Brewers Offseason Handbook: Filling and Fortifying The Starting Rotation

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The Brewers’ starting rotation assumed a different shape in 2024. Gone were the days of Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, and Freddy Peralta forming a fearsome trio, with the first two especially distinguished as elite starters who often worked deep into games.

Woodruff’s shoulder surgery and Burnes’s trade to the Baltimore Orioles made Peralta the de facto No. 1 of the pitching staff. While the rest of the rotation stabilized in the season’s final months, it was a rotating cast behind him for much of the year.

Fast forward to the offseason, and there’s more ambiguity following Peralta. Gone are Colin Rea and Frankie Montas, and Aaron Civale could join them if the Brewers offload his projected $8 million salary via trade and reinvest those savings elsewhere. Bryse Wilson, who contributed 104 ⅔ innings as a flexible bulk pitcher, elected free agency after the Brewers outrighted him on November 4.

That’s up to 403 ⅔ innings the Brewers must replace, and that’s not accounting for the baked-in likelihood of any injuries to returning or new starting pitchers in 2025. As last season demonstrated, that’s a reality against which Milwaukee must hedge itself as much as possible.

Whether the Brewers have enough in-house starting pitchers on their current roster hinges largely on two of their unestablished left-handers. Aaron Ashby and DL Hall finished the season working primarily out of the bullpen. While General Manager Matt Arnold has spoken open-endedly of their future roles, early indicators are that the Brewers want both to get another crack as starters.

Stretching out both hurlers is a reasonable temptation. Hall has two quality breaking pitches and flashed an above-average changeup this year. Ashby has two plus breakers and a capable changeup. In 2022, he was one of just a handful of starters to generate both ground balls and swings and misses at high rates. Both southpaws are just 26 years old and still have the tools to develop into productive starters.

While giving that talent runway is a reasonable decision, relying on it to manifest into reliable rotation innings would be less wise.