Cubs' division rival signs another mediocre outfielder, adding to logjam

The NL Central has mostly been quiet this offseason, up to and through the Winter Meetings. Save for the St. Louis Cardinals trading Sonny Gray as step one of their (hopefully very long) rebuild, there just hasn't been much action in the division.

The Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds were both surprisingly in on Kyle Schwarber's expensive market, but both teams fell short when he re-signed with the Phillies.

The Chicago Cubs have begun reworking their bullpen, following up their multi-year signing of former Cardinal Phil Maton with another former intra-division foe (and Craig Counsell favorite) in Hoby Milner.

As for the reigning NL Central champs, the Milwaukee Brewers, they've been predictably quiet outside of dangling their ace in trade talks yet again. That finally changed shortly after the Cubs scooped up Milner, though their first major-league signing of the offseason was a questionable one, to say the least.

While the Cubs rebuild their bullpen, the Brewers' outfield logjam has no obvious solutions

Signing Akil Badoo to a one-year contract is hardly going to make or break the Brewers' season next year, though it does raise some serious questions about their roster construction.

If you factor the defensively-challenged Christian Yelich and surely-he-can-play-left-field Jake Bauers into the equation, Milwaukee has 11(!) outfielders on their 40-man roster, including Baddoo. Yelich will almost certainly be relegated to DH duties while Bauers handles some sort of platoon at first base, but that still leaves nine players for three spots.

Jackson Chourio isn't going anywhere as the team's starting right fielder, nor is Sal Frelick after his breakout campaign in center field in 2025. If that rings true, seven players will be competing for playing time in left field. There's depth, and then there's simply having too many stocking stuffers.

What's funny is that none of the Brewers' septet of options inspires all that much confidence. Isaac Collins looked great with the bat in his rookie season, but his underlying metrics paint a grim picture. Blake Perkins and Garrett Mitchell have the speed and defense the Crew covets, but the former struggles at the plate and the latter struggles to remain healthy.

Is Baddoo — who hasn't drawn more than 100 plate appearances in a season since 2023 — really going to leapfrog all those guys? His career wRC+ is just 87, and it bottomed out at -8 last year (albeit in just 18 plate appearances).

By this point, Cubs fans should know better than to doubt the most innocuous Brewers pickups (Andrew Vaughn, anyone?). Still, signing Baddoo to the 40-man roster feels more like a bet-hedger than anything else. It's unclear how, if at all, he'll factor into their 2026 plans.