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The final length of the 2027 MLB season and the economic structure governing it are anything but certain as team owners and players are locked in a bitter labor battle, and a management lockout is expected in December.
Whenever next season happens, though, the World Series champion Brewers will be returning to play with an unusual amount of continuity for a defending title winner. Even before the Brewers’ championship parade happens on Friday morning, the team is assured of having nearly all of its core roster pieces in place for 2027.
Star pitcher Jacob Misiorowski, who won two games in the World Series over the Rays and is poised to win the National League Cy Young Award, is still two seasons away from salary arbitration and five years away from free agency. Outfielder Jackson Chourio and shortstop Cooper Pratt, who each played starring roles in the Fall Classic, signed pre-arbitration contract extensions and are locked in through at least 2031 and 2033, respectively.
Designated hitter and team captain Christian Yelich has two more seasons and a mutual option remaining on his nine-year, $215 million contract. Star reliever Aaron Ashby has another season and two option years remaining on a five-year, $20.5 million deal that is a massive bargain for Milwaukee.
Several other key roster pieces for the Brewers, including outfielder Sal Frelick, closer Trevor Megill, second baseman Brice Turang, and infielder David Hamilton are still in their arbitration years. While many of those players are in line for sizable raises and arbitration proceedings could grow contentious, they each remain under team control for 2027.
Catcher and World Series MVP William Contreras, meanwhile, has a club option for 2027 at $15.5 million that likely will get exercised, as he, too, is performing at a far higher market value.
The result is a particularly high level of stability for the defending champions as they will go into next season with unprecedented expectations. After entering the 2026 season with generally middling expectations from outside observers, the Brewers currently have the second-best betting odds to win the 2027 title behind only the Dodgers.
“We invest a lot of minutes in acquisition and development. We’ve got to make sure the [talent] pipeline is very strong. That’s our foundation,” Brewers GM Matt Arnold said in response to a Front Office Sports question. “Making sure this is sustainable is core to one of [owner] Mark [Attanasio’s] tenets.”
By comparison, other MLB playoff teams such as the Rays, Dodgers, and Guardians are heading into the offseason with notable questions such as the free agency of Los Angeles pitcher Tarik Skubal, in line for a record free-agent contract at his position, and Tampa Bay pitcher Freddy Peralta.
The Free Agent Exceptions
Amid the relative calm, the Brewers’ offseason will contain deliberations on two notable free agents: veteran pitcher Brandon Woodruff and first baseman Jake Bauers.
Woodruff, the longest tenured current Brewers, made the World Series roster after an absence of more than three months due to injury. While he is beloved within the organization, he will likely need to take a discount from this year’s $22.025 million salary, arriving through a qualifying offer last offseason, to stay.
Bauers, meanwhile, was the subject of a hot-mike moment with Milwaukee manager Pat Murphy during the on-field World Series trophy celebration.
“You’re gonna be a rich fucker,” Murphy said to Bauers, referring to his impending free agency. “Just remember, when you’re on that horseshit Yankees team and you guys are all playing for yourself, just remember this is the way we used to do it.”
Bauers responded, “You’re not getting rid of me that easy.”
After having the No. 19 luxury-tax payroll in MLB at $154.7 million, the Brewers are still in 19th place in 2027 commitments at $134.4 million. That’s before any offseason free agent, arbitration, or trade decisions are made, though.
Labor Storm Clouds
The collective bargaining battle between owners and players will hang over the sport for the offseason, and sizable disruption to next year’s schedule is possible.
MLB club owners are seeking several dramatic changes, including a hard salary cap and floor, significant restrictions on free agency, a retooled draft, and a 154-game regular season.
The union vehemently opposes many of those measures, particularly the cap, and is looking to preserve the core of the current, market-based economic system.
The low-budget World Series won by the Brewers served as a further flashpoint in the ongoing economic divide between the two sides, and the union said that the matchup helped “undermine” the owners’ argument for a salary cap.
If the owners prevail and get a salary cap and floor, though, the Brewers would need to increase their spending to get to management’s proposed minimum of $171.2 million. Attanasio is strongly in favor of the proposed cap.
“This has been our goal for 22 years [since acquiring the club], to compete,” Attanasio said in response to a FOS question on the eve of World Series Game 1 featuring his Brewers and the similarly budget-minded Rays. “I think the system that’s being proposed in terms of a revenue-sharing system, not only will help us compete, but more importantly, all of the teams with lower payrolls, too, which is something also I think the fans want.”
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