MILWAUKEE – Here are three questions facing the Brewers as pitchers and catchers get set to report for the start of Spring Training next week:
1) Will there be another mid-spring rotation add?
Jose Quintana didn’t sign with the Brewers until March 5 and turned into a bargain, delivering a 3.96 ERA in the regular season with the third-most innings (131 2/3) on the team. Brewers manager Pat Murphy unabashedly pushed for the Quintana deal in the interest of veteran depth, and is sounding a similar alarm this year in the wake of the trade that sent Freddy Peralta to the Mets and left the Brewers with exactly one pitcher on the 40-man roster – Brandon Woodruff – who has made 25-plus starts in a Major League season.
“I think we’ll probably have to shore that up,” Murphy said last week.
The good news is that as of the end of January, with camps opening in less than two weeks, there were arms available. Even if Framber Valdez and Zac Gallen are outside of the budget in which the Brewers are comfortable, MLB.com’s Thomas Harrigan has been tracking the best of the rest, including a group of “veteran innings eaters” that features none other than Quintana.
Some of the available names carry risk, like Jordan Montgomery, the veteran lefty acquired by the Brewers last July even though he was sidelined for the 2025 season by injury. That move was a mechanism for the Brewers to get reliever Shelby Miller from the D-backs without having to send any players in return, but the Brewers and Montgomery hit it off so well that they started talking about a return for '26. As January ended, however, there was no word on an agreement.
2) Who’s the backup catcher?
The Brewers have a solid everyday backstop in William Contreras, who has started 247 of a possible 324 games at catcher over the past two seasons, despite a fractured middle finger on his receiving hand. But this club has always been at its best when it has a solid backup, a role filled capably in recent years by the likes of Danny Jansen, Eric Haase, Gary Sánchez, Victor Caratini and Manny Piña.
At the moment, there are only two catchers on the 40-man roster: Contreras and 23-year-old prospect Jeferson Quero, who has been limited to 70 games over the past two seasons by shoulder and hamstring injuries. The shoulder was the most notable; Quero suffered the injury diving back to first base on 2024 Opening Day at Triple-A Nashville and had a major surgery that threatened to take away one of his best tools: His throwing arm. Now he’s healthy again, and the Brewers must decide whether it’s best for Quero to learn as Contreras’ understudy or play every day in Triple-A and hand backup duties to someone like non-roster invitee Reese McGuire.
“I’m a big Jeferson Quero fan since I’ve been around this kid,” Murphy said. “I know he’s coming back from an injury that a lot of people thought he could never come back from, but this guy is a baseball player through and through. I’d be very comfortable with it being him. We need Triple-A security, too.”
Why make such a fuss about a backup catcher? Because the decision could impact the next couple of years. Next offseason, Contreras will have only one year of contractual control remaining, putting him in the same position as Corbin Burnes, Devin Williams and Peralta when the Brewers flipped those players for prospects. Quero’s status could figure into a decision on Contreras at that time.
3) Is this a good time for contract extensions?
The Peralta trade brought back to light what an incredible bargain he was all these years. That’s thanks to the five-year, $15.5 million contract extension that Peralta signed in February 2020. For Peralta, the security was worth the risk of leaving some significant dollars on the table.
The most obvious comp to circa-2020 Peralta or 2022 Aaron Ashby (who signed a five-year extension that guaranteed $20.5 million) is righty Jacob Misiorowski, though it’s clear that it will take a lot more than $15 million to $20 million to lock him up after his high-octane debut last season. The sides have spoken in broad terms about the concept of an extension, but there are no signs – publicly, at least – of progress.
Infielder Brice Turang and outfielder Sal Frelick are other good targets for extensions, though that’s a different animal as well, since Turang is already into his arbitration years and Frelick will qualify for arbitration beginning next offseason. They may prefer to wait to talk about the long-term.
A much better bet to get a deal done is Murphy, who signed a three-year contract to manage in the wake of Craig Counsell’s departure. Murphy’s deal runs through 2026, and the sides are trying to settle on terms that work for both sides. Murphy declined to say much about that last week, offering only that he wants to stay.