MILWAUKEE — The Brewers are moving to keep chief decision-maker Matt Arnold rooted in Milwaukee after he put the pieces in place for a National League Central three-peat and the Brewers’ seventh postseason berth in the past eight seasons.
The club has promoted Arnold from executive vice president and general manager to the more prestigious president of baseball operations and general manager, which doesn’t change the 46-year-old’s day-to-day duties but does lessen the likelihood that a rival can pluck him away for a higher-profile job.
“It’s not going to change materially, honestly,” Arnold said. “I’ve never really been focused on titles at all, honestly. It’s just been something where you keep your head down and you work hard, and good things will happen.”
The club’s announcement didn’t specify whether the promotion included an extension for Arnold, since the Brewers’ policy is to never discuss contract lengths for front office officials. The previous understanding has been that Arnold and manager Pat Murphy each had contracts through 2026.
Among his honors, Arnold was named 2024 MLB Executive of the Year in a vote by executives from all 30 clubs prior to the start of last year’s postseason, becoming the first Brewers executive to earn the honor. Arnold was also named MLB Executive of the Year by Baseball America in ’24 and The Sporting News in ’24 and ’25. MLB and Baseball America have yet to announce their awards this year, but Arnold is again a candidate after Milwaukee led the Majors and set a franchise record with 97 victories during the regular season.
“Matt doesn’t even want to be front and center,” Brewers owner Mark Attanasio said in September as Arnold and the team celebrated clinching the division. “We have other presidents of baseball operations who put themselves in front of things, but Matt is always in the back. And yet, he may be doing the best job of all of them.”
Arnold came to the Brewers from the Tampa Bay Rays in the fall of 2015, hired to be David Stearns’ assistant GM. As the Brewers promoted Stearns to keep him from being poached, Arnold, too, received more prominent titles, first being named GM in 2020, then taking over as the head of Milwaukee’s baseball operations department on Oct. 27, 2022, when Stearns stepped down in a precursor to his move to the Mets.
Less splashy moves have had just as significant an impact, leading rival clubs to study the Brewers’ successes in the regular season. Just this year, Milwaukee acquired onetime top prospect Quinn Priester from Boston’s Triple-A team and saw him blossom as a No. 2 starter behind Freddy Peralta, at the same time rookie Caleb Durbin locked down third-base duties after coming over from the Yankees in the Williams trade.
Arnold will be going into his 11th season with the Brewers in 2026, and by virtue of playing as far as the NL Championship Series, he’s spending this week playing offseason catch-up.
“There’s not much of an off ramp. I heard somebody describe it as a car crash,” Arnold said. “The good teams don’t have the luxury of having an off ramp, and so we’re hitting the ground running on all fronts.”
Among the priorities for this offseason are getting players healthy again after another season that stretched into October. The Brewers said on Thursday that Durbin will undergo an arthroscopic debridement of his right elbow on Oct. 30, and that catcher William Contreras would see hand specialist Dr. Thomas Graham next week for a “potential correction” of the fractured left finger that caused severe pain for the past two seasons. Both are expected to be fully healthy in time for Spring Training.
“We want to be there to support him, however it shakes out,” Arnold said of Contreras. “And obviously, he’s a tremendous warrior and wants to be in there every single day. I thought he improved, actually, in a lot of ways this year and did a heck of a job behind the plate for us.”
The Brewers also sent outfielder Sal Frelick for end-of-season imaging on the left knee that caused him trouble throughout the season. Those results were “unremarkable,” meaning Frelick can expect a normal offseason and ramp-up for 2026.
Others who had late-season health concerns, including Chourio (right hamstring), Priester (right wrist), Trevor Megill (right flexor), Logan Henderson (right flexor) and DL Hall (right oblique), are also expected to have normal offseasons, according to the club.
Then there are contractual decisions ahead, most notably for longtime Brewers starters Brandon Woodruff – whose deal has a mutual option for 2026 – and Peralta, who has one more club option for ‘26 before reaching free agency.
Arnold said he rode on the bus next to Woodruff after the Brewers returned from Los Angeles, and he acknowledged there are decisions to make on that front following the World Series. On Peralta, Arnold seemed to downplay the likelihood of a trade in the vein of Burnes and Williams, who were both dealt going into their final year of control.
“I feel like that’s been out there. And to be honest, it’s not at the front of my mind,” Arnold said. “Honestly, it’s something where of course you can never shut the door on anything in our situation. We’ve had to make very tough decisions. And I think that’s part of what we have to do, is make tough decisions to help the long-term view of the franchise.
“But I can tell you that Freddy means more to that clubhouse than most that I’ve ever been around. He’s a special player on and off the field, and I’m proud to have him as a teammate.”
