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Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick - Milwaukee Brewers
Milwaukee Brewers Jake Bauers and Sal Frelick celebrate on Opening Day (March 26, 2026)
If the first few days of the Brewers season have a lesson to teach, it might be about the importance of preserving organizational depth.
It’s hard to imagine a Brewer having a much hotter spring than Jake Bauers, but until Thursday morning it seemed like it didn’t particularly improve his path to playing time. Bauers hit the cover off the ball all spring for the Brewers, batting .462 and leading the team with seven home runs. His peripheral numbers suggest those home runs were no fluke: Among players who saw at least 50 pitches Bauer’s 98.4 mph average exit velocity was the highest among Brewers and the 11th highest in all of baseball.
Bauers had played in over 200 games as a Brewer across the last two seasons and had been involved in some major moments. He’s also 30 years old, however, and the first draft of the Opening Day roster had someone else the Brewers wanted to play most days at all of the positions Bauers can play. He was on the depth chart behind Andrew Vaughn at first base, Sal Frelick and Jackson Chourio in the outfield corners and, as we’ve discussed previously, Christian Yelich’s transition to full-time DH also limits the Brewers’ ability to find Bauers or anyone else at bats there.
Until Thursday morning it was reasonable to wonder if both Bauers and the Brewers might be better off if he were traded somewhere else. There were almost certainly teams that could have used a productive left-handed hitter coming off a big spring in a full-time role, but the Brewers didn’t have that role available. The Brewers had needs elsewhere, however, and it’s possible trading Bauers could have helped address them.
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Indispensable Brewer?
Four days later, however, it’s possible Bauers is one of the most indispensable Brewers. He slotted into the Opening Day lineup when Chourio went on the injured list with a hand injury and he continued his spring hot streak with a home run. On Saturday he started at first base after Andrew Vaughn also went on the injured list with a hand injury.
Less than a week earlier it didn’t seem like the Brewers had a place to play Bauers at all, but by Sunday more or less the only way the Brewers could rest him was by putting all three of their catchers (Jeferson Quero behind the plate, Gary Sanchez at first and William Contreras as the DH) in the lineup at the same time. Bauers’ day off didn’t last long: He was called upon to pinch hit for Quero in the sixth inning and stayed in the game.
To a lesser extent Blake Perkins has a similar story to tell this week. Despite three years of extended major league playing time the Brewers sent the 29-year-old Perkins to AAA Nashville in order to keep Brandon Lockridge on the Opening Day roster. Perkins doesn’t have much left to prove in the minors at this point, and it would have been understandable if he had been publicly unhappy about the demotion, perhaps even to the point of forcing a move. Chourio’s injury reopened the door for Perkins to make the team, however, and he was back in the starting lineup on Sunday.
The Brewers’ willingness to churn through talent on their roster (and their ability to find the depth necessary to make it work) has been a big part of their success for almost a decade now. While their willingness to move on and make space for someone new has often led to good things, however, they’re in significantly better shape for 2026 because they resisted the urge to move on from a couple of veterans who didn’t seem to fit in their plans a week ago.
