultra-cheaply in his final year of arbitration. Additionally, there's the wild-card status of Woodruff. Could Aaron Ashby return to a starting role? Where will DL Hall fit in? Is there any chance Robert Gasser could be available by the second half of 2025 after Tommy John surgery (probably not)? Will the team try to bring back Wade Miley or Joe Ross? What about options in the minors? Speaking of which…

What's next for Jacob Misiorowski?

Jacob Misiorowski, the Brewers' top organizational prospect, began working in relief at Class AAA Nashville and seemed like a prime candidate to appear with the big-league team for the home stretch of 2024. That didn't happen, so now the question becomes, "What's next?" Will the team return him to a starter's role, potentially elongating his timetable for arrival in Milwaukee?

The right-hander will turn 23 in early April, and though his numbers wound up looking great over two minor-league stops this season, he still has a penchant for control issues (60 walks in 97 innings this season… but also 127 strikeouts). Will the team decide his profile fits as a potentially dominant reliever, fast-tracking him to the big leagues?

What's next for Jeferson Quero?

The team's other top prospect, catcher Jeferson Quero, would be a logical backup to William Contreras on the 2025 team. The only problem is that Quero needed shoulder surgery after diving back into first base opening the 2024 season, costing him a full year. He's about to turn 22, so there's still time to nurture him along before he's added to the big-league roster, but that means Milwaukee will need a solution at catcher with Gary Sánchez on a one-year deal in 2024. Eric Haase is an obvious candidate, as he just now reaches his first year of salary arbitration.

The Brewers didn't have a true NL Central challenger in 2024. How much longer will that last?

The division was a disappointment at large this season. The Cubs finished with the exact same record in 2024 with new manager Craig Counsell as they did in 2023, the Reds were sidetracked by injuries and actually got worse, and though the Cardinals bounced back a small amount from their disastrous 2023 season, they didn't set the world on fire. Milwaukee won the division by 10 games.

On first glance, the Brewers will probably be favored to win the division again, if only because there's no clear-cut challenger among the other teams. But it's hard to imagine those three franchises sitting idly by; none are in strictly-speaking "rebuild" mode, and all three know the division is winnable.

One other thing to note: The Cubs just fired a handful of coaches after the 2024 season. Continuity in the coaching staff has been regarded as one of the team's strengths this season; will a few be tempted to join their former skipper in Chicago?

Three players who bear watching this offseason

• Bryan Hudson. He was dominant in the first half and had tremendous numbers overall, but the Brewers elected to send him to Class AAA for September, believing he didn't look quite right. Then, he wasn't added to the postseason roster, either. Pat Murphy said it was among his hardest calls and Hudson would have likely been added if the Brewers had faced a lefty-heavy lineup like Arizona, but has the team lost faith in one of its hammers?
• Tyler Black. This lined up for Black's breakthrough season, but he was never able to stay on the big-league roster. He hasn't seemingly developed the defensive acumen to stick at first base and he posted only a .561 OPS in 57 plate appearances. If he can't stick on the field, will Milwaukee look to trade him? He'll turn 25 next season, and the team is running out of time to find him a niche in Milwaukee.
• Logan Henderson. While Misiorowski is understandably top billing when it comes to minor-league pitchers, Henderson did plenty to put himself fully on the radar and in the conversation for a rotation spot in 2025. Would it surprise us if he came away from camp as the No. 5 starter? It would not.

This story was updated to change or add a photo or video.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: These are the offseason questions facing the Milwaukee Brewers in 2025