From body-slams to hugs and praise, Sal Frelick epitomizes champion Brewers
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ST. PETERSBURG, FL – Hustling as he always does, sweaty and dusty, too, Sal Frelick took a few steps and then leapt into the air.
A few more steps, another leap.
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As he hit the Tropicana Field infield dirt on his sprint from right field, Frelick tossed his glove into the air.
Certainly it’ll be returned to him if it hasn’t yet, but it’s not like he’ll need it anymore in 2026. It can be a prized keepsake from the most cherished moment of his career.
The moment the Milwaukee Brewerswon the 122nd World Series.
A moment he may not fully comprehend for a day, or a week, or a year … or until his baseball playing days are over.
“I mean, confetti coming down the field and seeing the trophy … my family's here … like, it's … I can't even put in the words,” Frelick said amid a Brewers celebration that started on the field among the teammates, moved to a stage for the trophy presentation and then spilled back onto the turf with families and friends.
Soon the party would migrate back to the clubhouse for the sticky-sweet spray of bubbly.
“It didn’t set in until that final out there,” Frelick said, his mind still racing after the 4-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 5 on Oct. 28
“You’re just competing so hard, then it kind of just all hits you at once, and it’s a lot of emotion.”
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Christian Yelich may be the captain, Jacob Misiorowski the ace and William Contreras the World Series MVP, but Frelick is the heart of this club.
He is feisty and 5-foot-9, a bulldog blessed with whippet speed and a sheepdog’s hair tucked into his cap. Frelick epitomizes the run-through-the-wall determination of the ’26 Brewers and represents the sort of blue-collar work ethic that made Milwaukee famous.
For this, the fans adore him.
Teammates, too.
Before Game 4, third baseman David Hamilton, among the most lowkey players on the team, was asked what he made of Frelick, his polar opposite on the emotional scale.
“He’s a character, man,” Hamilton said. “He’s the glue guy. He brings us all together. He’s always talking to everybody, making everybody laugh.”
As midnight approached after the ultimate victory, Frelick was a guy dancing, stopping to answer questions, flitting from group to group of family and friends, posing for photos, shaking hands and doling out more hugs.
His backup quarterback at Lexington High School in Massachusetts was on hand, along with two handfuls of other teammates from those days. Their seats were spread throughout the stadium, but they were able to reunite on the Trop turf. One had been to every World Series game in Wisconsin and Florida.
Their love and joy were palpable, and their embraces may have left bruises, just like Frelick’s full-contact hugs with teammates.
His first target when he got to the infield after the final out was first baseman Jake Bauers.
“Then Yeli tried to body-slam me again,” Frelick said. “I dodged his tackle last time. He told me he was gonna try something.”
He’d have wrapped his arms around the whole team at once if he could have, but those who’ve been around the longest came first. Pitcher Brandon Woodruff is the longest-tenured member of the team, and his battle to return from a shoulder injury to pitch in the World Series – one inning in Game 3 – was both heartwarming and inspirational. Yelich arrived in 2018, a year after Woodruff, and emerged as the leader while struggling through broken bones and back problems.
“Those two guys, like, they’re the reason that we play the way we do, the standard is the way it is, and they don’t need to be on the field for them to impact this team,” Frelick said. “They’ve done that the last seven, eight, nine years, however long they've been here, and it's just been a blessing to be a rookie coming up with veterans like that, and to see them hoist that trophy and everything.”
Individually, the 2026 regular season wasn’t Frelick’s best.
He fought through right shoulder pain for a couple of months before finally conceding in July. His numbers fell off and his absence opened the door in the outfield for prospect Luis Lara, who responded with highlight-reel catches. Lara even knocked in the winning run in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers with a single off Tarik Skubal.
Still, it was Frelick in right nearly every inning since. He hit a tying home run in a comeback victory in World Series Game 2, and his lunging, tumbling catch in the eighth inning of Game 3, shoulder be damned, was the perfect example of both his Gold Glove skills and the “it factor” that endears him to manager Pat Murphy.
The individual stuff? With this team, that always plays a backseat to team anyway.
“Pick your game, pick a name out of the hat,” Frelick said. “Who’s gonna have the big hit? Who’s gonna have the big inning pitching? It was really just a full team effort, not just one through nine, but the whole entire roster.”
As the emotions flooded his brain, Frelick thought about people beyond his teammates and coaches from principal owner Mark Attanasio and his wife, Debbie, to the front office and the staff all the way down the line.
“Even thinking back that even this team took a chance on me,” Frelick said. “Knowing their culture, knowing what the standard is to play here, they saw me and took a chance on me. And this has been my family and home for the last six years, and I wouldn't wish I was anywhere else.”
Especially now.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: From body-slams to hugs and praise, Sal Frelick epitomizes champion Brewers
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