MILWAUKEE — It’s easy to look at the success of Jake Bauers this season and postseason and marvel. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll see the process that helped Bauers ascend to NLCS MVP after years as a baseball journeyman. And that’s where the Milwaukee Brewers thrive.
If you look around the diamond as you’re watching the Brewers, you’ll notice a theme. Many players on this team are on their second or even third MLB organization. Most of them have continued to improve at the big-league level — something that every team aspires to but few succeed at.
“A lot of it has to do with the way we hold each other accountable and the standards that there are to be a baseball player here,” Bauers, the Brewers’ first baseman, said. “Those don't change for anybody. And so you've seen guys come in who maybe don't grasp that there's a certain way that we're going to do things, and they don't stay very long.”
Player development is a hot topic around baseball, with helping players improve being the goal. But for a team such as the Brewers that doesn’t spend anywhere near the top of the market, consistently getting the most out of every player on the 26-man roster is crucial. And in 2026, it’s why they’re four wins away from a World Series title.
Sixteen of the 26 players on the Brewers’ NLCS roster were drafted or signed by at least one other organization before they got to Milwaukee. The Brewers’ ability to take those players and unlock something greater is what has elevated this group to become World Series contenders.
“I was fortunate enough to get drafted here, and there's so many people behind the scenes that aid in development, especially [for] the homegrown guys, the guys that get drafted,” outfielder Sal Frelick said. “And then the guys that end up getting traded over here. … These guys that come over here and you think, ‘Man, they've kind of found a home.’”
Said Bauers, who spent time with the Rays, Guardians, Mariners and Yankees before latching on with the Brewers: “I think if you can come to a place like this and really buy into the message, and almost give yourself over to them and just say, ‘I'm gonna do whatever you tell me to do, however you tell me to do it,’ I think it can certainly be possible for anybody.”
So how does a team get this good at developing players?
“I think a lot goes into that,” Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said. “Certainly it's player by player. You try not to hit them in the face with something right away. You kind of say ‘Hi, how are you? Who are you?’ Get them comfortable with your environment. And then hopefully, they trust the results we've had here for a while to make sure, ‘Hey, we just want what's best for you.’
“We try to do that with every guy, and it's a different message to different people, and our guys, our coaches do a fantastic job with the way they connect with our players when they're brand-new here.”
Having so many past success stories becomes a big advantage for the Brewers when it comes to getting new players to buy in. But building trust on an individual level is also paramount, and for designated hitter Andrew Vaughn, that was an important part of the process.
Vaughn was one of baseball’s most highly touted prospects when he was selected No. 3 overall by the Chicago White Sox in the 2019 MLB Draft. But the success so many expected never came, as he put up a .248/.303/.407 slash line over five seasons in Chicago. That led to a trade to Milwaukee last June.
Looking back, that trade turned out to be the best thing to happen to Vaughn. Since becoming a full-time player in Chicago, his production has skyrocketed, and the Brewers’ DH is one of the best platoon bats in baseball. In his time in Milwaukee, Vaughn has a .306/.384/.466 slash line, and his .938 OPS vs. left-handed pitching was 15th in MLB this season.
"It's just the culture here,” Vaughn said. “You want to buy into it. I got here the first day, and I still remember everybody welcoming me like family. And it's like, ‘All right, this is what we do. This is how we do it, this is the right way.’ It's like, I'm all-in. I'm ready.”
Player development often means figuring out how to get the most out of players who come from other organizations. But it also means finding the answers for those who have been in the organization but whose development has not taken a linear path.
After Milwaukee drafted Aaron Ashby in 2018, many believed he would become a fixture in Brewers rotations of the future. But after two seasons as a starter, Milwaukee convinced the left-hander that he could be just as effective out of the bullpen. And while his love for starting is still there, the trust he has built with Brewers pitching coaches Chris Hook and Jim Henderson helped the transition.
After a strong regular season in 2026, Ashby has become a star out of Milwaukee’s bullpen this postseason. He has yet to allow a run across six postseason appearances.
“We argue about it every spring training … I’ve always wanted to be a starter. I will always continue to be a starter. I tell them that any chance I get,” Ashby said with a smile. “[But] I always tell them that whatever role I can be the most valuable, the best to the team, that's what I want to do.”
Whether you’re talking about Bauers and Vaughn or Frelick and Ashby, it’s clear that Milwaukee’s player development apparatus has been a catalyst behind this team’s deep postseason run. And with a roster full of second chances and success stories, they’re just four wins away from their ultimate goal.