Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios for the 2025 Brewers at Starting Pitcher

The Roster Situation
When the players reported to Maryvale in February. the Brewers had Freddy Peralta, Aaron Civale, Nestor Cortes, Tobias Myers, DL Hall, Aaron Ashby, and Brandon Woodruff as veteran major-league starters, with Carlos Rodriguez, Robert Gasser, Logan Henderson, and Chad Patrick as top prospects on the 40-man roster, along with Jacob Misiorowski as their most prominent non-roster invitee to spring training. In early March, they added Jose Quintana, an impressive reinforcement to that group.

The veteran corps is pretty deep, while the prospect group also looks very promising—if you can look beyond this particular moment. The Brewers have a lot of good options, and this year, they need them, as Gasser, Myers, Hall, Ashby, and Woodruff all opened the season on the injured list, only to be joined by Civale after one start.

Also on the active roster are options like Tyler Alexander, Connor Thomas, and Elvin Rodriguez, who could be emergency options in the rotation. Jared Koenig served as an “opener” for the Brewers in 2024 on several occasions, as well, but that's not truly the same thing.

The Best-Case Scenario: The Rotation Solidifies Around The Veterans
For 2025, the Brewers’ best-case scenario sees the rotation solidify around Peralta, Woodruff, Civale, Cortes, and Myers by the middle of May, with Hall and Ashby settling in as multi-inning relief options. If that happens, it buys time for the young prospects to recover from injury or to pick up one more year of seasoning at Triple-A Nashville.

This, of course, is dependent on how the prospects fare, as well. Henderson and Misiorowski are blue-chip prospects, Gasser performed well in a brief stint last year, before he needed Tommy John surgery, and Patrick and Rodriguez look to be Bryse Wilson types. No one wanted to see them start the first two home games of the team's schedule, but hopefully, the team ends up feeling pressure to recall them at some point this summer, because their more experienced and accomplished teammates have reclaimed their spots but both are pitching well in Nashville.

One note about the prospects (and even some of the veterans) who could contribute: The Brewers got a lot of them via unheralded ways: Woodruff was an 11th-round draft pick. Myers was a minor-league free agent. Peralta was one of three rookie-level pitchers acquired in the Adam Lind trade. Carlos Rodriguez was a 6th-round draft pick. This is a team that can develop competent starters.

The Worst-Case Scenario: The Brewers End Up Trading for a Starting Pitcher
Given all this depth, one thing that the Brewers should not be looking to acquire this summer is a starting pitcher, unless they are approached with an insane deal. It's still possible they'll need to pick up someone just to patch their holes this month, but the Brewers entering the trade market for a starter this summer could only be the result of some very bad news.

If the Brewers are looking to trade for starting pitching, then their veterans have been injured or ineffective and the prospects have regressed very badly—or are also on the injured list. This would point to not just a disastrous 2025, but rough times in 2026 and even 2027.

This is not to say that there are no situations where grabbing an upgrade in the rotation would be advisable late in the season, but as a general rule, if the Brewers are seeking an external candidate in 2025 to help the rotation, then the team is in a world of hurt. That's the world they're in right now, though, so we don't exactly have to wear out our imaginations to envision it happening again in June or July.

Overview
The Brewers have excelled at developing starting pitchers in the minor leagues (Peralta, Woodruff, Ashby), and also have been very good at finding hidden gems that other teams have allowed to walk (Myers) or acquiring possible options at a very cheap price. Sometimes, they also level-up a veteran (see former Brewer Colin Rea).

The wealth of internal options the Brewers have will, in all likelihood, serve them well in 2025. Recent seasons have shown that the injury bug can still plague this team, and it may very well come down to how well the Brewers can leverage their bounty of internal options.