When a team becomes very good at developing talent in the minor leagues, some painful offseason moments become unavoidable. Those pain points cluster around two deadlines: the late-November deadline to add eligible prospects to the reserve list ahead of the Rule 5 Draft; and the imminent arrival of minor-league free agency. The Brewers face that moment with a wealth of talent in the minors; that could lead to some tough calls. Whom should they add?
The Brewers currently have 43 players on their 40-man roster, four of whom (Jordan Montgomery, Logan Henderson, Shelby Miller, and Garrett Mitchell) are on the 60-day injured list and therefore don’t count against the limit. Montgomery and Miller are slated to be free agents. That takes the number down to 41.
Other pending free agents or players with options include Rhys Hoskins, Danny Jansen, Jose Quintana, and Brandon Woodruff. Hoskins, Jansen, and Quintana’s options will not be picked up by the Brewers; Woodruff’s will be declined by the player. With the likely departures of Hoskins, Jansen, Quintana and Woodruff, the Crew is now down to 37, which gives them three spots to spare at the front end of the offseason.
The next question is, who else will they drop from the roster? The Crew seems to be overloaded in the outfield, with eight outfielders on the 40-man roster, plus a trio of infielders (Tyler Black, Andruw Monasterio, and Jake Bauers) who saw time in the grass in 2025.
One clear candidate for culling is Steward Berroa, whom the Crew picked up after a rash of summer injuries in the outfield that included Jackson Chourio and Sal Frelick. Berroa is arguably the last outfielder on the depth chart, and while he isn’t horrible, the 40-man spot could go to someone else.
On the pitching side, relievers Easton McGee and Rob Zastryzny are candidates to be waived or released. McGee was a solid multi-inning option for the Nashville Sounds but wasn’t quite suited for high-leverage work. Zastryzny was solid in 26 appearances, posting 0.5 WAR per Baseball Reference, but he will be 33 years old, and the last November in which he was not available to all 30 teams (one way or another) was 2018. This probably won’t be the end of that streak.
Dropping two of those three would leave the Brewers with 35 players on the 40-man roster. So, whom might they add? One possibility is Coleman Crow, acquired from the Mets for Adrian Houser and Tyrone Taylor. Crow returned to the mound in 2025 after missing most of the previous two seasons and posted a 3.24 ERA across 12 starts and 50 innings between Double-A Biloxi and Triple-A Nashville. However, he missed the entire second half with a flexor strain, so the team would have to feel exceptionally good about their background information on his health to spend a 40-man spot on him for the winter.
Reliever Justin Yeager (who between Double-A Biloxi and Triple-A Nashville posted a 2.04 ERA and 10 saves) is, perhaps, a more compelling option. Part of the William Contreras trade, he’s settled in as a solid fastball-slider righty. He’s also five years younger than Zastryzny, putting him in his peak, as opposed to being on the tail end of it.
Finally, there’s catcher Darrien Miller, who posted a .710 OPS at Double-A Biloxi (despite a batting average below the Uecker line) due to superb OBP skills. Miller, 24, also regained a bit of a power stroke, blasting seven homers, 10 doubles, and a triple in 240 at-bats. While not the top catching prospect in the system, for the chemistry-minded Brewers, Miller will have the advantage of having worked with young pitchers currently on the roster or on their way to the roster, and he offers a left-handed bat. He’s probably a player they can keep on a minor-league successor contract, though, if those intangibles are important to them. Given his offensive track record, it’s unlikely he has a future in the majors, so he probably won’t merit a 40-man spot.
The final potential minor-league free agent the Crew could elect to keep is first baseman Ernesto Martinez Jr., who delivered a .745 OPS across 263 at-bats in Triple-A Nashville, where he lost playing time due to the acquisition of Andrew Vaughn. While Blake Burke, the Crew’s 2024 Competitive Balance Round A pick, is now overshadowing him, Martinez has shown that when he is hot, he can be an offensive force. He also provides excellent defense at first base and has been athletic enough to man center field in a pinch. He’d come cheaper than Bauers for 2026, but after a down year on the heels of signing a minor-league deal with the org last fall, he’s even less likely to nab a place on the 40-man than he was one year ago.
In all likelihood, it’s only Yeager whom the team will seriously consider promoting to the 40-man list. The rest of this group could return as minor-league free agents or be allowed to pursue their next opportunity. Each is worth keeping tabs on, though, given the way their arcs in the organization have unfolded and the roles they could play under the right circumstances. The Brewers will want to keep roster space open for the promotion of otherwise Rule 5-eligible players next month; for free agents they might wish to sign; and for any Rule 5 guys they want to target in their own right. They can open more such slots at the non-tender deadline or via trade, though, so if they do decide to roster Yeager (or even one of the longer shots), don’t be shocked.