The Milwaukee Brewers did it again on Wednesday. A 12-5 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates makes it a whopping 12 wins in a row, running their MLB-best record to 76-44 on the season. (Amazingly, it's not even the first double-digit win streak the team has enjoyed this season.) At this point, the question is less whether the Brewers will be able to hold on in the NL Central and more whether they'll finally be able to capture the first World Series title in franchise history.
How did we get here? How did a team no one saw coming this spring, a team with a fraction of the payroll of its competitors like the Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets, find a way to once again lap the league? The answer, in large part, is Matt Arnold and a genius front office that's consistently one step ahead of everybody else.
The Brewers may not have a ton of cash, but you don't need it when you find diamonds in the rough on other teams' depth charts. Milwaukee has made a habit of that in recent years, and 2025 is no exception, with the Quinn Priester and Devin Williams heists just the latest in a long line of swindlings.
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5. Acquired RHP Quinn Priester for Yophery Rodriguez, John Holobetz and a draft pick
Priester seemed for all the world like a bust, a former first-round pick of the Pirates who flamed out once he started facing Major League lineups. Pittsburgh flipped him to Boston at the 2024 trade deadline, and the Red Sox gave up on him after just one MLB appearance, dumping him on Milwaukee this spring in what amounted to a vote of no confidence.
All the righty has done since is blossom into the starter who graced top prospect lists back in the day. Priester has posted a 3.49 ERA in 22 appearances (17 starts) with the Brewers, stabilizing a rotation that dealt with early injuries to Brandon Woodruff and Nestor Cortes and hadn't yet unleashed Jacob Misiorowski upon the world. At this point, there's a decent chance that Priester could start a postseason game for Milwaukee, a stunning turnaround considering where his career was just a few months ago.
4. Acquired 1B Andrew Vaughn for Aaron Civale and cash
Speaking of one-time top prospects whom everyone had written off: Chicago White Sox fans were desperate to be rid of Vaughn after a frustrating four-plus seasons with the team in which he never came close to living up to the No. 3 overall pick in the 2019 MLB Draft. Looking to free up playing time at first base for younger players (and free up some cash), Chicago finally decided it'd had enough earlier this summer, taking on Civale — an aging pitcher who no longer had a place in Milwaukee's rotation — for the right to no longer have Vaughn in the lineup.
It took hardly any time at all for Vaughn to prove the White Sox wrong. He hasn't just been a revelation with the Brewers; he's been one of the best hitters in baseball, period, slashing .347/.413/.642 with eight homers over his first 27 games for his new team. Is there some luck to those numbers? Of course. But he's also tearing the cover off the ball right now, another example of a talented player who was underperforming in a bad situation that Milwaukee capitalized on.
3. Acquired INF Caleb Durbin and LHP Nestor Cortes for RHP Devin Williams
A trade that will live in infamy for fans of the New York Yankees, this one seemed like a fair deal at the time. Milwaukee moved on from Williams a year before his inevitable departure in free agency, and got a rising infield prospect and a rotation candidate in return. The Yankees, meanwhile, got a player who had been one of the very best relievers in baseball.
There was no way of knowing just who lopsided this deal would become. The Brewers never got much from Cortes, who pitched eight largely horrible innings before landing on the 60-day IL with elbow trouble. But Durbin looks every bit like the spark plug he was in New York's system, while Williams has imploded in New York, costing the Yankees several critical games and pitching himself fully out of Aaron Boone's circle of trust.
2. Acquired RHP Trevor Megill for Taylor Floyd
The Brewers have pulled off several impressive bullpen reclamations in recent years, but none more impressive than Megill. The righty looked like he was about to wash out of the Majors entirely, posting a 4.80 ERA in 39 appearances for the Twins in 2022. But Milwaukee saw something in the 28-year-old, acquiring him for a player to be named later who eventually became righty Taylor Floyd.
Megill made his first All-Star appearance in 2025, his second straight season as an elite closer. Floyd, meanwhile, remains mired in Double-A. Safe to say that one is a win for the Brewers, one that will pay big dividends come October.
1. Acquired C William Contreras and RHP Joel Payamps for Esteury Ruiz
The Christian Yelich trade might be the defining one of this era of Brewers baseball, but the deal for Contreras is probably a close second. He was a promising young backup for the Atlanta Braves at the time who wasn't getting enough playing time alongside Travis d'Arnaud. Milwaukee saw that opportunity and pounced, acquiring him and righty reliever Joel Payamps in a three-way trade that saw Sean Murphy head from the A's to Atlanta.
The only player the Brewers gave up? Ruiz, at the time a promising young outfield prospect. But while his speed and athleticism were obvious even then, his bat simply never materialized; he has a .639 career OPS and is currently in the Los Angeles Dodgers system. Contreras has developed into an All-Star, one of the offensive engines of a Milwaukee team that just comes at you in waves. If the Brewers are able to pay off this magical run with the franchise's first-ever World Series title, they'll look back on all of these trades (but Contreras especially) as a big step in that journey.