Brewers 25-Year-Old Star Pushing for Opening Day Roster Spot

Milwaukee Brewers fans may not have to wait long to see the first dividend from the winter’s most talked-about swap. When the club shipped franchise cornerstone Freddy Peralta to the New York Mets for prospects Jett Williams and Brandon Sproat, the front office framed the deal as a future-first maneuver that would not cripple the 2026 product. Less than three months later, the 25-year-old Sproat is doing everything he can to force his way onto the opening-day roster.

The 6-foot-3 right-hander arrived in camp armed with a power fastball tandem and a four-pitch off-speed mix—curveball, sweeper, slider and changeup—that evaluators believe can miss big-league bats right now. A late-season four-start cameo with the Mets produced a 4.79 ERA and 17 strikeouts in 20⅔ innings, numbers that, while uneven, hinted at front-of-the-rotation upside.

MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo, Sam Dykstra and Jim Callis recently tabbed Sproat as the Brewers’ prospect most likely to break camp with the club, writing: “Another new face in a new place, Sproat should be right in Milwaukee’s rotation mix coming off his move from the Mets in the Freddy Peralta/Tobias Myers trade... The depth of the arsenal might give him the best chance at opening ’26 in the bigs.”

Milwaukee’s system is flush with young arms, so nothing will be handed out. Still, the organization’s willingness to move an established ace signals a strong internal belief that Sproat can contribute immediately. If his spring performance mirrors the stuff that convinced the Brewers to pull the trigger, the 25-year-old could line up behind the rubber on Opening Day, validating the gamble that sent Peralta to Queens.