Hard disagree on trading Yelich just to get rid of the contract. As far as contracts for that caliber of player go it's not a bad one at all. From 22-28 (Age 30-36 seasons) he'll be paid $22m per year, with an additional $4m annually deferred between 2031-2042. $22m then is also less than $22m is now. I also don't see him as someone who will fall of a cliff and do nothing in the later half of that deal. There is a big difference between overpaying a 2 WAR type of guy and paying Albert Pujols or Jordan Zimmermann. If someone offers a genuinely good offer, listen to it. But to trade him for peanuts, or even throw in Josh Hader? Absolutely not. Whatever one may think about big contract extensions or free agent deals for top players, it's still the case that Yelich's contract situation meant a discount to what he'd cost in free agency, and any free agents signed with that money won't come at a discount.

As for offseason plan, based on what we're seeing with declined options and such, I think the best way forward is to focus on retaining and acquiring quality players at positions of need, and relying on cheaper pickups and young guys to cover the backup roles and lesser needs. So that means non-tendering pretty much everyone except Woodruff, Hader and one of Piña/Narvaez. And even then, the main purpose of tendering Hader would be for trading him.

With expected cutz to the payroll, I think that kind of aggressive maneuvering is the only way to get the money needed to adress the corner infield needs. Get the two best bats you can for 1B and 3B with the money available; perhaps that's Tommy La Stella and Carlos Santana, perhaps it's someone else. If anything is left, get a veteran starter, a solid reliever, and for the rest look for the minimum salary (or close to it) veterans and non-roster invite types and try to win that lottery. Try to exploit 40-man roster crunches to get a Jesus Aguilar-type too.

Anyway, the key point of my offseason plan would basically be that because the financial constraints will force the Brewers to be selective, the focus would be to address the biggest needs (1B and 3B) with the money that can be spent, and hope that the expected positive regression of Narvaez, Yelich, Hiura, Garcia actually happens. Because basically if it does not, then there are no realistic moves that can salvage the situation anyway, so might as well go for the moves that makes sense if it does. And signing a Santana on a 1-year deal or La Stella for 2 years or w/e aren't harmful in the long run.

There are other ways to free up the money besides non-tenders, but i'm not a fan of a Yelich trade, and as far as Cain/Garcia go I expect them to be good players in 2021 and I also don't think there'd be much of a return for them. And it would leave two additional spots of great need to be filled with what would still be limited resources.