Baseball is here, and the Brewers look to continue their dominance of the NL Central. To do so, they may need some breakout performances. National baseball writers have released a slew of bold predictions, including Eno Sarris picking Jacob Misiorowski to win the Cy Young Award. Here’s a quartet of hot takes of my own for the Brewers.
1. Brandon Sproat will generate more WAR than Freddy Peralta this season.
Now that Sproat has secured a spot in the rotation from day one, there’s no reason he can’t be there all season. After throwing more than 140 innings last season, he should easily be good for a full season of 150+ this year. In his prospect writeup, Brewers Fanatic’s Spencer Michaelis highlighted Sproat’s deep six-pitch arsenal and the steep improvement he showed over the course of last season. Peralta will probably put up a typically strong season, but that’s what makes this a bold prediction. Sproat will have the benefit of the Brewers’ defense behind him, and as he said himself about the Brewers, “this team bets on themselves.” Here’s betting he has a Rookie of the Year-worthy season, even after a rough start.
2. Jake Bauers will lead the 2026 Brewers in home runs.
Bauers raked all spring, leading the majors in homers (7), wRC+ (311), and OPS (1.725). Yes, every year players explode in spring training only to implode once the season starts, but Bauers’s transformation took place over the course of last season, peaking in September and the playoffs. Matt Trueblood highlighted how Bauers spent his offseason training to lock in the changes he made and build on his momentum. Christian Yelich led the 2025 Brewers with 29 home runs, and the team is much better off when Yelich is performing at a high level. To keep Yelich healthy and productive, the team might give him more rest this season and provide additional playing time for Bauers. Even before Jackson’s Chourio’s terribly-timed injury news (and Andrew Vaughn‘s even worse one), Tim Mura pointed out that Bauers could be slated for more playing time this season. It’s unlikely that Bauers will face many left-handed pitchers, but if he gets close to 500 plate appearances, he could lead this team with 30 home runs.
3. Brice Turang will be the best second baseman in baseball.
This is certainly less bold than the first two, but many national pundits and writers aren’t fully bought in on Turang’s August breakout last season. However, Turang represented his country with aplomb during the World Baseball Classic and looks primed to ascend to the top of the keystone position. Nico Hoerner and Ketel Marte led the league in fWAR by second basemen last season, but the majority of Hoerner’s value comes from his defense, while the opposite is true for Marte. Turang’s defense is often underrated by publicly available advanced defensive metrics, but it’s not hard to imagine he climbs back into the upper echelon of those rankings while maintaining the better part of his breakout at the plate. Elite defense combined with elite offense and durability should push Turang to post the top WAR at the position and fully stamp his arrival as a superstar.
4. Marco Dinges ascends to become the top catching prospect in baseball.
Dinges is just a few years removed from surviving a life-threatening medical condition. After recovering, he spent one season playing Division I baseball at Florida State, where he crushed the ball but was mostly confined to DH duty. The Brewers drafted Dinges in the fourth round of the 2024 Draft and set about developing him as a catcher. Prospect gurus don’t have consistent rankings on Dinges, but they all agree his receiving and footwork behind the plate need work; he swings hard, with a solid approach; he has a strong arm; and he has “twitchy” athletic characteristics. ‘Twitchy’ is just about the best trait a baseball athlete can possess.
Dinges wants to catch and is diving into the work. He has a lot to learn, but with ABS creeping into MLB, receiving skills are likely to become less important, and his strong arm and athletic traits should help him post strong caught stealing numbers in the future. Combine the middle-of-the-order offensive upside that Spencer Michaelis sees with Dinges’s athleticism, work ethic, and history of overcoming challenges most can’t imagine, and he is primed to become one of the best catching prospects in baseball.