Christmas was last week, but we here at Brewer Fanatic have one more gift to give you: The top stories you, the Milwaukee Brewers fan, enjoyed the most in 2025.

Money, one particular trade target, a career resurrection with its impact, and an injury to a star player were the topics you read the most. Here is a recap:

5. Cashing In

Headline: “How Much Money Did Brewers Make in First Sustained Playoff Run Since 2018?”
Author: Matthew Trueblood
Publish date: Oct. 19

Summary: There was good news, but it certainly didn’t offset the bad news about how the Brewers’ season ended. While the Brewers’ amazing season came to a sudden and stifling halt with the four-game sweep by the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Championship Series, there was a financial boon to the 2025 season. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as much money as it could have been had the Brewers won at least one game vs. the Dodgers.

As Trueblood details, the Brewers (and Dodgers) would have received a much bigger chunk of change had the NLCS been extended past the required four games, with “the two teams playing divided roughly 85% of the gate.” MLB takes a bulk of the gate revenue from the basic number of games for each postseason series.

“In other words, for sold-out Games 3 and 4 at Dodger Stadium, the Brewers only got (as a rough estimate) $3 million,” Trueblood wrote. “They probably made more like $2 million at the gate for Games 1 and 2 at the smaller, lower-priced Uecker Field. By contrast, Game 5 could have netted the Brewers a solid $5 million by itself, and Games 6 and 7 would have been worth nearly as much, in gates alone.”

It all added up to what Trueblood estimates was a $30 million windfall for the Crew. As anyone would do, Trueblood hypothesizes how the Brewers would use that newfound cash. With other contracts coming off the books and some raises taking effect through arbitration or contract extensions, Trueblood said the Brewers could spend $50 million to bring in new talent.

“Given the money they just made this fall and any reasonable revenue projection for next season, the Brewers should be back over $125 million next year, which means that they can go make aggressive moves in free agency or on the trade market,” Trueblood wrote. “That kind of freedom, for a team that also has a cadre of young stars and one of the game’s best farm systems, should scare even the mighty Dodgers.”

4. A New Beginning

Headline: “Andrew Vaughn Creating a Fantastic Problem for Milwaukee Brewers, and a Real One for Veteran Slugger”
Author: Jake McKibbin
Publish date: July 29

Summary: July was the month of Andrew Vaughn. The first baseman, who had been acquired from the Chicago White Sox in mid-June for starting pitcher Aaron Civale, had been relegated to Triple-A by the AL’s worst team and had a new lease on his baseball life with the Brewers. After a couple of weeks at Triple-A Nashville, Vaughn was called upon to replace the injured Rhys Hoskins. That moment turned out to be monumental for both players.

There was little doubt as to Vaughn’s talent, having been the No. 3 overall pick of the 2019 draft out of Cal, but he hadn’t had the success expected of him and, in fact, struggled so much that the White Sox sent him to the minors to get straightened out. But when he made his Brewers debut on July 1, it was like someone had hit the refresh button. In his first plate appearance, he hit a home run off Los Angeles Dodgers right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

Whatever it was, Vaughn vaulted into the spotlight with the Brewers. As McKibbin wrote, Vaughn wasn’t chasing pitches like he was with the White Sox, pulling the ball more and hitting the ball hard more often. As an added bonus, Vaughn’s July featured a reduction in strikeouts and an increase in walks.

“The development of his swing decisions suggests that, while Vaughn is unlikely to maintain a 1.075 OPS over the remainder of the season, his improvements are here to stay in a position that the Brewers have struggled to garner offensive production from since mid-May,” McKibbin wrote.

McKibbin also took a look at what Vaughn’s production could mean to Hoskins for the rest of the season, as well as Jake Bauers, the backup first baseman.

“However you look at it, Vaughn has a fantastic opportunity over the next three weeks to demonstrate that he should be the Brewers’ starting first baseman down the stretch and into the playoffs,” McKibbin wrote.

3. A Complicated Move?

Headline: “Trading for Eugenio Suárez is What Brewers Hired Pat Murphy For”
Author: Matthew Trueblood
Publish date: July 22

Summary: The trade deadline always makes for good content, and Brewers fans had to be using the meme of Leo DiCaprio pointing when they saw this article. Third baseman Eugenio Suarez, stuck with the injury-ravaged Arizona Diamondbacks at the time, was a popular trade target for a lot of teams. The Brewers, in desperate need of an influx of power, most definitely could have used Suarez’s right-handed bat.

That was never the question. The question, instead, was how Suarez would fit into the Brewers’ lineup and what the ramifications of acquiring the third baseman would be. The Brewers were solid at the time at third base with rookie Caleb Durbin, but he would never be confused for a power hitter.

“Adding Suárez would throw a roadblock in front of a key player who was the centerpiece of an offseason deal for the team’s former relief ace, who has delivered huge value for them and embodies their whole philosophy and identity neatly,” Trueblood wrote.

And this is where Trueblood got into the crux of his article. Adding Suarez would move Durbin off third base and put the talents of manager Pat Murphy to work.

“Murphy is willing to move players around defensively,” Trueblood wrote. “He’s willing to communicate, compassionately but bluntly, that certain players won’t play every day, and to hold them to a high standard of preparation and performance, anyway. He’s the perfect guy to manage the juggling act that will become necessary if this team lands Suárez.”

Durbin could have seen action at second base against left-handers, giving the lefty-hitting Brice Turang a break, or even moving Turang to short and spelling Joey Ortiz.

Murphy never had to worry about this dilemma as Suarez was traded to the Seattle Mariners. Durbin would finish third in NL Rookie of the Year voting and Turang would turn on the power in August, so some moves are better left not being made.

2. Vaughn’s Roller-Coaster Ride

Headline: “Once Again, Andrew Vaughn Has Complicated First Base”
Author: Jason Wang
Publish date: Sept. 21

Summary: In case you were wondering, yes, Vaughn was a very popular topic with Brewers fans. That was because he was providing something the Crew really needed, and that was right-handed power. Hoskins had hit 12 homers before his thumb injury. After joining the Brewers, Vaughn hit five in July and another four in August.

But August was a tricky month for Vaughn. While the power was still there, he wasn’t able to sustain the pace he set in July. That coincided with Hoskins being on a rehab assignment, getting close to returning to the lineup. But the Brewers kept Hoskins in the minors as long as they could before finally activating him Sept. 9. That allowed for Vaughn to regroup and, perhaps with the knowledge the first base job was his to lose, he responded with a productive bat, even though he didn’t hit another homer in the regular season.

“His aforementioned slump saw him lose a lot of his pop at the plate, at least on paper,” Wang wrote. “He slugged just .375 over that span (Aug. 8-31), partly due to bad luck and partly due to opposing pitchers becoming wise to his antics. Now, he has become less reliant on the long ball and is more than willing to simply put the ball in play as long as it becomes a hit of some sort. He still hasn’t hit a home run since August 15th, but has instead slashed .444/.475/.583 with five doubles so far this month.”

The combined production of Vaughn and Bauers would lead to Hoskins not being on the roster for either postseason series.

1. A Tough Situation

Headline: “Brewers Manager Pat Murphy Needs to Stand Up to Catcher William Contreras“
Author: Jake McKibben
Publish date: May 8

Summary: The revelation that catcher William Contreras had a broken middle finger on his catching hand was an eyebrow-raiser. It helped explain Conteras’ slow offensive start to the season, but the injury was sustained late in the 2024 season and didn’t really become problematic until this early point in the season. McKibben wrote on the subject just shortly after the injury announcement, so the path the Brewers would choose was not exactly clear.

The conventional route would have been putting Contreras on the injured list for a couple of weeks to allow the injury to heal. Catching with a broken finger is painful, much less when a batter might clip the glove from behind and perhaps exacerbate the injury. McKibben provided a few potential options, including a splint, which didn’t seem ideal as it would affect Contreras’ ability to hit, not to mention the logistics of catching.

But Contreras is one of the most valuable Brewers, as you can see where he ranks on our Brewer Fanatic list, not only for the terrific defense and the way he handles the pitching staff, but — as we have mentioned a few times above — he also provides right-handed power and a strong middle-of-the-order bat. McKibben then offered a quote from Murphy about Contreras not wanting to go on the IL due to the iron-man mentality the catcher has.

“It’s incredibly brave of Contreras to fight through the pain he is in, but the Brewers have enough depth at catcher that they don’t need him to,” McKibben wrote. “They can afford for him to get back to full health without endangering himself.”

McKibben concluded the article by saying Murphy needed to take a stand with Contreras and spend some time mending on the IL.

Contreras would end up playing the entire season with the broken finger and had an offseason procedure to address the injury.