MILWAUKEE – Brandon Woodruff looked around the room in the wake of the Brewers’ season-ending, 5-1 loss to the Dodgers in Game 4 of the NLCS and saw a team positioned to move forward, not backward, after it gets past the sting of being swept.
“We weren’t supposed to be in this position,” Woodruff said. “After the start that we had and the way we rallied together throughout the year, and the runs that we had and the fun that we had, we saw the guys in this room grow into really good big league players. That’s the coolest thing to see
“To be able to get ourselves in this position was pretty crazy. It was a fun group.”
There’s a good chance that the group next year will look a lot like the group this year, but Woodruff has no way to know whether he’ll be part of it. The team’s longest-tenured player, Woodruff debuted in 2017 and has been with the Brewers since, compiling the best ERA in franchise history for a pitcher who has worked at least 500 innings and persevering from the shoulder injury that required a multiyear rehab, only to deny him another chance to pitch in the postseason this year.
His two-year contract with the Brewers will expire following the World Series, and while it includes a $20 million mutual option for 2026 if both sides agree to run it back, Woodruff knows there’s a chance he has thrown his final Milwaukee pitch.
“I know those conversations will have to wait until the World Series is over, but we will wait and see,” Woodruff said. “I don’t know if I have an answer for that, and it hasn’t sunk in yet.”
Twenty-five of the 26 players who appeared for the Brewers against the Cubs and Dodgers in the postseason are under contractual control next year, including every starting-position player for Friday’s season-ending loss to the Dodgers. All of the high-leverage bullpen arms are controllable. So is a stable of starters, from Freddy Peralta going into his final year before free agency to up-and-comers Jacob Misiorowski, Chad Patrick and Robert Gasser at the front end of their careers.
The only sure free agents are pitchers Shelby Miller and Jordan Montgomery, who finished the season on the injured list after being acquired from the D-backs at the Trade Deadline. That list will grow, however, as the team and players decide on mutual options for Woodruff, Rhys Hoskins, Danny Jansen and Jose Quintana.
“We’ll see,” said manager Pat Murphy, who will be going into the final year of his own contract in 2026. “You say that [the team may be the same], but that’s not just how it always works. Right now, we just have to sit back and look at our health and make sure guys are getting healthy, so guys that need offseason procedures and things to get done can stay healthy.
“We give them a plan of attack going forward. And I love the guys. I love what they bring to the table. I love their possibilities going forward. But like every year, we’ll look a little different, for sure.”
(*Contreras would be arbitration-eligible if option is declined)
(^ – first-time eligible)
Among those question marks is Peralta, not the matter of his option – it’s a no-brainer for the Brewers to pick it up after the right-hander was 17-6 with a 2.70 ERA and 204 strikeouts in the regular season – but whether to consider trade offers this winter. Peralta is in the same contractual position, with one year remaining before free agency, at which the Brewers traded Corbin Burnes to the Orioles ahead of the 2024 season, and dealt closer Devin Williams to the Yankees last winter.
“I have no idea,” Peralta said. “What I can say is I’ve been here forever and I love this. I love the city of Milwaukee, the team, everyone here. And that’s coming from the bottom of my heart. At the end of the day I understand this is a business and I understand that anything can happen. But I’m really happy about my journey here and how special it’s been for me and my family, and the treatment and love I’ve been getting from everyone here.”
Ditto for Hoskins, who is likely to continue his career elsewhere after a quiet end to his two-year run with the Brewers. He landed on the injured list in July with a left thumb injury and saw Vaughn claim the first-base job. While Hoskins had some pinch-hit at-bats in September, he was left off the roster for both rounds of the postseason.
“It’s a bad end, but I don’t think it sours the rest of my time here,” said Hoskins, who hit 38 home runs in 221 regular-season games with Milwaukee. “I’ll cherish my couple of years here. I got a chance, after missing a full year due to injury, to continue my career. That’s something I’ll never forget.
“It feels incomplete. I’ll say that. Especially at this time of year after I’ve been known to come up big in moments, even if the whole picture doesn’t always look great. It’s those types of moments that we play for, and I didn’t get a chance to do it this year.”
Still, it was a year to remember.
“One thing that I was talking about just now with a couple of guys is that we played a really good team and getting swept stinks, but I really hope it doesn’t stain what we were able to accomplish this year,” Hoskins said. “This was a special season, and special seasons like this don’t happen very often.”
