On Saturday it will have been 127 days since the Brewers’ 2025 season ended, but it will be time for it all to start again.
The Crew plays their first Cactus League game this weekend, hosting the Guardians at American Family Fields of Phoenix for the first of 31 exhibition contests leading up to Opening Day. The outcomes of these games don’t matter all that much, of course, and the individual and team numbers will be forgotten almost immediately when the real games start in late March. This weekend’s first look at the 2026 Brewers isn’t entirely irrelevant, however, and here are some of the biggest things to watch for:
Who plays?
There are plenty of reasons players might not see time in the early days of spring training. They might be taking it slow as they return from injury, pacing themselves for a long season (slightly longer than usual this season due to the World Baseball Classic) or they and their team simply might not feel like they need this much time to be ready to go on Opening Day. There are certainly plenty of occasions where players have sat out the early spring training games and had it be a non-issue in the months ahead.
The best-case scenario, however, is for players to be “full go” right away this spring. The sooner the expected regulars can get their Cactus League debut out of the way and erase any doubt about whether they’ll be ready for Opening Day the better.
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Who plays third base?
The first draft of last week’s On Deck Circle was about how the Brewers’ roster and playing time battles were all but decided, but the organization abruptly changed that on Monday morning when they traded Caleb Durbin, their incumbent third baseman, to Boston and left themselves without a clear favorite to play there. Last week they added veteran infielder Luis Rengifo on a minor league deal and FanGraphs now has him atop the organizational depth chart at the position, but the four players behind him are three that have yet to make their major league debuts and recent acquisition David Hamilton, who has never started an MLB game at that spot.
The Brewers have been in this position before, of course: A year ago at this time Caleb Durbin had played less than 100 professional games at third base before making his major league debut and playing 131 games there in his first MLB season. A path is certainly open for someone who hasn’t played much time at third to make an impact there in 2026, and this weekend will be the first opportunity for the Brewers to tip their hand about who they’re considering.
Who looks ready for the World Baseball Classic?
Spring training is opening earlier this season than most because players in camp are on two separate tracks: While many or most of them have more than a month to get ready for games that count, 14 players in Brewers camp are scheduled to play for their respective countries in the World Baseball Classic and need to be ready for pool play in that competition in just two weeks.
That list of Brewers expected to report to their national teams for much of the spring includes William Contreras, Jackson Chourio and Angel Zerpa on Venezuela, Brice Turang (United States), Joey Ortiz (Mexico) and Abner Uribe (Dominican Republic) serving as the organization’s representatives on their respective teams and 2025 first round pick Andrew Fischer playing for Italy. Those players are likely to see more time in early Cactus League games in the hopes to have them ready for international competition.
Kyle Lobner covers the Milwaukee Brewers in the Shepherd Express’ weekly On Deck Circle column. He has written about the Brewers and Minor League Baseball since 2008.
Feb. 16, 2026
4:35 p.m.