Milwaukee throws its first World Series parade Friday morning. The Brewers’ offseason got going before the floats did, and it’s already cost them a starting pitcher.
Dustin May declined his side of a mutual option with the Brewers on Thursday night and is a free agent, per Jon Heyman. The option was worth $20 million for 2027, and May will collect a $500,000 buyout, per MLB Trade Rumors. The rest of Milwaukee’s option calls, including the one on World Series MVP William Contreras, are due Monday.
Parade day
The parade starts at 10 a.m. CT at N. Vel R. Phillips Ave. and W. Wisconsin Ave. It heads east on Wisconsin, north on Jefferson, east on Mason, south on Jackson and east on Chicago before ending at Henry Maier Festival Park, per FOX6. Road closures along the route begin at 7 a.m. Shuttles run from American Family Field from 7 to 11:30 a.m. for $5, with proceeds going to the Brewers Community Foundation.
The team’s championship rally is at the park, where gates open at 8 a.m. and festivities run until 3 p.m., per the Brewers. Tickets for the rally program inside the American Family Insurance Amphitheater are sold out. The festival grounds are free until they reach capacity, and the program will be shown on a live video feed there. The Brewers will also stream the parade and rally at brewers.com.
May is the first one out
Milwaukee got May from St. Louis in a deal that also brought back left-hander JoJo Romero. He had a 5.65 ERA in 36 2/3 regular-season innings with the Brewers and allowed seven runs in 11 postseason innings. Between the two clubs, he finished with a 4.70 ERA over a career-high 145 2/3 innings, averaging nearly 97 mph on his fastball with a six-pitch mix, per MLBTR’s Anthony Franco.
He isn’t eligible for a qualifying offer because he didn’t spend the whole season with one organization, per MLB.com, so the Brewers won’t get draft-pick compensation if he signs elsewhere.
Monday’s decisions
Teams have until Monday, Nov. 2, to make option decisions and qualifying offers, and free agents can sign with any team starting at 5 p.m. ET (4 p.m. CT) that day, per CBS Sports. The Brewers still have three options to settle, per MLBTR’s offseason outlook:
- Contreras: club option. If it’s declined, he stays under team control through arbitration.
- Reliever Antonio Senzatela: $14 million club option, no buyout.
- Backup catcher Gary Sánchez: $8.5 million mutual option, $250,000 buyout.
Franco projects that Milwaukee will exercise Contreras’ option instead of going to an arbitration hearing, buy out Sánchez and decline Senzatela’s option. That’s a projection, not reporting. Nothing has been announced.
Contreras hit .270/.341/.417 with 18 home runs in 640 plate appearances this season, good for a 109 wRC+ and 3.0 fWAR, and MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk notes he’s “still excellent at throwing out baserunners.” He threw out four of nine base stealers in the World Series. He and closer Trevor Megill are both set for free agency after 2027, per MLBTR’s Steve Adams, who pointed out that Milwaukee traded Josh Hader, Corbin Burnes, Devin Williams and Freddy Peralta when each was down to one year of control. The Athletic reported that the Brewers privately believe their postseason revenue gives them more money to work with going into 2027, per MLBTR.
The qualifying offer is $23.15 million this winter. MLB.com lists Jake Bauers, the NLCS MVP, as a candidate after he hit .266/.389/.484 with 26 homers in 144 games while making $2.7 million. Brandon Woodruff can’t receive one because he’s already gotten a qualifying offer before. Since 2012, 18 of 157 players who got the offer have accepted it.
What’s left of the title staff
Milwaukee won this title on the mound. Brewers pitchers had a 1.91 ERA in the World Series. MLBTR lists May, Woodruff, Romero and Senzatela among the team’s free agents, along with Sánchez and Bauers.
Several key arms are still under team control. Jacob Misiorowski, who threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings in the clincher before a right calf cramp ended his night, isn’t among the arbitration-eligible players in MLBTR’s outlook. Aaron Ashby is under contract through 2027. Megill is arbitration-eligible with a projected $8 million salary. Quinn Priester, who posted a 3.32 ERA over 157 1/3 innings in 2025, had thoracic outlet surgery on June 22 and is expected to be ready for spring training, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Todd Rosiak. MLBTR’s early look at the 2027 rotation puts Misiorowski and Logan Henderson at the front, with Priester, Robert Gasser, Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan competing behind them.
May also enters a deep market for starting pitching. Tarik Skubal tops it, and on Thursday morning Michael King declined his $28 million player option with the Padres and took a $5 million buyout, per Heyman. MLBTR puts King in the next tier of starters with Trevor Rogers, Freddy Peralta and Kaima Taira.
Players who get a qualifying offer have until Nov. 17 at 4 p.m. ET to accept or decline it. Two weeks after that, the collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1 at 11:59 p.m. ET, and a lockout is widely expected, per CBS Sports.
Featured photo: William Contreras batting for the Brewers in Anaheim, June 2024. Sewageboy / CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons (cropped)
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