7 Milwaukee Brewers positional players eligible for arbitration

The Milwaukee Brewers face significant questions about their positional players this offseason, as they failed to consistently perform at the plate or in the field.

One tool they have at their disposal is arbitration–a process where players and teams discuss a player’s contract for the upcoming season based on what similar players have recently signed for. A neutral party settles the agreement and awards the contract if the two sides can’t agree.

Let’s take a look at the seven arbitration-eligible players on the Brewers this winter.

These seven positional players for the Milwaukee Brewers are eligible for arbitration this Winter.

Hunter Renfroe

Renfroe was acquired from the Boston Red Sox last offseason and had a pretty good year for the Brewers. His OPS+of 126 (100 is average) was the highest since he started playing regularly. He was the team’s fourth-highest-paid player at $7.65 million last year, meaning the Brewers have a financial decision to make as he enters his final arbitration-eligible season.

Willy Adames

Adames wants to be a Brewer for life–we’ll see how Milwaukee feels about that. He made $4.65 million last year and has two arbitration-eligible seasons remaining. After being a sparkplug mid-way through last season, he failed to produce the same type of impact in 2022. He was still an above-average hitter.

Luis Urias

Urias is a luxurious utility infielder to have, as he can play third base, shortstop and second base, and fill in when an injury occurs. However, his place appearances fell by 100 from 2021 due to his status as a backup. That should hurt him in arbitration negotiations. He made $2.55 million this year and has three arbitration years remaining.

Victor Caratini

Caratini made $2 million last year and is entering the final year of his arbitration years. He doesn’t provide much of anything on the offensive side of things and Milwaukee could easily upgrade from his spot.

Rowdy Tellez

Tellez will be in for a nice pay raise this offseason after making a measly $1.94 million last year. He blasted a career-high 35 home runs and 89 RBIs while posting a 115 OPS+. Unfortunately, he was far too boom and bust with just a .219 batting average and 121 strikeouts–a perfect representative of the Brewers’ overall offensive struggles.

Michael Brosseau

Brosseau was a nice little luxury piece for the Brewers to have. He spent most of his time at third base, but made a couple of appearances and second and first. Heck, he even had three pitching appearances this year. He has three years of arbitration eligibility remaining and made just over $700,000 a year ago.

Keston Hiura

Hiura experienced a bounce-back season of sorts. After spending a lot of the last two years in Triple-A, he worked his way back to the majors this season. His OPS+ of 115 was the highest since his rookie campaign. He’s still far from reliable, but should experience a bit of an increase in his 2022 salary ($705,000).