- - 4 big questions for the Brewers: Will Milwaukee trade Freddy Peralta? Will they upgrade the offense?

Jordan ShustermanJanuary 7, 2026 at 2:39 AM

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Owners of MLB’s best regular-season record and a franchise-record 97 wins in 2025, the Milwaukee Brewers crashed out of last year’s postseason in fairly humiliating fashion. It’s one thing to be eliminated by the eventual World Series champions — and it’s no secret that the Los Angeles Dodgers wielded a particularly powerful roster — but the degree to which Milwaukee was outclassed in the NLCS undeniably began the winter on a sobering, sour note that made the rollicking success of the regular season feel like a distant memory. The Brewers were outscored 15-4 over the course of the four-game sweep. Worse, they hit a combined .118/.191/.193, amounting to a paltry .384 OPS that was the second-lowest mark ever by a team in a championship series.

After a summer filled with magical moments and an early-round playoff triumph over the rival Cubs, the Brewers fell short of what would have been just the second World Series appearance in franchise history. At the same time, their enormous sample of winning in the months prior was another reminder of the organization’s unique ability to remain ultra-competitive on a yearly basis, regardless of payroll or roster turnover. Still, Milwaukee repeatedly coming close over the past decade without actually reaching the Fall Classic raises the question of what this organization can do to ensure that final destination is finally reached.

To that end, the offseason represents an opportunity for contenders to make the necessary roster upgrades to advance further the following season. But the Brewers haven’t acted with any kind of urgency this winter — a sharp contrast to the transactional activity of another team that suffered postseason heartbreak against the Dodgers, the Toronto Blue Jays, who have responded to their World Series loss with multiple major signings. Meanwhile, the Brewers’ activity in free agency has consisted of retaining Brandon Woodruff via the qualifying offer and signing outfielder Akil Baddoo to a split deal that doesn’t guarantee a roster spot. That’s it.

Of course, the difference in market size and spending power must be acknowledged when comparing Milwaukee’s offseason to those of their rivals, but the Brewers’ relative passivity still stands as an interesting organizational response to what occurred in 2025. They aren’t alone in this category, but the Brewers’ outsized regular-season success followed by a particularly unpleasant postseason exit make their timid hot stove strategy worthy of a deeper look.

With pitchers and catchers reporting to Maryvale, Arizona, in a little more than a month, here are four big questions looming over the Brew Crew:

1. Will they trade Freddy Peralta?

Amidst a starting pitching market that hasn’t really gotten moving this offseason, the Brewers have one of the most valuable trade chips in the league in Peralta, who is coming off the best season of his career and slated to make just $8 million in 2026 before reaching free agency. Most players in Peralta’s position and of his caliber would seem like the last player a team would entertain trading, considering his value, but the Brewers have consistently demonstrated a willingness to deal away key players before their contracts expire in an effort to recoup valuable future assets; Peralta’s former rotationmate Corbin Burnes is the most glaring recent example.

Replicating the Burnes gambit now looms as a possibility as multiple teams inquire about Peralta, and there’s an argument that Peralta could fetch even more in a trade than what Burnes yielded from Baltimore (shortstop Joey Ortiz, left-hander DL Hall, and draft pick eventually used on first baseman Blake Burke, who reached Double-A in his first full professional season in 2025). Peralta isn’t quite as accomplished on the whole as Burnes was at the time of his trade, but he’s coming off a better season, and his modest salary is much more attractive than the roughly $16 million Burnes was projected to make in his final year of arbitration.

Assuming super-ace Tarik Skubal isn’t dealt, Peralta is arguably the best pitcher left on the free-agent or trade markets, comparing favorably not only to fellow trade candidates such as MacKenzie Gore and Edward Cabrera but also to the top free-agent arms such as Framber Valdez, Ranger Suarez and Zac Gallen. It’s not hard to see why teams would be willing to pay a hefty price to land Peralta, even for just one season, and such offers might prove too enticing for the Brewers to pass up.

That said, trading yet another longtime fan favorite is not a decision to be taken lightly, even if Milwaukee has done this dance before. And executing such a trade while meaningfully improving the roster for 2026 is a delicate balance to strike — if it’s possible at all.

2. What are the expectations for Jacob Misiorowski in 2026?

Beyond whether Milwaukee can extract enough value in a trade for Peralta, the other key consideration when weighing such a move involves the strength of the rotation with or without him. Keeping Woodruff via the qualifying offer is one crucial piece of that puzzle, though his durability moving forward remains a serious question considering his ailments in recent years, including a lat strain that rendered him unavailable for the postseason. The Brewers have also demonstrated an ability to turn pitchers who failed to flourish with other organizations into impactful arms in Milwaukee, with Quinn Priester and Chad Patrick the latest examples fortifying the club’s rotation depth and Tobias Myers another relevant character in that regard.

However, few pitchers across the entire sport enter 2026 with as much intrigue as Misiorowski. The lanky right-hander, who will turn just 24 years old in April, enjoyed a supersonic ascent to stardom last season, a roller-coaster ride that also featured some notable points of adversity but finished on an encouraging note given how he looked in the postseason, when he struck out 16 batters while allowing just two earned runs in 12 innings across three appearances.

Fresh off his star turn in 2025 — and after a notable jump in workload to a career-high 129⅓ frames across the minors, majors and postseason — what is a realistic outlook for Misiorowski’s sophomore campaign? Will he continue striking out boatloads of batters with his otherworldly stuff, or will he ultimately prove too wild to be a reliable rotation option, validating a concern that has followed him throughout his trajectory as a prospect?

The degree of confidence that Milwaukee has in Misiorowski to develop into its next frontline arm could play a role in the team’s decision to trade or hold onto Peralta. And Peralta ramifications aside, Misiorowski’s development will be well worth monitoring in 2026.

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3. Will the Brewers add a major-league hitter?

Outside of Baddoo — an intriguing bounce-back target in the mold of some other reclamation projects who have thrived in Milwaukee but far from a sure bet to contribute — the most prominent addition Milwaukee has made to its offensive unit this offseason is a couple of new hitting coaches ( including former slugger Daniel Vogelbach). In fact, the Brewers have technically subtracted from their offense more than they’ve added, trading Isaac Collins to Kansas City coming off Collins’ unlikely breakout campaign in which he finished fourth in NL Rookie of the Year voting.

Left-hander Angel Zerpa — the return for Collins in that deal — might well make an important impact on the mound for Milwaukee, but he isn’t going to help the team’s run-production efforts, and that raises questions about whether there will be any offensive upgrades before Opening Day for an offense that ranked 11th in OPS and 22nd in home runs in 2025 and flamed out against the Dodgers in October.

Perhaps reinforcements could come in the return in a Peralta trade (or some other trade), or there are still a good number of free-agent bats available who could help the Brewers and won’t cost a ton, such as Miguel Andujar or Austin Hays. First base — depending how confident Milwaukee is in Andrew Vaughn’s renaissance — and left field are two spots to monitor for upgrades, especially if the Brewers are intent on sticking with Joey Ortiz at shortstop, as has been reported.

4. What is Jackson Chourio’s ceiling?

If Misiorowski represents the most tantalizing and critical pitcher to project for Milwaukee, Chourio is unquestionably the most important bat when assessing the overall strength of the position-player group. After flashing tremendous potential as a 20-year-old rookie, Chourio turned in a sophomore season with eerily similar surface-level totals — seriously, go look at how nearly identical his first two seasons were — but his underlying metrics regressed just enough to make Chourio’s second campaign a modest disappointment, albeit nothing that would dampen his outlook as a future star.

Now 2026 represents a pivotal opportunity for Chourio to demonstrate that he’s still on track to be a face-of-the-franchise type of player, and he’ll need to prove it on both sides of the ball. He has obvious potential as a power-speed dynamo, but his value to Milwaukee in the long term will be dictated even more by how he progresses as a defender.

Should Chourio prove he can play a capable center field — where he started 91 games in the regular season before exclusively playing corner outfield in the postseason — that would lessen the pressure on his bat to hit at superstar levels while enhancing Milwaukee’s roster flexibility. If he settles into left or right field instead, it will become paramount for Chourio the hitter to elevate his output.

There’s plenty of time for Chourio to make the necessary adjustments to upgrade his game with the bat and the glove — he turns just 22 in March, after all — but how quickly and how dramatically those improvements take place will play a big part in Milwaukee’s plans and ambitions for the foreseeable future.

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Source: “AOL Sports”