MBL NEWS: The Milwaukee Brewers shocked baseball by acquiring the Detroit Tigers’ CY-Young winner pitcher just nine hours prior to the first game. According to ESPN and other sources, the outstanding elite pitcher agreed to a five-year, $210 million deal with the Milwaukee Brewers after turning down a four-year, $150 million offer from the San Diego Padres.

Exhale Brewers fans, Opening Day is upon us! And what a way to unfurl the 2025 season than to open it up in the Bronx against perhaps the most legendary franchise in the history of sports – the New York Yankees. This match-up will be the opening crescendo of an emotional offseason for both franchises.

A Tough Offseason In The Bronx & Devin Williams In Pinstripes
The Yankees entered the offseason with the fresh sting of having their 28th ring elude them, having made the World Series for the first time since 2009. Aaron Judge mashed his way to his second MVP. Still, not even the combination of his prolific power and generational talent, Juan Soto, was enough to navigate around the leviathan that is the Los Angeles Dodgers. Since then, it’s been a mixed bag of an offseason for the Yanks. Soto took his talents across the East River, signing a historically lucrative contract to play for the Mets.

Meanwhile, perennial Cy Young candidate Gerrit Cole was lost for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Still, the New York Yankees remain the New York Yankees. Countering their substantial losses was achieved through savvy and expensive acquisitions through trade and free agency. New in pinstripes will be former MVPs Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt, who are almost certainly past their best years but still capable of meaningfully solid play – and, notably, major upgrades in the defensive department. Other highlights to the roster overhaul include ace-adjacent lefty Max Fried, who signed a flashy eight-year $218 million deal in December, and, of course, the bygone elite closer for the Crew, Devin Williams.

A Season Without Ueck
The Brewers are not without their wounds to lick, entering 2025. While on the field, subtractions were part of the offseason narrative for the Brewers, the indisputably biggest loss came from the passing of the irreplicable Bob Uecker. For many fans, Uecker’s loosely lacquered rocking chair of a voice booming from the announcer’s booth has been a lifelong association with what it means to be a Brewers fan. The totality of Uecker’s loss is of such a magnitude that it is almost incalculable and nearly impossible to put into words. Still, in the immediate wake of his passing, we memorialized him as appropriately as anyone might – by constructing a small mountain of Miller Lite blue and yellow balloons, flowers, and Brewers merchandise at the foot of one of his two statues that stand in tribute to Mr. Baseball at American Family Field.

With this bittersweet legacy already in tow, the Brewers had to say goodbye to a few other beloved faces. Most notable among them was fan favorite Willy Adames, who, upon coming to Milwaukee, almost immediately took a sledgehammer to the “Rays win every trade” narrative. After nearly four years in a Brewers uniform, Adames cashed in on his talents with a well-deserved $182 million deal that will see him as a Giant for the next seven years. The thrifty Brewers also said goodbye to another All-Star talent, swapping Williams to the Yankees for Caleb Durbin and Nestor Cortes. The former will start his season in Nashville, while the latter will take the mound in the second game of the series, making his first start in another uniform against the team that just traded him.

Three Things To Watch Battling The Yankees

1. The defense has gotten better, but not light years better. The Dodgers didn’t win the World Series by crushing the ball every chance they got; they won by simply putting the ball in play, and the Crew would be wise to do the same. There are five Gold Gloves between Goldschmidt and Bellinger, but the last was handed out in 2021. If focused, the slappy Brewers are a perfectly pesky candidate to pull the threads necessary to undo the might of the titanic Yanks.

1. Let the young talent speak. Spring training is spring training, but Jackson Chourio’s numbers are beyond gaudy. If he builds on the offensive explosion he put up in the latter half of 2024, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him near the top of the MVP ranks by season’s end. A haggard vet by comparison, 25-year-old former first-round pick Brice Turang quietly put up a 4.7 WAR in his sophomore season and netted himself a platinum glove.

2. Remain undaunted. It’s hard to quantify or build a metric around vibes, but it sure seems like team chemistry has been a not-insignificant part of the Brewers’ success over the last several seasons. From internet hot-takers all the way up to Vegas, people underestimate the Crew at their peril. Like the city itself, if Milwaukee believes in itself, great things happen.

Yankees Predictions
It’s not hard to find the poetry in this opening salvo. It’s a David vs. Goliath story if there ever was one, where one of the smallest markets in the league squares up against a true powerhouse. It goes against much of what I believe to be fundamentally logical, but I think the Brewers take two of three. Both teams will be playing with a chip on their shoulders, but a slew of highly consequential Yankees injuries make the question marks surrounding them harder to answer.