Somehow, the Brewers Need Starting Pitching Help at the Trade Deadline

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images

It's going to be ok. Probably. Jacob Misiorowski has just enough fatigue that it made sense to skip his final start before the All-Star break and to hold him out of the game Tuesday night. Kyle Harrison has just enough irritation in his elbow to make it worth shutting him down here in the middle of July, when the schedule provides the weary Brewers four days off, anyway. The team and the players themselves each insist that there's nothing to worry about, and we all foresaw that there would need to be some point at which the club eased off the gas in terms of workload for one or both of its newfound aces. Let's be optimists, rather than doomers.

Even embracing that mindset can't save you from some worry about Brandon Woodruff, though. It sure feels like the erstwhile workhorse of this team has run out of gas. He's on the IL with a second bout of dead arm, and watching his velocity evaporate within a start makes it essentially impossible to envision handing him the ball with the season on the line sometime in mid-October. Woodruff will try to work his way back into the mix, and every Brewers fan should root for him to have as much success with that as possible, but no longer can he be part of the team's firm plans for the stretch run or the playoffs.

Logan Henderson just returned from the injured list, but doesn't have a track record that permits much faith in his staying power. Chad Patrick and Aaron Ashby are showing their wear after over a year of being worked hard. DL Hall is on the shelf. Quinn Priester is out for the year. Shane Drohan, Robert Gasser and Brandon Sproat have all shown promise, but also inconsistency, and none has ever managed the physical and mental grind of a full big-league season before. Coleman Crow is becoming increasingly important to this team's medium-term plans, and he's something like a poor man's version of Henderson or Drohan. 

It's a sign of privilege to have this many names to rattle off when rounding up a rotation mix in mid-July. The Brewers have built one of the best developmental systems and most robust talent pipelines in baseball, including the dozen guys already mentioned in this article. Most teams would be more severely hampered by even fewer injuries and/or constraints.

Unfortunately, the baseball gods don't give hustle points, and they don't patiently repeat themselves. When they say 'you can never have too much pitching,' they mean it, and it's a threat, not a funny little aphorism. Despite all that depth and all that quality, the Crew are getting thin. Somehow, though they did every possible thing to avoid this, they're going to need to trade for pitching help before next month's trade deadline. Specifically, despite all those guys who can give them length out of the pen or are capable of being a mid-rotation starter, the Brewers need a starter.

Remember Jose Quintana? Last year, Quintana was underwhelming for the Brewers, but he was cromulent. He ate 132 innings for Milwaukee, including often being a vital bridge starter when the team was scrambling. In other recent seasons, that role has been filled by Aaron Civale, Bryse Wilson, and Julio Teheran, to name a few. Often, the team is able to scoop reliable sixth starters off the scrap heap relatively early and cost-free. They've signed pitchers (like Quintana) to low-dollar one-year deals. They've swapped for guys (like Civale and Priester) during seasons, but at points at which they were highly available.

By being so proactive, they've usually been able to avoid an acute need for pitching help in July. This year, though, they tried to leave open runways for the pitchers they acquired over the winter (including Drohan, Harrison and Sproat) and for some arms returning from injuries (Gasser and Henderson). That made sense, but now, it leaves them with an unexpected need for that low-ceiling innings eater they've so often had in the past.

Quintana is out there. His numbers look atrocious, but that's because he's pitching his home games at Coors Field. Presumably, though, the Brewers would like to aim a little higher. They have lots of options. The Giants will be open to moving Robbie Ray, who's in the last year of his long-term deal and has stopped missing bats the way he used to. The Nationals' Foster Griffin, the Reds' Brady Singer, the Diamondbacks' Eduardo Rodríguez and the Orioles' Trevor Rogers are all in some version of the same situation. None of those guys would start a playoff game for Milwaukee, but that's not what the Brewers need. They just need someone who can absorb a share of the workload over the final two months, so that the rest of the team is fresher and the club is as well-positioned as possible when they get to October.

It'll be a needle to thread for the Brewers front office. They don't want to end up in a roster crunch that costs them anyone important. They need to add help, but still have space for their best arms when those guys are back to full strength. They can operate on a six-man rotation for much of the rest of the season, but need to communicate well enough with each of their guys to ensure that those asked to spend time in Nashville or in the bullpen are open to the changes. The team is in too good a position to sacrifice the depth of their league-best farm system just to gild the lily. If they don't act at all, though, they might regret it. After all, clearly, the baseball gods intend to enforce 'you can never have too much pitching' in an especially draconian way for them this summer.

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[JohnBriggs12]

Ray's actually been pretty good recently

[Michael Trzinski]

Quintana was also acceptable and adequate last year, not just cromulent. 😎

[Ben Lepak]

I have growing concerns about innings for the rotation.

• Kyle Harrison threw 112 innings in 2025 and 124.1 in 2024. He's already at 83.2
• Jacob Misiorowski threw 141 innings in 2025 including playoffs. He's already at 111
• Shane Drohan threw 54 innings in 2025. He had injury issues in 2024, but hit 123 and 129 in 2023 and 2022.  He's already at 70IP. I get he's 27 years old, but is 130IP a reasonable jump?
• Brandon Sproat is coming off a career high 141.2IP and is already at 82IP.

Of course everyone is well aware of Ashby's usage. In the last calendar year including playoffs, he has 107.1 IP

Assuming a 20-25% increase for the likes of Miz and Harrison, they would have about 60-70 innings left. Are we going to see phantom IL trips for each? Acquiring a starter would allow them to move Drohan back to relief and limit his innings, but it still feels there's going to be a lot of innings to cover in the second half. Seems like we can expect a heavy dose of Henderson, Patrick, Gasser and Crow...

 

[long ball]

I’m not totally sold on needing a 6th starter innings eater type quite yet. I think the group of starters we have he enough guys who can get us through the season. We also have some dead weight on the 40 man (Zastryzny, Baddoo and maybe even Koenig and Black) where if we needed to add an Erik fedde type off the Dfa scrap heap later in the season it wouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish. 
 

gasser, crow, Henderson, and sproat all need big league development at this point and have varying degrees of innings pitched in a single season. Let them develop in the big leagues as much as possible. 
 

I do think another starter, but one who you trust to face 18 batters in a playoff game is a need. Being down Woodruff and Priester, two guys you probably hoped would be playoff caliber SP this season, is pretty rough. I’d currently think Miz, Harrison, and Henderson are your top 3 playoff starters which would probably be enough if you could guarantee their health, but we can’t do that. So adding another starter to that playoff mix is a bigger priority to me than an innings eater type. 

[Brewcrew82]

3 minutes ago, long ball said:

I’m not totally sold on needing a 6th starter innings eater type quite yet. I think the group of starters we have he enough guys who can get us through the season. We also have some dead weight on the 40 man (Zastryzny, Baddoo and maybe even Koenig and Black) where if we needed to add an Erik fedde type off the Dfa scrap heap later in the season it wouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish. 
 

gasser, crow, Henderson, and sproat all need big league development at this point and have varying degrees of innings pitched in a single season. Let them develop in the big leagues as much as possible. 
 

I do think another starter, but one who you trust to face 18 batters in a playoff game is a need. Being down Woodruff and Priester, two guys you probably hoped would be playoff caliber SP this season, is pretty rough. I’d currently think Miz, Harrison, and Henderson are your top 3 playoff starters which would probably be enough if you could guarantee their health, but we can’t do that. So adding another starter to that playoff mix is a bigger priority to me than an innings eater type. 

Couldn't agree more. The Brewers still have enough arms capable of filling innings right now on the big league roster, even with Woody out of the picture. They also have Coleman Crow working his way back, and have Tyson Hardin in AAA who is getting very close to MLB ready. 

What they need more than anything is a guy you can pencil in between Miz and Harrison in a postseason rotation. Those guys (plus Henderson), as good as they are, are still way too young and going to end up way past their career high in innings for you to want to pin all of your postseason hopes on them. 

Skubal, of course, is the guy who most fits that bill, but there are other acceptable options potentially, such as Ryan, Gray, Mize, etc. 

[Rick Daltons Flamethrower]

Tell me/us more about Tyson Hardin in AAA BrewCrew82!

[sveumrules]

55 minutes ago, Rick Daltons Flamethrower said:

Tell me/us more about Tyson Hardin in AAA BrewCrew82!

Not BrewCrew82, but Hardin is probably the last guy in the system (that hasn't already seen MLB) who could still help the rotation out yet this season.

Was named 2025 Minor League Pitcher of the Year in the system with 96 IP of 68 ERA- | 59 FIP- split between Wisconsin and Biloxi. Among 415 pitchers with at least 90 IP in the minors last year his 2.35 FIP was 3rd, his 5.65 K/BB ratio was 5th, and his 0.28 HR9 was 25th.

Since being promoted to Nashville this year he has 52 IP of 76 ERA- | 66 FIP-. Among 69 pitchers with at least 50 IP in the International League this year some of his ranks are...

3.12 FIP (1st) | 0.52 HR9 (3rd) | 3.53 K/BB (5th) | 1.12 WHIP (7th) | 3.63 ERA (10th) | 46.4 GB% (12th)

Believe the general scouting report is he is more of a sinker / strike thrower than a strike em out big stuff kind of guy, but either way has been one of the better performing pitchers in all of the minor leagues over the last two seasons after signing for $147K as 12th rounder in 2024.

For me personally, my expectations are somewhere around that Chad Patrick / Shane Drohan kind of range.