There's a pretty good chance that a lockout will occur after the 2026 MLB season, and MLB fans are pointing to the Los Angeles Dodgers as the reason why. While sure, the Dodgers have spent at a level few, if any, teams realistically can, particularly with deferrals, small market teams like the Milwaukee Brewers are really to blame here.
The Freddy Peralta trade is a prime example of that. There's nothing wrong with the trade by itself. In fact, the Brewers will probably gain more than they gave up in the long run, knowing Peralta is a rental who was likely to depart after the year, and they got a pair of really exciting prospects. Still, the fact of the matter is the team that finished last season with the best record in baseball just traded a guy who finished fifth in the NL Cy Young balloting to a National League contender because they were afraid of him departing for nothing more than a draft pick. That's a problem.
Freddy Peralta trade shows Brewers are not serious about winning a World Series
Odds are, the Brewers will make the playoffs even without Peralta. I mean, they've made the playoffs in seven of the last eight years, with the lone exception being in 2022, a season that saw them still win 86 games. Here's how they've done in the playoffs in those years, though.
Year | Postseason Result | Opponent |
|---|---|---|
2018 | Lost NLCS (4-3) | Dodgers |
2019 | Lost NL Wild Card Game | Nationals |
2020 | Lost NL Wild Card Series (2-0) | Dodgers |
2021 | Lost NLDS (3-1) | Braves |
2022 | Missed Playoffs | N/A |
2023 | Lost NL Wild Card Series (2-0) | Diamondbacks |
2024 | Lost NL Wild Card Series (2-1) | Mets |
2025 | Lost NLCS (4-0) | Dodgers |
The Brewers have made it to the NLCS just twice in this strong eight-year run, and they lost to the Dodgers both times. Some of their playoff failures can be attributed to running into the wrong team (the team that's knocked them out has advanced to the World Series in every year other than 2024), but at a certain point, it's time to admit what the Brewers are doing just isn't working.
What the Brewers are doing consistently is trading star pitchers before they hit free agency, ensuring they get something before the player inevitably departs on the open market.
Freddy Peralta is far from the only star pitcher the Brewers have traded in recent years
Peralta is the fourth such instance of the Brewers trading a star pitcher since 2022, with Josh Hader, Corbin Burnes and Devin Williams being the others. That feels almost impossible, yet that's the reality. This speaks to two things being true. One, the Brewers have done a great job developing pitching. Their rotation depth chart after the Peralta trade shows that to a tee.
Brewers Rotation Order | Name |
|---|---|
SP1 | Brandon Woodruff |
SP2 | Jacob Misiorowski |
SP3 | Quinn Priester |
SP4 | Chad Patritck |
SP5 | Logan Henderson |
SP6 | Brandon Sproat |
SP7 | Robert Gasser |
There's a lot to like here. Woodruff, when healthy, is a legitimate frontline starter. Misiorowski has ace upside if he can ever improve his command. Priester was one of the Brewers' best pitchers last season. Both Patrick and Henderson excelled whenever called upon in 2025. Sproat and Gasser have a ton of upside and could easily play a major role in 2026 if needed.
None of the seven starters listed, though, is as good as Peralta, and that's part of the problem. There's reason to believe that the Brewers will consistently get back to the playoffs, but trading stars for lesser pieces, even if those pieces have additional years of control, won't necessarily lead to winning a World Series or even a pennant.
Brewers have yet to really crush a star pitcher trade
Trading pitchers like Peralta is one thing, but not getting elite returns for said players is another. These trade histories leave a lot to be desired in hindsight.
Josh Hader trade
Of the four players acquired in the Josh Hader trade, only Robert Gasser, a pitcher with just 33.2 big league innings under his belt, remains in the organization. The Brewers did use Esteury Ruiz as a main piece to bring William Contreras to Milwaukee, which makes this easily the best trade of the bunch, but the Hader trade itself on the surface is not great.
Corbin Burnes trade
Joey Ortiz is an elite defender but his 67 wRC+ ranked 143rd among 145 qualified position players last season. DL Hall has mostly been a reliever when healthy with the Brewers. Blake Burke is the Brewers' 30th-ranked prospect per MLB Pipeline. It's possible the Brewers don't have a single long-term impactful player here in exchange for a year of one of the best pitchers in the game.
Devin Williams trade
Admittedly, one year of a reliever, even one as good as Devin Williams, will never be that valuable on the trade market, but this is really all the Brewers have to show for dealing him? Caleb Durbin is a fine player, but I'm not convinced he'll hit enough to warrant regular at-bats. Nestor Cortes Jr. was injured for much of last year and unproductive when healthy. That's it. That's bad.
I do like the Peralta return more than I liked any of the others the Brewers got at the time of those deals, but trading proven commodities, especially with the team in contention, for prospects never feels like the right thing to do, especially when it hasn't worked in the past.
Brewers' refusal to take a risk shows they are the problem
How do you go from winning 97 games and having the ability to run back an even better version of the team that got humiliated in the NLCS to then trading said ace of your rotation and acting as if you are being serious about winning it all? That doesn't add up.
Again, I get why the Brewers made this deal, and they're undoubtedly better set up to continue making the playoffs long-term. Is that really what they want, though? They only want to get to the playoffs, not win the whole thing? Shouldn't they be aiming a bit higher?
It might stink to lose Peralta for nothing more than a draft pick in free agency, but who'd really care if the Brewers won a World Series by keeping him? At this point, it's not as if the Brewers have a history of these trades working, justifying continuing to make them.
At some point, it's time to try to win a World Series. Doing their very best to do so and falling short would be more rewarding than making it to the playoffs every year, doing the same thing, and losing the same way in the NLCS or earlier. Brewers fans deserve a year of this organization truly doing what it takes to win it all. Will this happen? Probably not. We're probably going to see William Contreras and Trevor Megill trade talks heat up sooner rather than later. But it should.
Why the Dodgers are not to blame for looming lockout
Is what the Dodgers are doing annoying? Of course. Heck, I'm a Mets fan; how do you think I feel about an NL powerhouse that eliminated my team from the 2024 NLCS spending like drunken sailors and getting better every winter after winning the World Series? It's not fun, but I'm also a realist.
In no way are the Dodgers "breaking baseball." Yes, they're doing things no other team can do, but as Mets fans know all too well, spending a ton of money guarantees you absolutely nothing. The Dodgers are well-run, and they make the playoffs every year thanks largely to the money they spend, but in 2024 they were a game away from being knocked out in the NLDS. In 2025, they were a couple of plays away from potentially being knocked out in the NLDS, and were two outs away from losing in Game 7 of the World Series.
The Dodgers are annoying, and I can see why fans hate them, but they also should be praised for going all out in pursuit of a World Series. The Brewers can't spend close to the amount of money the Dodgers are, but they could be making more of an effort than they are right now.
Not only are the Brewers trading stars away seemingly every year, but they're refraining from doing much of anything in free agency. The Brewers and too many other teams do not care about winning the World Series, and that is MLB's biggest issue.
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