What’s next? In the Brewers locker room after the crushing series loss to the Mets

MILWAUKEE – Shortly after Game 3, following the Brewers’ stunning 4-2 loss to the Mets, Rhys Hoskins approached Devin Williams at his locker and offered words of encouragement. Another teammate put his right arm around Williams and said, “One day I’ll tell my kids I was your teammate.”

Finally, Bob Uecker approached Williams and spoke for five minutes as the right-hander’s eyes watered. The two hugged and said goodbye before Williams joined Hoskins and other teammates in the corner of the Brewers’ clubhouse.

Williams, the Brewers’ star closer, entered the ninth inning with a 2-0 lead. The Mets had managed just two hits in eight innings and were on the verge of elimination. But Williams quickly allowed two base runners and then Pete Alonso, the Mets’ star first baseman, sent a three-run blast over the right field wall to give the Mets the lead.

“Everyone did their job except me,” Williams said. “I feel like I let everyone down.”

These brewers shouldn’t even be here. Just ask her. They suffered so many injuries, lost 4/5 of their starting rotation, lost Christian Yelich for the season after back surgery, lost Craig Counsell to the Chicago Cubs, and traded star pitcher Corbin Burnes before the regular season. But numerous young players stepped up, both on offense and in the rotation, forming what several players described after the game as the tightest clubhouse they had ever been a part of.

They won 93 regular season games. They won the National League Central by 10 games. The first season of the Pat Murphy era was a complete success. But that doesn’t make Thursday’s heavy defeat any easier.

“It’s a big disappointment,” Williams said. “We have worked all year to get to this point. In the ninth run they gave me a two-run lead. Here’s how to create it. I couldn’t come through for the boys. Nobody has it worse than me.”

“There’s a lot to be proud of,” Hoskins said. “But at the moment the disappointment is great.”

Now the Brewers head into another offseason full of uncertainty. Willy Adames, the team’s star shortstop, is a free agent. Rhys Hoskins has an $18 million player option for the 2025 season. Williams still has one year left on his contract and the Brewers are already trading away star players before reaching free agency (see: Josh Hader, Corbin Burnes).

Brewers manager Matt Arnold will try to re-sign Adames. He will be active on the free agent market. He will be active in the trade market, both in acquiring players and in hearing about players on the major league roster. But the foundation — Christian Yelich, Jackson Chourio, William Contreras, Bryce Turang, Sal Frelick and many others — is currently in place, giving Arnold a strong base to build on.

That was part of the message Pat Murphy gave his team after the game: “You will grow out of this disappointment, out of this situation. You will rise again and something good will come out of it.”

For many of these Brewers players, this loss will be painful throughout the season. After the game, many of the players’ wives or girlfriends stood in front of the clubhouse with tears in their eyes. Williams sat at his locker with his head bowed, scrolling through his phone. None of them had words. Just minutes earlier they were on the verge of promotion to the National League Divisional Series. Then, with one swipe from Alonso’s bat, their season was abruptly over.

“I’m telling you,” said Uecker. “That one had something to sting.”

The Brewers will try to re-sign Adames in the offseason, but team officials admit there will be other suitors in free agency who can better outbid Milwaukee. Team owner Mark Attanasio said: “I think the free agent contract will be very valuable and quite large for him. We’ll do what we can to stretch, but others have bigger pockets and we’ll see what happens.

Potential suitors for Adames in free agency include the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves. In four seasons with the Brewers, Adames established himself as one of the best shortstops in baseball, hitting .244/.324/.457 with 107 home runs, 348 RBI and an OPS+ of 119. He is also coming off a season in which he was the Career record 21 stolen bases.

After the game, Adames admitted that he had thought about free agency and that it was “a difficult situation.”

“I don’t know if I’ll be back,” Adames said. “Like I said, I hope. If not, it was a great time here. It was a great time.

“Lots of great memories. I shared this clubhouse with a lot of great players, great personalities like Bob (Uecker). He just made me cry. They’ve made me a better player since I’ve been here. They have helped me grow on and off the field and I am just grateful.

The expectation in baseball is that Rhys Hoskins will exercise his $18 million player option for the 2025 season to return to the Milwaukee Brewers, but Hoskins said after the game that he was undecided and that he would take his time to find out.

“That’s a good question. I don’t know,” Hoskins said when asked about his future. “That’s far away.”