This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy's Brewers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Let’s empty the notebook at the end of another Winter Meetings week in San Diego:

The catching market is hot
Here’s general manager Matt Arnold on whether the Brewers are pursuing a frontline catcher: “Sure. Also, we like Payton Henry [the former Brewers prospect who was re-acquired in a trade last month] and we also like Victor Caratini. Any time you have a chance to upgrade behind the plate, especially the potential loss of [Omar Narváez, who is a free agent], it is something that we would be actively looking to do.”

He said the catching situation is “a very active market.” Besides free agents like Christian Vázquez and Narváez, there’s a big trade chip in Oakland’s Sean Murphy. He’s a Gold Glover with three years of club control remaining, and the A’s are said to be asking a lot.

After Christmas, time to address the arb guys
So much of the Brewers’ three-year plan revolves around their long list of arbitration-eligible players, most notably Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff and Willy Adames. I wrote Arnold’s comments about that trio on Tuesday. Knowing they won’t be traded this winter is probably reassuring, but what about when we get into next season?

Manager Craig Counsell doesn’t see a looming distraction.

“Players play in the last year of their contract,” Counsell said. “Trea Turner just played in the last year of his contract. Aaron Judge played in the last year of his contract. That's the life of a player. They could -- I guess Turner couldn't go back to his old team, but the guys could play in the last year of their contract and end up [back] with their old team. That's the life of a player, man.”

A note about the World Baseball Classic
Devin Williams has already been announced as a member of Team USA for next spring’s World Baseball Classic, but it doesn't appear Burnes or Woodruff will join him. During a gathering of the WBC’s GMs and managers on Tuesday, USA GM Tony Reagins said they put feelers out to both Brewers starters, but they passed on the event. That means the Brewers’ co-aces will go through their usual, measured ramp-up to Opening Day.

Uecker has a former partner in the Hall
Pat Hughes, who worked alongside Bob Uecker on Brewers radio for a dozen years in the 1980s and '90s before becoming the voice of the Cubs, won this year’s Ford C. Frick Award from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and will be honored in Cooperstown this summer. Uecker won that same honor in 2003.

“For me, it was a lucky break,” Hughes said of his gig with the Brewers. “I was very happy to get hired here to start the 1984 season. The process was agonizing. You apply for a job and they tell you you’re in the final 50. A few weeks later, you’re in the final 20. Then they call and you’re in the final 10, the final five, and then you’re down to three and you don’t sleep very well.

“Finally, I got the job in January with Spring Training starting the following month. It was very exciting, though. I had done one season in Minnesota on television, but I always wanted to do radio. Working with Bob was a great experience. I learned so much about the game, the way a ballplayer thinks. And in Bob’s case, as a former catcher, you’re into every single pitch. Every single thing that happens, a catcher is aware of. So I learned little things about how you set up hitters, or why a runner at second base is susceptible to being picked off when his teammate is trying to bunt because he’s getting a jump away from the bag. Little things like that.

“I had played high school, American Legion, two years in the Police Activities League, and I had played college basketball. But Bob was a big league player in a golden age of big league ball. The 1960s National League, you can say that was the golden era for baseball, ever, with all of the superstars and record-setters. Bob was right there in the mix. So I learned a lot about the game.”