The Brewers were supposed to slip in 2026. That was the national script after Milwaukee finished off a third straight National League Central title in 2025, and plenty of people looked at the roster turnover and decided the run had to end sometime.
Instead, Milwaukee has surged to the best record in baseball at 91-56.
That kind of season doesn’t happen because of two players alone. The Brewers have leaned on the full roster all year, and the club’s identity has been built on everyone pulling in the same direction. Still, if you’re looking for the biggest overachievers relative to preseason expectations, Jacob Misiorowski and Jake Bauers stand out.
Misiorowski was handed the pressure of being Milwaukee’s ace after the Brewers overhauled almost their entire starting rotation. Fan Graphs projected him at 9-8 with a 3.99 ERA and 155 strikeouts in 135 innings. What he has delivered instead is a front-line breakout: 14-5 with a 1.95 ERA and 236 strikeouts in 161 innings.
David Schoenfield of ESPN summed up just how sharp the leap has been:
“Consider this: Misiorowski has walked 6.7% of the batters he faced; it took the incomparable control artist Greg Maddux until his fifth season before he got his walk rate below that. With that combination of stuff and control, Misiorowski has held batters to a .156 average, which would be the lowest ever by a starting pitcher.”
That’s the kind of production that changes the shape of a season. Misiorowski hasn’t just met the expectation of being Milwaukee’s top starter - he has blown past it.
Bauers has taken a different path to the same kind of impact. His first season with the Brewers in 2024 looked shaky on the surface, as he hit .199/.301/.361 with 12 home runs and 43 RBI in 116 games.
Even so, Milwaukee brought him back in 2025, when he improved to .235/.353/.399 with seven home runs and 28 RBI in 85 games. The Brewers kept him again for 2026, even though he was entering his age 30 season.
Fan Graphs projected Bauers at .220/.322/.420 with 12 home runs this year. With 15 games left, he’s sitting at .268/.395/.490 with 24 home runs and 78 RBI. His .395 on-base percentage leads the National League, and he also leads the Brewers in home runs.
Bauers has given Milwaukee a real power presence, even if he doesn’t fit the mold of the sport’s biggest sluggers. He has also answered one of the main questions around him by hitting .267/.382/.500 against left-handed pitchers in 144 plate appearances this season.
When Andrew Vaughn broke a bone in his hand on Opening Day, Bauers stepped in and raised his game along with the team’s. He played so well that, once Vaughn returned, Milwaukee couldn’t justify taking him out of the lineup.
He won’t show up in MVP chatter, but Bauers has been a major reason the Brewers sit atop the sport’s regular-season standings.
In Other News...
Brewers Top Pitching Prospect Suddenly Faces A Serious New Concern
The Brewers pitching pipeline took a hit this week when Nashville placed Tyson Hardin on the 7-day injured list retroactive to Sept. 10. Hardin has been one of Milwaukees top prospects, and the move now puts a hard stop on what had been a season worth tracking closely for the organizations future on the mound.
No details were released on the nature or severity of the injury, but the timing points toward Hardin likely being done for the year. For a club that has kept one eye on its recent game results and another on the road ahead in the playoffs, losing a pitcher with that kind of profile adds another layer of uncertainty to an already important stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Just Sent A Message About Their Biggest Supposed Weakness
With the best record in baseball and a run differential that dwarfs everyone else, the Brewers have spent this season making an old baseball argument feel a little outdated. Milwaukee does not look like a classic slugging powerhouse on paper, especially with the club ranking near the bottom in home runs, but the lineup has still found ways to put pressure on opponents and pile up runs in bunches.
Thats the part worth watching now: the Brewers have already authored two historic 20-plus run shutout wins, and their power production has ticked up since August. For a team long framed around pitching, contact and defense, that kind of late-season offensive lift suggests Milwaukee may be chipping away at the one weakness people keep assuming will matter most when the games get bigger. [Read more 🡒]
Pat Murphy Made Sure Brewers Didn't Celebrate Too Much
A 20-0 rout of the Reds was enough to send the Brewers back to the postseason, and Pat Murphy made sure the moment was celebrated with some perspective. After the clincher, the Milwaukee manager gathered the team for a toast, recognizing how much the group had already accomplished while reminding everyone the season still has more left to chase.
Murphy also made a point of extending the credit beyond the clubhouse regulars, noting the work done by the people around the team who help keep a long season moving. The Brewers are in the playoffs for the fourth straight year, but the tone around the celebration suggested the bigger prizes are still in front of them. [Read more 🡒]