The Brewers have ‘gamers’ … and some potential Hall of Famers

“They may have a bunch of Hall of Famers, but we’ve got a bunch of gamers,” said Brewers manager Pat Murphy after Milwaukee’s overwhelming four-game NLCS sweep of the star-studded, two-time defending champion Dodgers. “And the gamers won this week.”

We won’t try to identify gamers, a generally ambiguous term that somewhat aligns to “playing the game the right way,” and surely titans like Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman would qualify there. But Murphy’s larger point is an interesting one, too. Do the Brewers have any future Hall of Famers? Will they?

With a full week off before the Fall Classic begins, it’s a fun discussion to have.

It is, obviously, far too soon to know. Milwaukee has baseball’s youngest pitching staff, and only Christian Yelich (34), backup catcher Gary Sánchez (33) and first baseman (Jake Bauers, who turned 31 earlier this month) are in their thirties on the hitting side. There’s so much story left to be written here.

Otherwise, there’s a reason that baseball’s fastest team also throws baseball’s second-fastest fastballs, and that’s because they’re young, and so there’s just so many different ways all these various careers could go over the coming years.

But, since Murphy brought it up -- and because we look annually at the future Hall of Famers you might see right now -- it’s a fascinating question. Will we, years from now, at some far-off Cooperstown induction, think back to the long-ago season when the Brewers won 103 games and hosted the start of the World Series in their home park? If so, who might that be? And, if they do go on to win the World Series, how rare would it be if they end up not having any Hall of Famers?

That latter question, we think, applies only to the Brewers. If Cleveland advances and wins, they have José Ramírez, who seems all but assured of first-ballot induction some day. If it’s Tampa Bay, we might say that Junior Caminero’s first two full seasons have been nothing short of historic, but even if not, it’s also easy to forget that for about two months this summer, they employed Craig Kimbrel, who is going to have a very compelling case for induction when his time comes.

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If we stop the clock at 20 years ago, through 2006, then there were only three World Series winning teams ever that didn’t have at least one Hall of Famer appear for them during that season (if not necessarily also in the playoffs).

• 1981 Dodgers. Steve Garvey has appeared on various ballots at least 20 times, and it seems unlikely he’ll ever make it in. You could make a strong case for the late Fernando Valenzuela, but it hasn’t yet happened.

• 1997 Marlins. It remains possible that someday, opinions will shift on Gary Sheffield (509 homers) and he’ll get in, removing the Marlins from this list. For now, they’re not represented among the playing roster.

• 2002 Angels. No, not Vladimir Guerrero Sr., a Hall of Famer who didn’t join the team until 2004. There’s actually not anyone on this roster with any sort of real case, other than closer Francisco Rodriguez, who remains on the ballot but seems exceedingly unlikely to ever get in.

We won’t worry about more recent ones than that. When Buster Posey gets in, that will resolve several Giants winners, and the same for Yadier Molina and the 2013 Cardinals, and Chase Utley and/or Cole Hamels may yet save the 2008 Phillies. Anything more recent than that (like the 2015 Royals and 2016 Cubs) revolve around still-active players.

What, then, about the Brewers? From our view, there’s four possible outcomes – barring some completely unexpected ascension like prospect catcher Jeferson Quero, who has previously appeared on top-100 lists and got into exactly one March game and so would technically count, having a wildly great future.

From oldest to youngest ..

OF/DH Christian Yelich (34)

The 2018 National League Most Valuable Player – and a very close runner-up the following year – Yelich, who turns 35 in December, is the closest on this team to having the story of his career mostly written. Owner of two of the eight best seasons in Brewers history, Yelich will likely end up taking the sixth-most plate appearances of any batter the Brewers have ever had. But: Hall of Fame? He’ll have a case, yet it’s more likely that this ends up with No. 22 being retired in the rafters than with his induction in Cooperstown, as 2018-’19 stand out as the only truly elite years in a long career of otherwise very good years.

2B Brice Turang (26)

A first-round pick in 2018, Turang’s first two seasons in the bigs didn’t necessarily suggest future greatness, as a good glove and excellent baserunning were supporting a well-below average bat, given that in a sport where a 100 OPS+ is ‘average,’ he was running a quite poor 75 OPS+. But Turang improved considerably in 2025, hitting 18 homers to go with a 121 OPS+, and backed it up again in 2026, upping his bat speed and his power potential to hit 21 homers and drive in 100.

He’s improved to the point now that calling him the best all-around second baseman in the game – though he is – isn’t enough. In 2026, Turang was a top-5 position player in the game, and this is a good reminder that Hall of Fame conversations aren’t as much about “number of All Star selections” as you’d think, because Turang, somehow, hasn’t received one yet. That’s a little about the fans who didn’t vote him as a starter, and a little about the players who didn’t select him on their ballot either, and mostly we’re guessing that won’t be an issue in years to come.

Two outstanding seasons do not make a Hall of Famer. But two years ago, he wouldn’t even have been mentioned here. If this is the new normal, though? He’s young enough to just be entering his prime. When thinking about Turang's path to Cooperstown, the name Chase Utley comes to mind, another second baseman with a similar broad base of skills who was a key cog on a number of successful playoff teams. Utley has seen his HOF support steadily rise over the past couple of ballots, and if you want to dream on Turang's path to baseball immortality, it's a solid comp.

SP Jacob Misiorowski (24)

This one writes itself, both the positives and potential downsides. “The Miz” is almost certainly going to win the 2026 National League Cy Young, potentially unanimously at that. Only five pitchers have previously won the Cy in their second season, and he (along with Cam Schlittler, if he wins in the AL, as expected), would join a pretty exclusive list.

He’s the hardest-throwing starter we’ve ever tracked, which makes him potentially the hardest-throwing starter ever; he just finished up a season allowing the lowest batting average of any starter in history, and the third-lowest WHIP in a full season, where the only two names better are “2000 Pedro Martinez” and “1913 Walter Johnson.”

There’s a compelling argument that Misiorowski is the most dominant per-inning starter ever. You know where this is going, though. He doesn’t have to have a Nolan Ryan-length career, because no one ever will again. But he’s also thrown all of 240 2/3 regular season innings, and while he’s never had any meaningful arm injury, anyone who throws this hard will forever have to prove he can stay healthy while doing so. Throw in the uncertainty of how future voters will approach the changing usage of modern starters, who will never approach the wins and inning totals of their predecessors, and there’s plenty of risk along the way to Cooperstown.

The talent is unquestionable. It’s all-time great stuff. It jumps off the page. It just has to be sustained for the next dozen years or so. Getting to the Hall isn’t supposed to be easy.

OF Jackson Chourio (22)

This is it. This is the one. Of all the current Brewers, this is the one most likely to be preparing a speech for an induction in the summer of 2049 or so. That’s because in this case, youth works in our favor. As we’ve done in the past when looking at Juan Soto, Ronald Acuña Jr. and others, there really is a point where a player is so good at such a young age that past historical comparables show that only tragedy or disaster can keep you off that Hall of Fame path.

In Chourio’s case, he’s just posted a third consecutive 20/20 season at age 22, making him the first to ever pull that off. If we look at Wins Above Replacement from outfielders through age 22, dating back to the start of integration in 1947, we’ll see that Chourio is tied for 17th. Of the 16 ahead of him, eight are in the Hall, three more are currently active but almost certain to get there (Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, and Soto) and two more, Giancarlo Stanton and Acuña Jr., are at least going to have compelling cases.

It’s really hard to start your career this good, at this age, and not end up being immortalized – and it feels like we may not have seen Chourio’s best yet. Unlike Soto and Harper, who were average fielders at best at their peaks, Chourio is an excellent defender, one who rated behind only Pete Crow-Armstrong among outfielders in the second half of the year.

We’re such a long way way from this, but if there’s one Milwaukee player most likely to be the one who carries this team into Cooperstown, it’s hard to think of anyone being a better selection than Chourio.