How everyone on the Brewers can improve their 2025 outlook
As the year ends and we turn our attention to 2025, we often find ourselves thinking about how we can improve our lives in the coming year. I’ve applied the New Year’s Resolution concept to the Milwaukee Brewers and determined a baseball-related resolution that (almost) everyone who figures into the Brewers’ major league plans in 2025 can think about to have a fulfilling and productive season.
Aaron Ashby: Figure out your best role
The Brewers would probably prefer for Ashby, who is under contract for at least another three years (with two club options after that), to be a starter, and his ability to throw at least four pitches gives him that potential. But he also really showed something as a reliever last season, and he’s got high-leverage reliever stuff. I’m all for the Brewers trying him as a starter again, but if it seems like his best role is to come out of the bullpen, great: embrace it, and become a shut-down, multi-inning weapon.
Tyler Black: Don’t get frustrated by the lack of a challenge system
Black’s greatest asset as a hitter is his eye. In four minor league seasons, Black has walked 15.5% of the time, a rate that would have been third in the majors last season behind Aaron Judge and Juan Soto. But when he reached the majors last season, he seemed to get frustrated when borderline calls—that he was right about, it should be noted—didn’t go his way. I don’t know if his inability to challenge those calls and the subsequent lack of count leverage is what threw him off, but Black hit only .204 with a .245 slugging percentage in 57 plate appearances in the majors. Black can be a good MLB hitter, but he needs to trust that his approach will work in the majors, even if he’ll get occasionally robbed by a bad ump.
J.B. Bukauskas: Pitch more than 20 big-league innings
Bukauskas has played in parts of three major league seasons for three different teams, but he has never exceeded 17 1⁄3 innings pitched as a major leaguer. His limited results as a Brewer have been good. Let’s see if we can set that new career-high innings total.
Jackson Chourio: Avoid a sophomore slump
Chourio had a historically good season as a 20-year-old rookie in 2024. The expectations placed on him are going to be sky-high, which scares me a little. If he levels up again, he will become one of the best players in the league. For now, I just want him to naturally build on the success he had in the second half of last season; if he plays the whole year at that level, he’s an All-Star and maybe the best player on the team. The MVPs don’t need to happen this year.
Aaron Civale: Get paid!
If Civale does well as a free agent next winter, it will be because he had a good year with the Brewers in 2024. Go get that money, Aaron.
William Contreras: Don’t get greedy, but is there another level?
As far as I’m concerned, Contreras can just keep doing what he’s been doing. He was the league’s best catcher last season and finished fifth in MVP voting, and he’s won two Silver Sluggers in two years as a Brewer. But is there an extra level there? Could a few of those doubles be converted to homers? If Contreras gets to 30 homers (his career high is 23), plays solid defense, and the Brewers have another division-winning season, he will be right in the thick of the MVP race and we’ll have to truly start thinking about him as one of the best catchers of the 21st century.
Nestor Cortes: Don’t require surgery
Cortes missed the end of the season and pitched only two innings in the postseason because of an elbow flexor strain. This injury can be a precursor to a torn UCL (which would require Tommy John surgery). I’m certain that the Brewers did their diligence before getting him as the main piece in the Devin Williams trade; he’s only got one year left before free agency, so Milwaukee certainly wouldn’t have traded their star closer for him if they thought he was going to require surgery. Cortes can be very helpful to the Brewers next season, and it will obviously be in his best interest to stay healthy with his free agency pending, so here’s to hoping—for all parties involved—he avoids any further complications.
Oliver Dunn: Make a little more contact
Dunn swings hard. His 75.2-mph average bat speed in 2024 was faster than every Brewer except Garrett Mitchell, and that translated to a 46.4% hard-hit percentage, which would rank in the top 40 in the league among qualified hitters (tied with Pete Alonso, just ahead of Elly De La Cruz, to give a little context). But swinging so hard has its downsides: Dunn struck out a LOT with a 38.4% strikeout rate (for reference, the worst K% of any qualified hitter was Zack Gelof at 34.4%). There might be some middle ground here. Dunn can take a little heat off that swing, make a bit more contact, and still do damage on the balls he connects with.
Caleb Durbin: Show us you can hit major league pitching
Durbin probably isn’t a good enough fielder to justify a major league roster spot without solid offensive production. He hit pretty well in the Yankees’ system the past two seasons; he profiles as a very low-power guy, but an optimistic view could see him as a high-average, high-OBP major leaguer who is a terror on the basepaths. Let’s see it happen!
Sal Frelick: Hit the ball harder
Frelick has a strange offensive profile. He rarely swings and misses. He’s not bad in terms of chasing pitches outside the zone. His “squared-up percentage,” according to Statcast, was in the top 10% of the league. But the rest of his batting numbers are bluer than Paul Bunyan’s ox. Frelick was in the bottom three percent of the league in bat speed, hard-hit percentage, barrel percentage, average exit velocity, and expected slugging. He’ll never be a power hitter, but he’s fast, and if he can start turning some of his contact into balls that actually move, we could have something here. He needs to swing harder, I think; sacrificing some of his good strikeout percentage for even a modest uptick in exit velocity would be a positive step. Frelick is a Gold Glove outfielder, a good baserunner, and he seems to be a good clubhouse presence. Is the guy who hit .365/.435/.508 at Triple-A Nashville in 2022 still in there?
Robert Gasser: Have a smooth rehab!
An offseason interview suggested that the Brewers think Gasser could be back in the majors by September. If Gasser is fully healthy, he could be a bit of a wild card addition late in the season, but the most important thing by far is for him to avoid any setbacks.
Eric Haase: Play good defense
Haase really hit well in a limited role in 2024, as he put up a .273/.304/.515 batting line (in a sample of just 69 plate appearances). History suggests his bat is more than capable of filling a backup catcher role, but how about his defense? The available defensive numbers do not really paint Haase as a good defensive catcher, but his framing numbers in 2024 (again, a tiny sample) weren’t bad. He’ll need to be reliable behind the plate, or the Brewers will be in danger of running William Contreras into the ground… and Haase’s backup job might be in danger of being turned over to prospect Jeferson Quero.
DL Hall: Carve out a major league role
The 2024 season did not go according to plan for Hall, a player who came in with high expectations after being one of two players acquired in the Corbin Burnes trade. But a mysterious loss of velocity and an absurdly frustrating rehab journey mostly kept Hall sidelined until the last month of the season. And while he was inconsistent in that month, he showed flashes; seven shutout innings on August 30, for example, or four scoreless innings in relief a few days after that against St. Louis. There’s ability and potential here: Hall just needs to harness it, whether that’s as a starter or reliever.
Rhys Hoskins: Forget about last year and do what you know you’re good at
Hoskins was not good in 2024. The pessimist would say that he was already declining prior to the injury that cost him all of 2023 and that, at 32, there’s no real reason to expect him to improve upon last season’s numbers. The optimist, though, would note that he had a career-low walk percentage (which can be improved upon) and the second-worst BABIP of his career (bad luck?). I think it’s entirely reasonable to think that Rhys Hoskins, professional hitter, still exists, and even with the struggles last season he still hit 26 homers in 131 games. Don’t get in your head, big guy, just go out there, wait for your pitch, and hit bombs.
Bryan Hudson: Find the All-Star form again
Hudson from the beginning of the season through the end of June: 44 innings, four earned runs (0.82 ERA), eight walks, 51 strikeouts. Hudson from the beginning of July through the end of the season: 18 1⁄3 innings, eight earned runs (3.93 ERA), nine walks, 11 strikeouts. I’m not totally sure what happened (probably fatigue), but the strikeouts dried up, the control left, and he was hit hard. He nearly made the All-Star team; if the Brewers can find that pitcher again, that’s a huge weapon.
Jared Koenig: Be careful with the cutter
Koenig’s go-to pitch is a sinker, but he throws a cutter about a quarter of the time (more than any off-speed pitch). That cutter gets a lot of the plate and batters performed better against it than any of his other pitches. Koenig did a generally good job of avoiding hard contact in 2024, but that cutter scares me a little.
Nick Mears: Trust the stuff… and avoid the home run ball
Mears is an odd case; the Brewers traded for him because the underlying data suggested that his 5.56 ERA in 41 outings with the Rockies last season was incredibly inflated (he had a 2.61 FIP in that same timeframe). Things went sideways when he arrived in Milwaukee though, and he allowed 10 runs, all earned, in 12 1/3 innings. Still: Statcast says there’s a good relief pitcher in there. He’s just got to avoid big mistakes.
Trevor Megill: Don’t let the pressure get to you
Megill performed admirably in Devin Williams’ absence in 2024: in 35 games before Williams returned in late July, Megill had a 2.41 ERA and 40 strikeouts in 33 2⁄3 innings while converting 20 of 22 save opportunities. He could use a better go-to secondary pitch, but his fastball is good enough to make him a solid closer. Now that he’ll be filling that role exclusively, let’s make sure it doesn’t get to his head.
Garrett Mitchell: Stay healthy!
Mitchell has been a very productive player when he’s been on the field. That hasn’t been nearly often enough: he’s played 28, 19, and 69 games in three seasons since his big-league debut. Mitchell produced at a five-WAR pace in 2024, but at this point in his career, he’s developed a reputation as being made of glass. He could have All-Star potential but we need to see him play more than 100 games in a season first.
Andruw Monasterio: Do the little things
With the acquisition of Durbin, Monasterio is probably the Brewer with the most precarious roster spot at the moment; if Milwaukee does what is expected and acquires another infielder before the season, Monasterio is probably the most likely to go, unless the Brewers decide to keep the soon-to-be 25-year-old Durbin in the minor leagues for more seasoning. Monasterio was a solid backup infielder in 2023, but his offense disappeared in 2024 and he wasn’t all that great defensively, either. He can still carve out a role as a backup infielder in this league if his defense picks back up and he finds the solid contact he was making in 2023. If he demonstrates those things in spring training he’ll have a good chance to make this team.
Tobias Myers: Keep the magic flowing
Myers came out of nowhere last season to become the Brewers’ most reliable starting pitcher down the stretch. But the Statcast numbers don’t really match up to reality, suggesting that Myers was a bit lucky (and benefited from the outstanding defense behind him). Who cares! Jim Palmer had a Hall-of-Fame career benefiting from outstanding defense and outperforming his peripherals. Keep it going, Tobias.
Joey Ortiz: Find more barrels
Ortiz’s offensive approach isn’t bad. He is pretty good at not chasing bad pitches, his strikeout rate is about middle of the pack, he does a good job drawing walks, and he’s got solid bat speed. But he just wasn’t squaring baseballs up, so all of the hard-hit stuff (exit velocity, barrel percentage, sweet-spot percentage, etc.) looks bad on Statcast. The approach is good, and even with the bad contact, Ortiz was about a league-average offensive player in 2024. If the quality of contact improves, he could become a real positive with the bat.
Joel Payamps: Be the good Payamps
Middle relief is a fickle thing, and I’m not sure we give Payamps enough credit for turning in four straight years of pretty solid middle relieving. After an excellent 2023, Payamps struggled a bit in the first half of 2024 before finding it for long stretches in the second half. At times, he looked like the most reliable reliever in the bullpen after Williams and Megill. In 2023, he was that guy for the full season. Let’s see if he can do it again, in a season where he could act as Megill’s primary set-up man.
Elvis Peguero: Keep that sinker closer to the edges of the zone
Peguero was relied on a lot through large parts of last season but his Statcast profile is a confusing mix of good and bad omens. Peguero throws a hard, moving sinker and had an elite groundball rate, but he left pitches in the middle of the zone too often and that resulted in a lot of hard contact; Peguero was 35th percentile in hard-hit percentage and in the bottom fifth of the league in average exit velocity. He also walked a lot of guys and didn’t strike out many; you can live with the lack of strikeouts as long as he’s getting ground balls, but too often he was hurt. His overall results from last season look decent but no one—coaches or fans—seemed to have a ton of trust in him by the end of the season and he was demoted to Nashville twice late in the season. Nibbling at the edges won’t help his woeful walk rate, but the more important thing right now is to limit the hard contact.
Freddy Peralta: Consistency!
Peralta is not the front-line ace that we perhaps once dreamed he could be, and that’s okay. But he is the leader of this team’s starting rotation, and while he had a solid year in 2024, the thing that frustrated many fans was Peralta’s lack of consistency. Peralta frequently ran into trouble finishing innings and he got through six innings in only 12 of his 32 starts. Peralta struggled a bit with a consistent breaking pitch in 2024, and getting better results from his slider or curveball (he throws both but without a ton of success) could be the key to getting him through those tough innings. Peralta is a good pitcher; if he can consistently find another way to get batters out, he could be a great one.
Blake Perkins: Swing a little harder
In truth, I don’t have a whole lot to complain about with Perkins. He’s the Platonic ideal of a fourth outfielder: elite defensively, fast, a good baserunner, a switch hitter who isn’t completely lost at the plate and has a decent approach. Asking Perkins to become a good offensive player would feel like asking him to do something he just isn’t built for. I’ll stretch a little here: Perkins has a good square-up rate but he doesn’t get much exit velocity. That could be because he’s in the bottom 15% of the league in bat speed. There’s already a bit of swing-and-miss in Perkins’ game so I wouldn’t want him to go crazy, but he sees the strike zone well and squares balls up — they just aren’t doing damage. A little extra bat speed could help.
Jeferson Quero: Be patient and show us your arm still works
Barring injury, the Brewers will not need Quero next season; they employ the league’s best catcher and Eric Haase could be one of the better backups in the league. Quero was one of baseball’s top prospects before he hurt his shoulder on the first day of last year’s minor league season, someone who projected as an elite defensive player who had solid offensive results as a very young player in the minors. What we need from Quero this year is for him to get back on the trajectory he was on before his lost season last year, and to prove that he is ready for prime time.
Brice Turang: Be the hitter from last year’s first half
Turang could still become a decent major league hitter; as a prospect, he projected as a solid hitter, and he had decent results in the high minors, but he was probably the league’s worst everyday batter in 2023. But a change in approach had him hitting .292/.354/.417 through the end of June last season, until he disappeared completely in the second half. That first-half approach was sort of a poor man’s imitation of Luis Arráez: a slow bat, no power, but not a lot of strikeouts, and a healthy use of the opposite field. Turang is a reigning Platinum Glove winner and one of the best baserunners in the league. He does not need to challenge for batting titles like Arráez does to be an outstanding player; if he can approach league average over a full season, he will be an immensely valuable asset for this team.
Abner Uribe: Get the walks—and everything else—under control
Uribe came into last season as arguably the favorite to take over the closer job while Devin Williams was on the shelf. It did not happen. Uribe gave up 11 runs and walked 12 in 14 appearances between March 29 and May 1, and was demoted to Triple-A Nashville, but not before getting himself suspended after inciting a brawl with Jose Siri and the Tampa Bay Rays (a suspension which he still hasn’t served). Uribe still had control problems after the demotion to Nashville despite better results in limited time. The stuff is tantalizing, but if he’s ever going to stick at the major league level, he’ll need to cut that walk rate, which is currently 6.4 batters per nine in his major league career and even worse in the minors.
Grant Wolfram: Make your big-league debut
Wolfram, who the Brewers signed to a major league deal, has never pitched above Triple-A. Assuming he’s healthy and sticks with the organization, Wolfram will almost certainly appear in the majors this season, given the number of pitchers the team tends to cycle through during the year. No matter what happens after that, it will be a great moment for the 28-year-old.
Brandon Woodruff: Make it to 130 innings and finish the year healthy
This seems like a fairly low bar, but Woodruff has only surpassed 130 innings twice in his career (in 2021 and 2022). He has pitched in only 11 games since ’22, but history tells us that as long as he is on the mound, he should be effective. Coming back from such a long layoff is always a bit of a wild card, but Woodruff has never had an ERA+ below 123 in a season in which he threw more than 43 innings. For reference: 123 is the career ERA+ of Hall of Famers Juan Marichal and Mike Mussina.
Christian Yelich: Stay on the field
In 2024, Yelich was closer to his MVP form than he has been in any season outside of 2018-19, before or after. At this point in his career, we don’t expect Yelich to play a full 162-game slate, but if the rest of the Brewers’ outfield is healthy, he should play more DH, take frequent days off, and keep himself feeling good.