Colin Rea placed on waivers, Freddy Peralta’s club option exercised, and Owen Miller traded to Rockies in series of weekend transactions
The Milwaukee Brewers made a series of transactions on Friday and Saturday, including the decline of a mutual option (Gary Sánchez), an accepted player option (Rhys Hoskins), an exercised club option (Freddy Peralta), a player placed on waivers (Colin Rea), and a trade (Owen Miller).
The least surprising of these is Hoskins’ accepting his $18 million player option for 2025. Hoskins struggled at times in 2024, finishing the season with a .214/.303/.419 (98 OPS+) line with 26 homers and 82 RBIs, compiling a negative bWAR (-0.2) for the first time in his career. He has an additional $18 million option for the 2026 season, though that one would need to be picked up by the Brewers and Hoskins — something that rarely happens.
Speaking of options, the Brewers declined Sánchez’s mutual option for 2025 and picked up Peralta’s option for 2025. Neither of those decisions comes as much of a surprise, as Milwaukee’s catching corps already includes William Contreras, Eric Haase, and rising rookie Jeferson Quero, who has a chance to break spring training with the major league squad. Sáncez’s option was for $11 million, but he’ll instead get a $4 million buyout from the Brewers.
Peralta signed a five-year, $15.5-million contract with the Brewers in 2020 that included club options for both 2025 and 2026 at $8 million/year. The Brewers picked up the 2025 option and will likely pick up the 2026 option next offseason before he hits the open market after 2026.
Rea had a rough end to his 2024 season, though it’s surprising the the Brewers aren’t either exercising his club option ($5.5 million) or just paying the $1 million buyout. Instead, the Brewers will look to see if other teams have interest in Rea, who had a 4.29 ERA across 167 2⁄3 innings in 2024.
Lastly, Miller was sent to the Rockies for cash considerations. Miller, a Wisconsin native, spent parts of 2023 and 2024 with Milwaukee, though he appeared in just 14 MLB games in 2024 before being designated for assignment and outrighted in July.