Amid ample speculation about the Brewers making a play for reigning two-time AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports that owner Mark Attanasio would be willing to take on the entire remainder of Skubal’s $32MM salary. As of this writing, that’d mean about $9.8MM. By deadline day, the number would dip to about $9.4MM.
With some of the bigger-market clubs pursuing Skubal (e.g. Dodgers, Cubs), the remaining salary wouldn’t be much of a factor, if it is at all. For smaller-payroll squads like those in Milwaukee and Tampa Bay, adding nearly $10MM in payroll for a rental arm — on top of parting with premium prospects — is a big ask. The Brewers typically rank in the bottom-third of MLB, payroll-wise. This year’s $136.262MM cash payroll (as can be seen in MLBTR’s new Payroll Tracker) is already up there with the largest in franchise history. Paying the full freight of what’s left on Skubal’s deal would send them easily into franchise-record territory.
We’ve already seen indications this summer, however, that the Brewers are comfortable taking some financial risks. Milwaukee paid more than $2MM of Lance McCullers Jr.‘s contract as a means of effectively purchasing southpaw Colton Gordon in a trade with the Astros. Gordon gives the club another rotation possibility, but he was acquired more as a depth arm than a clear-cut contributor for the 2026 season. The Brewers have rolled the dice on some notable extensions for a pair of top prospects before either made his big league debut; shortstop Cooper Pratt landed a $50.75MM guarantee over eight years, while outfielder Luis Lara signed for $31MM over seven seasons. Both are now performing well in the majors.
Milwaukee’s rotation is fronted by perhaps the best young starter in the sport: towering righty Jacob Misiorowski. The rest of the group has taken some notable hits. Brandon Woodruff is done for the season due to shoulder surgery. Quinn Priester didn’t pitch at all this year before ultimately undergoing thoracic outlet surgery. Breakout lefty Kyle Harrison ran into a rough patch before hitting the injured list with some forearm and elbow discomfort. He’s thankfully avoided a notable injury, it seems. Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru of MLB.com writes that Harrison is nearing a return. He coasted through 5 2/3 innings in a High-A rehab start this week and needed only 68 pitches in the process.
Whenever Harrison returns, he’ll join Misiorowski, Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser, Shane Drohan and Brandon Sproat as rotation options. There are plenty of workload issues to consider in that group. Henderson pitched only 103 frames last year between Triple-A and the majors. He’s at 68 innings in 2026. Drohan’s 95 2/3 innings this year already trounce the 54 innings he pitched in the Red Sox organization last year (before coming over alongside Harrison in the Caleb Durbin trade). Gasser only pitched 43 2/3 innings last year in his return from UCL surgery. He’s already at 84 innings.
Bringing Skubal into the fold alongside Misiorowski and Harrison would give the Brew Crew perhaps the most formidable playoff rotation in the game — certainly the best one-two punch anyhow. The asking price on Skubal figures to be extreme. Any of Milwaukee’s current non-Misiorowski starters could reasonably be part of Detroit’s ask, and they’d then need to add prospects on top of said starter. It’s nearly impossible to imagine the Brewers parting with shortstop Jesus Made, the top prospect in all of baseball, but the Brewers’ system is stacked. They ought to be able to put together a compelling offer even with Made off the table.
A Skubal acquisition by the Brewers would harken back to their 2008 trade for eventual Hall of Famer CC Sabathia. It was a huge outlier move for the typically reserved and cautious Brewers. Milwaukee parted with top prospect/recent first-rounder Matt LaPorta, Zach Jackson, Rob Bryson and a player to be named later in the deal. A LaPorta-led package was considered steep at the time, and the PTBNL in that swap wound up being the most consequential player of all … a well-regarded outfield prospect by the name of Michael Brantley.
The Brewers didn’t win the World Series that year, but Sabathia’s run at the former Miller Park is the stuff of legend in Milwaukee. He averaged 7 2/3 innings per outing down the stretch while pitching to a preposterous 1.65 ERA. He tossed six complete games, including a pair of shutouts, putting the entire pitching staff — the entire roster, really — on his back as Milwaukee stormed to the postseason.
No one could reasonably expect Skubal to match that insane workload and dominance down the stretch, but the parallels are there. The main difference this time around is that the Brewers are already near-locks for the postseason, thanks in large part to a Misiorowski-led rotation. With that duo atop the rotation, to say nothing of a bullpen anchored by big arms like Trevor Megill, Abner Uribe and Aaron Ashby — plus any number of potential new acquisitions — the Brewers would immediately be thrust into the ranks of 2026 World Series favorites.
