There have been pocket pancakes and walk-off homers. The “Power of Friendship” and a rookie routinely throwing 100-plus mph strikes. Don’t forget about the two double-digit winning streaks.
All of it has made the Milwaukee Brewers the most surprising team story of the entire 2025 MLB season.
How surprising? Consider this: The Brewers, coming off back-to-back NL Central championships, entered 2025 having traded away one of the game’s elite closers in Devin Williams and lost the heart and soul of the clubhouse in shortstop Willy Adames to free agency. How did they address those voids? By making exactly one noteworthy free-agent signing: left-handed starter Jose Quintana to a one-year, $4 million contract in the early stages of spring training.
Not exactly the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets when it comes to offseason spending and roster shaping.
And before you forget, the back-to-back division titles came after losing in some fashion manager Craig Counsell and 2021 NL Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes before the 2024 season (and missing Brandon Woodruff to shoulder surgery) as well as trading away stud closer Josh Hader during the 2022 season, the last significant move of the David Stearns era leading the Brewers’ baseball operations.
But the Brewers just replenished from within, with lower-level free agents, waiver claims, or under-the-radar trades.
That is how the Brewers became three-time NL Central Division champions.
Of course, the “Power of Friendship” helps, too. That is one of the ingredients in the secret sauce that powers the Crew.
Pat Murphy, who took over for Counsell before the 2024 season after serving as his former Notre Dame player’s bench coach for eight seasons, brought a unique mix of his vast college coaching experience with what he learned in five seasons as a minor-league manager (with a brief stint as interim skipper of the San Diego Padres).
Some of Murphy’s persona, especially publicly, comes off as a bit rah-rah, especially when things are going well, with his own monikers for players. Some make sense, like “Slim Shady” for second baseman Brice Turang and “Jack Jack” for outfielder Jackson Chourio; some have some stretchy references, like “Pee Wee” Rhys Hoskins and “Tito” for shortstop Joey Ortiz (after the mixed martial arts fighter). Others, not so much. Right-handed reliever Trevor Megill is “Clifford,” left-handed reliever Jared Koenig is “Drumstick,” and outfielder Garrett Mitchell is “Bruce.” When he mentions them during a postgame press conference, you might see beat writers do double-takes trying to figure out who Murphy is talking about. Murphy has also been tagged by Christian Yelich as “Patches O’Houlihan.”
But the underlying part of what Murphy does is holding players accountable without being unbearable. Ortiz, the defensive wiz of a shortstop, and Gold Glove right fielder Sal Frelick, who was in the hunt for the NL batting title this season, were benched during the season for reasons related to their play, not production. He knows which buttons to push with each player and has earned the respect of the clubhouse through the relationships he has built over the last decade.
“He’s not trying to embarrass you or hurt your feelings,” then-Brewers pitcher Wade Miley told MLB.com last year of Murphy’s ways of calling a player out even in front of teammates or opponents. “It’s a teaching moment, and because you’re a young prospect and nobody else has the guts to do it, he’s going to do it. I respect the heck out of that.”
When it comes to roster additions, the Brewers have continued the pattern of draft and develop that started under former general manager Doug Melvin and ramped up by Stearns. When Stearns bolted to lead his childhood team, the Mets, his top assistant, Matt Arnold, took over and maintained the status quo over the last three seasons.
Williams took the logical step of taking over for Hader, but other solutions weren’t as obvious. Left-hander DL Hall, acquired in the Burnes trade with the Baltimore Orioles, was slated to take a rotation spot, but injuries have prevented him from being a regular contributor. In fact, the Brewers used a club-record 17 starting pitchers in 2024 as they tried to plug the losses of Burnes and Woodruff, then had others with health issues.
Ortiz, one of the other pieces picked up in the Burnes deal, started at third base last season and slid over to improve the Brewers’ defense at shortstop once Adames bolted. Infielder Caleb Durbin came over to the Brewers with left-handed starter Nestor Cortes from the New York Yankees in the Williams swap. Durbin started the season at Triple-A Nashville, but was called up to play third base as the Opening Day plan there of Vinny Capra and Oliver Dunn fizzled. Defense was a big question for Durbin, but he has proven to be a very solid third baseman. And then there is catcher William Contreras, who was basically given to the Brewers for next to nothing (outfielder Esteury Ruiz) for being the third team in the trade that sent Sean Murphy from the Athletics to Atlanta and developed into one of the top two-way catchers in baseball.
Other acquisitions hardly registered a blip on the MLB news radar when they happened. Center fielder Blake Perkins, an outstanding defender, was a minor-league free-agent signing before the 2023 season, while left fielder Isaac Collins was a minor-league Rule 5 Draft selection from the Colorado Rockies as a second baseman. Basically, the previous clubs of Perkins and Collins had given up on them. But Arnold and the Brewers saw something that made them roll the dice. The payoff has been more than the Crew could have hoped. Right-hander Quinn Priester was stuck in Triple-A with the Boston Red Sox when the Brewers were in desperate need of a starter in April of this year and swung a deal that has worked out wonderfully for the Brewers. Megill, who has taken over as closer for Williams, was acquired in an April 2023 trade from the Minnesota Twins for a player to be named later. Right-hander Chad Patrick was the return in a deal with the Athletics for third baseman Abraham Toro before the 2024 season. The Brewers rescued right-hander reliever Nick Mears from the Rockies in a 2024 trade. Left-hander Robert Gasser was part of the return for Hader. Infielder Andruw Monasterio was a minor-league free agent who joined the Brewers for the 2022 season.
Then there are the internal solutions. Turang was the Brewers’ first-round draft pick in 2018, and Frelick in 2021. Chourio was one of the top prospects in all of baseball and has become the youngest player in MLB history to produce two 20-20 seasons. This year, another top prospect, right-hander Jacob Misiorowski, joined the Brewers’ starting rotation in June to great fanfare and was named to the All-Star Game after just four MLB starts thanks to his 100 mph fastball. He was a second-round draft choice in 2022. Left-hander Aaron Ashby was a 2018 fourth-rounder, while right-hander Logan Henderson, a fourth-round pick in 2021, could play a key role this postseason. Right-handed reliever Abner Uribe was an international free agent.
Those are the recent additions to the few veterans left from the Stearns and Melvin eras. Yelich, the left fielder, was acquired in a big trade from the Miami Marlins before the 2018 season in which he won the NL MVP, Woodruff was an 11th-round draft pick in 2011 and right-hander Freddy Peralta, who led the NL in wins this season and certainly garner some second- and third-place NL Cy Young votes, was one of three lower-level minor-league wild cards the Brewers got from the Seattle Mariners for first baseman Adam Lind before the 2016 season. Peralta will start Game 1 of Saturday’s NL Division Series against the Chicago Cubs.
All of this is to say there are many ways to build a contending team. Not every way works for every team. After all, there are only so many superstars who can be acquired by the big spenders. The Brewers have found their own path, which is to find value in every move. They all don’t work out. While Durbin has been a boon from the Williams trade, Cortes got hurt early on, and the Brewers ended up trading him for outfielder Brandon Lockridge, who spent August with the major-league team before being sent down to Triple-A. But even he had a few highlights to get the Brewers to where they are.
In order for this to all work, Murphy’s tactics need to be bought into by team leadership. Yelich, the de facto captain of this team and face of the franchise, is the syrup to Murphy’s pocket pancakes. The clubhouse chemistry appears impeccable, even after Adames’ departure. But that is in big part to Adames bringing along players such as Peralta and Contreras, who have developed into leaders.
After posting the best record in MLB and setting a club record for wins, the Brewers have the No. 1 seed in the NL playoffs and home-field advantage throughout the World Series. In the only other World Series in franchise history, the Brewers lost in Game 7 on the road to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1982. Still, the city turned out for a parade and rally the next day.
Will the Brewers win the World Series? They have a terrific shot. Will it be a failure if they don’t? They need to win at least the NL Division Series to avoid that tag. Making the NL Championship Series should be the expectation, with a trip to the World Series the goal. Winning the whole damn thing?
That would be the blueberries on the pocket pancakes.
