Free Agent Starting Pitchers

[wallus]

While our starters are showing a lot of promise, we still will have some inning restrictions to work around. It is likely we need a veteran innings eater (maybe 2). Luckily, there are a lot available yet. I have no idea how all of these guys are going to get their expected money from which could put them in our price range. Here is the list I could come up with, feel free to add anyone else. Our 40 man roster is at 38 currently so we have space.

Valdez

Verlander

Scherzer

Gallen

Cortes

Bassitt

Giolito

Littell

Martinez

Buehler

Marquez

Montgomery

Perez

Quintana

Sugano

Anderson

Mikolas

Corbin

Canning

Fedde

Civale (no)

Who do you like here? I don't see how all of these guys can get MLB deals much less big money at this point.

[brewmann04]

i think Montgomery based on last year trade  I like Gallen or Giliotto.

I be curious what Big bats are still out there

[Lloyd330]

There is a reason we have 8-10 SP's, its due to the innings limit. 

[Madhawk23]

13 hours ago, brewmann04 said:

i think Montgomery based on last year trade  I like Gallen or Giliotto.

I be curious what Big bats are still out there

Since we traded for Montgomery at the deadline last summer (knowing he wouldn't throw a pitch last year), it's felt inevitable that we'd sign him to a 1-year incentive laden deal for '26. A bit surprised that this hasn't happened yet, but I'd definitely be interested in taking a flyer on him and hoping that he's healthy and can give us some quality starts.  

[long ball]

With the number of veteran free agents out there I’d be surprised if we didn’t add at least one of these guys. 
 

signing a guy coming off of injury makes some sense, Montgomery, canning, or even Cortes. These guys are unlikely to be ready at the start of the year but would likely be ready at some point during the year and we could insert them into the rotation after they’ve ramped up and there is a need. Probably something with a club option for a second year. 
 

otherwise, Quintan- or Fedde on the cheap make sense. If we have a little extra in the budget maybe Littell or Nick Martinez. 
 

it would be kinda cool to sign Verlander. He wasn’t so bad last year and the guy wants to accumulate wins. If he doesn’t care about how much his contract is… we could probably offer 150 innings and a chance to win 10 games. I think it’s an extreme long shot for him to get to 300 wins since he’s 43 and hasn’t won double digits since 2023. He’s 34 away. 

[Jopal78]

11 minutes ago, Madhawk23 said:

Since we traded for Montgomery at the deadline last summer (knowing he wouldn't throw a pitch last year), it's felt inevitable that we'd sign him to a 1-year incentive laden deal for '26. A bit surprised that this hasn't happened yet, but I'd definitely be interested in taking a flyer on him and hoping that he's healthy and can give us some quality starts.  

It could be simply that Montgomery is waiting to see what his last best offer is. He was terrible in 2024 before hurting his elbow in 2025 so the suitors and terms maybe limited. 
 

Zack Littel and Chris Bassit would be 2nd tier free agents who could make sense for a veteran starter for the Brewers, but both are probably out of Milwaukee’s price range. 
 

They’re probably better off trying to get a veteran bat or two on a one year deal than more starting pitching. 

 

[Madhawk23]

3 minutes ago, Jopal78 said:

It could be simply that Montgomery is waiting to see what his last best offer is. He was terrible in 2024 before hurting his elbow in 2025 so the suitors and terms maybe limited. 
 

Zack Littel and Chris Bassit would be 2nd tier free agents who could make sense for a veteran starter for the Brewers, but both are probably out of Milwaukee’s price range. 
 

They’re probably better off trying to get a veteran bat or two on a one year deal than more starting pitching. 

 

Yeah, I can't imagine that we're going to be in the running for either Littel or Bassit. Feels like it's either going to be bringing Quintana back on a similar deal that we gave him last year or we take a flyer on Montgomery (since we had several months to build a relationship with him last summer).  That would also help fill the lefty void we currently have in our rotation.  Personally I'd rather we take a shot on Montgomery over Q.  Just feels like there's more potential upside with him if he can get back to his pre-'24 performance now that's he's beyond his second TJ.  I know there's risk there, but we could also take our time with him and hope for maybe a June/July return - as we should be more than covered with all of our SP depth.  

[yoshii8]

47 minutes ago, Madhawk23 said:

Yeah, I can't imagine that we're going to be in the running for either Littel or Bassit. Feels like it's either going to be bringing Quintana back on a similar deal that we gave him last year or we take a flyer on Montgomery (since we had several months to build a relationship with him last summer).  That would also help fill the lefty void we currently have in our rotation.  Personally I'd rather we take a shot on Montgomery over Q.  Just feels like there's more potential upside with him if he can get back to his pre-'24 performance now that's he's beyond his second TJ.  I know there's risk there, but we could also take our time with him and hope for maybe a June/July return - as we should be more than covered with all of our SP depth.  

Did we actually have him come in and rehab with us? I just assumed the deal was for money and they just sent him home.

[wiguy94]

1 hour ago, yoshii8 said:

Did we actually have him come in and rehab with us? I just assumed the deal was for money and they just sent him home.

He came up to Milwaukee for like two days but outside of that I don’t think he had any involvement with the team. Maybe he was down in Maryvale but I haven’t seen or heard anything about that.

[TURBO]

If last year proved anything, it was that you simply can not have enough SP depth.

I think we will sign someone from that list, but probably not the guys most of us would like to see signed.

Quintana makes a lot of sense, we are familiar with him, and him with us, so seems to be a good fit.

I'd LOVE to grab Scherzer if I had a say in it...  NO CLUE what he'd cost though.  Probably more than we are willing to pony up.

[umphrey]

Do we really need a Quintana this year? Not sure we do unless injury happen early again. Our SP depth is 7 deep by my count and I'm being pretty generous by not counting guys like Crow, Zerpa, Ashby. Just not sure it's worth the $ to kick out Patrick, Sproat and Gasser to AAA or BP. 

[KCBrewerfan34]

Verlander would be fun. 

[landoc88]

23 hours ago, brewmann04 said:

i think Montgomery based on last year trade  I like Gallen or Giliotto.

I be curious what Big bats are still out there

Eugenio Suarez is perfect for Milwaukee. Only problem they don't have a spot for him unless you are moving Durbin to SS

[TURBO]

10 minutes ago, landoc88 said:

Eugenio Suarez is perfect for Milwaukee. Only problem they don't have a spot for him unless you are moving Durbin to SS

Poor defense, high strikeout rate...  Not perfect, but he would bring the long ball!

I'm totally not willing to pay his price though.

[benji]

His defense has usually been good strange the metric last year. This is from what I saw on FanGraphs. I think he would be a great fit, but the money is always the issue.

[Roderick]

On 1/26/2026 at 11:23 AM, yoshii8 said:

Did we actually have him come in and rehab with us? I just assumed the deal was for money and they just sent him home.

Yeah, I think first and foremost Montgomery was in the deal so we didn't send any prospects back, we in essence sent cash with the deal by eating his contract.  

But, isn't he on a track that he wouldn't be back right away, but later in the season?  To me that sounds like a perfect fit for us.

You have to figure that at least a couple of starters will start leaking as the season goes on.  Even if you have two of Patrick/Henderson/Gasser/Sproat in AAA and ready, that sounds like a good plan to have.

[MNBrew]

On 1/26/2026 at 1:39 PM, umphrey said:

Do we really need a Quintana this year? Not sure we do unless injury happen early again. Our SP depth is 7 deep by my count and I'm being pretty generous by not counting guys like Crow, Zerpa, Ashby. Just not sure it's worth the $ to kick out Patrick, Sproat and Gasser to AAA or BP. 

For all the promise/potential/whatever -- which I high on, too -- most of the 7 guys you're referring to haven't spent a full season on an MLB roster yet.  I'd think Quintana makes a ton of sense, and Montgomery on a CHEAP base with incentives seems like a decent lottery ticket, too.  We have enough "not fully MLB-proven over time" guys.

[jay87shot]

I am kind of thinking that we will end up sign a guy like we did Quintana last year. A starter who falls through the cracks and in March needs to sign somewhere.

I am positive Valdez, Gallen, Verlander (would be amazing), Scherzer (ditto), Bassitt, and Giolito will probably get a minimum of 12ish million and not be options. However there will likely be some guys who have a 6-10 million value but get 3-4 million

I think Tyler Anderson could be a decent option. If I remember correctly he was very good the 1st half and bad the 2nd. Sugano would be a very similar starter to Anderson and Quintana. I doubt Martinez or Littell would fall to 3-4 but maybe like 6-8 if they fall through the cracks.

[long ball]

In the brewers.com post from Mccalvy this morning Murphy was lobbying for a veteran starting pitcher. So I’m hopeful we end up with a quintana like addition this spring as well. 
 

Heyman tweeted yesterday a list of like 15 teams still eyeing starting pitching. The brewers weren’t on it, but there are still 15-20 free agent starting pitchers who are worthy of a big league deal. So there will be someone out there for us and I think they’ll be patient to find the cheapest one they think they can work with. 

[long ball]

Slow morning at work so I was playing around with innings pitched by our top 8 on the SP depth chart (I left Ashby, hall, and Zerpa out since I’m pretty sure they’ll be relievers). I totaled up all minor league, mlb, and mlb playoff innings. That’s the first number and the second number is their career high in innings (combined minors, majors, and mlb post season innings in a given year)

woodruff: 106.2, 186.2 (2021)

priester: 166, this was career high

Misiorowski: 141.1, career high

patrick: 171, career high

gasser: 46.1, 137 (2022)

sproat: 141.2, career high 

henderson: 103, career high

crow: 50, 128 (2022)

 

so Priester, Misiorowski, Patrick, and Sproat could probably give us a semblance of a full season if healthy. Gasser, Woody, Crow, and Henderson probably less so. So I actually feel better about potential inning restrictions than I did before looking into it.

 

I also learned that the bulk of your starts are coming from your 6-8 guys (duh). 
 

now my main concern is basically giving away games due to having to trot out a non-competitive SP. I think we mostly did this in 2025. Even though we used 17 starters, Hall, Ashby, and Zastryzny were essentially planned openers. So that narrows it down to 14 starters and only 3 of those are what I’d last as “last resort” types. Combined they made 7 starts between Alexander, E Rodriguez, and Zimmerman. That’s pretty good if you ask me. 
 

where I’m seeing the potential issue is that our 9, 10, and 11th options last year were probably better than they are right now. Last year those 9-11 guys ended up being Civale, Cortes, and Gasser. Obviously those guys weren’t that good. Civale and Cortes were likely being counted on for much larger roles. But if we can add a veteran stabilizer (similar to Quintana last year) and maybe a rehabbing wildcard who might be ready mid season (canning, Montgomery, or Cortes) then I think I’d feel a lot better about the stability of the rotation depth. 1 injury at a time we can handle, but if we get hit with a rash of injuries like we did at times last year our depth is currently a big question mark for me. 
 

as an aside, I’d surely hope that they were willing to include Myers in the Freddy trade because they knew they would backfill the deficit it created on our SP depth chart by adding externally in a separate move. 

[Playing Catch]

I like Montgomery.

[BrewCrewBlueDevil]

I am probably way off on some salaries.  I looked at WAR and what players around them signed for.

 

1. Lucas Giolitto- Probably can't afford him.

Two years, 20 million with incentive for innings pitched?

2.. Griffin Canning- There is some upside.

1 Year, 2 million (similar to Blackburn) with incentives for games started.

3. Walker Buehler- Greatest risk/reward

1 Year, 2 million with incentives for innings pitched.

4. Justin Verlander- Probably can't afford him

1 year, 12 million

5. Jose Quintana- Does he want to come back?

1 year, 6 million with incentives for games started.

6. Tyler Anderson- Is he washed up?

1 year, 5 million if he makes the roster.

[Ro Mueller]

After mistakenly thinking we had Eugenio Suarez-level money ($15m) last offseason (for a trade) only to realize we could only sign Jose Quintana ($4m), I refuse to get my hopes up.

I’m expecting a minor league deal with the likes of Joe Ross, Kolby Allard, Mike Clevinger or Joey Lucchesi.

[KCBrewerfan34]

What about Littell?? 

[Mr Southpaw]

Montgomery please!!  3 years $30 million. wait, wait...

 

2026 $5 million with playoff and World Series incentive

2027 $10 million club option with innings pitched options

2028 $15 million club option with innings pitched options

 

The dude is 33 so we have to cover the investment.