{"id":905803,"date":"2026-11-04T16:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T16:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/905803\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T16:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T16:58:10","slug":"brewers-probably-will-lose-slugger-jake-bauers-per-mlb-insider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/905803\/","title":{"rendered":"Brewers &#8216;Probably&#8217; Will Lose Slugger Jake Bauers, Per MLB Insider"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8e\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/brewers\/onsi\/two-brewers-veterans-elect-free-agency-after-world-series-run-pat3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Milwaukee Brewers<\/a> found magic in Jake Bauers in 2026. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8j\">When the 2026 campaign kicked off, Bauers wasn&#8217;t necessarily expected to be a major player in the middle of the order. Injuries opened the door to playing time early on in the season and he absolutely made the most of it. Bauers was a solid role player for Milwaukee in 2025 but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/brewers\/onsi\/the-absurd-rise-of-jake-bauers-for-the-milwaukee-brewers-pat3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">turned into a star<\/a> in 2026. Bauers crushed 26 home runs, drove in 86 runs and slashed .266\/389\/.484 in 144 games played. He finished the season with 3.3 wins above replacement. In comparison, his previous career high was 0.6. Plus, he went on to win the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/brewers\/onsi\/jake-bauers-nlcs-mvp-obvious-choice-michael3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">National League Championship Series Most Valuable Player<\/a> Award. An unbelievable run, to say the least. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8o\">Milwaukee already has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/brewers\/onsi\/brewers-make-23-million-jake-bauers-gamble-tender-qualifying-offer-pat3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">tendered Bauers the qualifying offer<\/a>, which would pay him over $23 million on a one-year deal if he were to accept it. If not, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/brewers\/onsi\/five-teams-emerge-in-brewers-jake-bauers-free-agency-sweepstakes-pat3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">there&#8217;s a real chance he lands a lucrative deal<\/a> in free agency this winter. If you&#8217;re a Brewers fan hoping that Bauers accepts the qualifying offer and sticks around, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7742903\/2026\/11\/03\/mlb-offseason-biggest-team-needs-2026-2027\/?unlocked_article_code=1.NlE.dYIM.UysT9L5Jy4ow&amp;source=emp_shared_article&amp;smid=ta-ios-share\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Bowden of The Athletic&#8217;s<\/a> take on Tuesday may not be what you want to hear. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8t\">&#8220;The Brewers do have to deal with some free agents, specifically first baseman Jake Bauers and pitchers Brandon Woodruff, Dustin May and JoJo Romero,&#8221; Bowden wrote. &#8220;Bauers will probably depart and be replaced by prospect Andrew Fischer, who hit 48 homers in the minor leagues this season.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Jake Bauers Will Get Paid<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/01m6khxpfyjrjfcq4bwh.jpg\" alt=\"Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers \" title=\"Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers \" width=\"360\" height=\"203\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"9a\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Milwaukee Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers (9) greets fans holding the Commissioner\u2019s Trophy during the World Series parade on the intersection E Mason St and N Jackson St in Milwaukee, on Oct. 30, 2026. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9g\">On Tuesday, ESPN&#8217;s Kiley McDaniel <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/brewers\/onsi\/new-jake-bauers-contract-projection-could-be-bad-news-for-brewers-pat3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">projected Bauers<\/a> to land a three-year deal in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/mlb\/story\/_\/id\/50359247\/rankings-contract-projections-top-mlb-free-agents\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">neighborhood of $52.5 million. <\/a>If a deal like that is actually realistic, it&#8217;s hard to believe that it would be from Milwaukee, especially with Fischer looking like a slugger of the future for the organization. The Brewers have already shown that they&#8217;re serious about Bauers. Tendering the qualifying offer shows this. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9l\">But it doesn&#8217;t guarantee that he will be back. Bowden is a league insider and claimed that the slugger will &#8220;probably&#8221; not return. Mix that with the lofty contract projections around the league and things aren&#8217;t looking great right now. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9q\">It&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/onsi\/minor-league-baseball\/news\/brewers-andrew-fischer-joins-ryan-howard-in-minor-league-history-justin3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">important to note that Fischer<\/a> got most of his playing time down in the minors at third base in 2026. He did appear in 25 games at the Double-A level at first base, but most of his playing time was at third base and he hasn&#8217;t reached Triple-A just yet. If Bauers leaves, the most likely solution actually would be to stick with Andrew Vaughn at first base in the short term while Fischer continues to develop.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9v\">For the Brewers, it&#8217;s good that they have options. In a perfect world, the 2026 team would all stick together in return in 2027. But that isn&#8217;t likely to be the case. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" preventdefault:click=\"\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\" on:click=\"q-Do1oKYdV.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"a1\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Milwaukee Brewers found magic in Jake Bauers in 2026. When the 2026 campaign kicked off, Bauers wasn&#8217;t&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":905804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99],"class_list":["post-905803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}