Jason Wang

Image courtesy of © Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images If you’re a pessimistic fan, this season is already an abject disaster. There’s a decent amount of truth in that dour outlook, too. Milwaukee is two games below .500, six games behind the division-leading Cubs, and struggling to play competitive baseball. If you’re an optimistic fan, you might believe things can’t really get any worse from here—and there’s also truth to that. One of the biggest factors that has hamstrung this team is their litany of pitching injuries. It was already a plague that dragged the team down last season, but somehow, they found a way to cruise to the playoffs undaunted. This year, it seems to be hurting double. The silver lining is that muscles, tendons, and ligaments do eventually heal, so the Brewers should be getting back at least some of their arms to help give the team a fighting chance for the remainder of the year. Here’s a closer look at where each of their injured pitchers currently stands, and when we can expect them to return. Brandon Woodruff (shoulder surgery) Woodruff has been out of the game for what feels like forever and is on the cusp of returning to the Brewers rotation. Even his rehab process has taken quite some time, starting his first rehab assignment on April 12 and bouncing between Triple-A Nashville and High-A Wisconsin. He was originally expected to return sometime this month, but in yet another stroke of bad luck, endured another injury. He has made some adjustments to his pitching style, and despite a slight dip in velocity, he has put up great numbers in the minor leagues. He has a 2.25 ERA over 20 innings with the Sounds and a 2.70 ERA over 9 ⅔ innings with the Timber Rattlers. Given the newest issues with his ankle, it seems like the organization isn’t exactly rushing him to get back, but both he and the team are looking forward to seeing him return to action. Nestor Cortes (left elbow flexor strain) Cortes was only able to make two starts before hitting the shelf with elbow discomfort that arose during a bullpen. Originally placed on the 15-day IL, he was transferred to the 60-day IL on April 21. Recovery for these injuries is often slow, and although he resumed playing catch a few weeks ago, he won’t be back for a while. This flexor strain is the same issue that kept him out of much of the Yankees’ 2024 postseason run, and it’s unclear whether this instance of the injury is a re-aggravation of that or if it’s a separate case altogether. Brewers fans have already seen two versions of Cortes, and if he doesn’t return until around the start of the second half, he’ll only get a few starts to correct his reputation and statline. Jose Quintana (left shoulder impingement) Quitana was off to a great start with the Brewers, posting a 2.65 ERA over 34 innings, but felt some shoulder pain after his outing against the Rays on May 9. The severity of the injury is still a matter of some debate, but the team seems to believe that it isn’t as serious as it might sound. A relatively short IL stint is expected, and he threw a bullpen on May 20, with another session scheduled for Friday. Aaron Civale (left hamstring strain) Civale made it just three innings before being sidelined by injury. He was placed on the 15-day IL on March 31, and hasn’t toed a big-league mound since. Luckily, he began a rehab assignment with the Sounds on May 8, and has pitched nine scoreless innings across two outings. He was scheduled to make his final start of the assignment on Wednesday, but was a last-minute scratch. No reason for the change was made public, but given how good he has looked, there is a possibility that he’s returning to the big-league squad sooner than expected. The Brewers have yet to announce a starter for Thursday night's series opener in Pittsburgh. Aaron Ashby (right oblique strain) Ashby still hasn’t gotten a chance to pitch in the regular season this year, after suffering an oblique strain in spring training and a setback the first time attempted to return. He began his rehab assignment on May 6 with the ACL Brewers and started a more robust assignment with the sounds on May 10. He has pitched to a 1.50 ERA with a 1.33 WHIP over 6 Triple-A innings. When he does finally return to the major-league roster, it has been said that he’ll be used primarily as a long reliever, an apt role for a pitcher with his qualities. DL Hall (left lat strain) Hall is another pitcher who has seemingly met roadblock after roadblock. Because of persistent injuries, he has only pitched a total of seven starts and 43 innings as a Brewer since joining the team prior to the 2024 season. He was placed on the 60-day IL on March 5 and began his first rehab assignment of the year on May 2. He has looked good thus far, conceding no earned runs in his 10 ⅔ innings. Like Ashby, he’s slated to be a long reliever when he returns to the team, which should be soon after he’s first eligible to be activated from the IL in late May. Robert Gasser (Tommy John recovery) After a strong freshman campaign that saw him pitch to a 2.57 ERA over five starts, Gasser quickly ran into elbow trouble that required going under the knife. Given the typical timeline of Tommy John surgery, he probably won’t be able to return until much later in the season, potentially around September, and he has plenty of rehab and ramping up in front of him before he does. Connor Thomas (left elbow arthritis) How cursed are the Brewers when it comes to injuries? Well, how often do you hear of a 26-year-old with arthritis? April 8 was the first time I heard of it, after it caused Thomas to be placed on the 15-day IL. He was transferred to the 60-day IL on May 18th. He has received injections for his elbow, but there’s no clear timeline for his return. View full article

what about julio teheran for that one month he was really good before he got really bad

opening an umbrella indoors

Image courtesy of © Benny Sieu-Imagn Images I’m a pretty optimistic guy. Every year, I place three small and separate wagers on Anthony Rendon, Kris Bryant, and José Abreu to win MVP awards. Of course, these bets must be placed with a somewhat shady, unofficial bookmaker, because no gambling platform worth their salt would allow someone to risk money on events with such astronomical odds. I persist in my dogged faith that one of those bets will eventually pay off. Despite my tendency to look on the bright side of life and remain in good spirits about most things, though, even I can say that the Milwaukee Brewers are probably not going to do much of anything this year. This has never been a perfect team, and the budget has rarely come close to eclipsing the league average, but David Stearns's and Matt Arnold’s uncanny abilities to build a winning roster out of a box of scraps has pushed the team to consistent success over the past several years. In 2025, that luck seems to have run out. It was another year of doing barely anything in the offseason, and outside of the Devin Williams trade, the most notable move on the Brewers’ list of transactions may have been Jared Koenig changing his number back to 47. What has been the result of this inaction? The Brewers’ lineup has combined for a .652 OPS, 28th in MLB and better than just the Pirates and White Sox—two teams you hardly want in your peer group. Only three players have more than 100 plate appearances and an wRC+ better than average, while the players who are struggling are doing so with gusto. William Contreras is putting up numbers far worse than his past two years with the team, playing through an injury. Jackson Chourio was making so many mistakes in his approach that he was bumped down in the lineup. In stark contrast with the scorching start he got off to last year, it seems that Christian Yelich’s back problems have returned as a significant impediment to his abilities. But perhaps no one has been as disappointing as Joey Ortiz, who has hit a brick wall after being moved back to his native role of shortstop. Willy Adames left big shoes to fill, but Ortiz initially seemed primed for the task. He had been a top prospect in a stacked Baltimore system, and while imperfect, his first year in Milwaukee was good, culminating in a 104 wRC+ and 3.1 fWAR. In 2025, his wRC+ sits at just 29, and he has been worse than replacement-level overall. Fellow Brewer Fanatic writer Jack Stern did a deeper dive on what might be going wrong (and how the team might address it) in this recent piece. It’s tricky to even skew the stats in a way that would give the lineup any sort of credit. Outside of leading the league in stolen bases, the offensive numbers are pretty lackluster across the board. Here is where they rank in several major hitting statistics compared to the other 29 MLB teams. BA .229 (25th) OBP .306 (22nd) SLG .346 28th R 193 (16th) H 347 (23rd) 2B 59 (25th) HR 37 (26th) SO 379 (16th) OPS vs. LHP .611 (25th) OPS vs. RHP .672 (25th) These problems are now more apparent than ever, with the Crew scoring in just one of their last five games. In fact, they’ve scored more than five runs in just 12 of their 46 contests thus far this season. Not only are they currently trying their best to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Twins, they’re trying to avoid being totally shut out for the entire weekend. Sometimes, a team can compensate for a lack of offense with stellar pitching and defense. The Seattle Mariners had a bottom-bucket offense last year, but their top-tier pitching and good defense carried them to being just a few wins short of a Wild Card spot. Unfortunately, the Brewers can’t really lean on that, either. While these two characteristics have been a strength of the roster in recent years, their combined ERA of 4.19 is 21st in MLB and they rank 16th in total Defensive Runs Saved, with 6. While the Cubs have maintained the strong pace they set to start the season and the Cardinals recently went on a nine-game winning streak, the Brewers have fallen further and further down the NL Central, slipping to fourth. They’re now as many games ahead of the Pirates as they are behind the Cubs. Baseball Reference gives the Crew just a 21.9% chance to crack the playoffs, and FanGraphs is even more bearish, with a 9.7% chance. If there has ever been a time to sound the alarm, it’s now. At this rate, Milwaukee will almost certainly head into the deadline as sellers. This isn’t a situation where a new bullpen arm and platoon bat can be the difference between success and failure; it really looks like the whole situation is just beyond repair. The team still has more than 100 games to prove me wrong, but so far, they haven’t demonstrated the ability to do so. View full article

Image courtesy of © Ken Blaze-Imagn Images After a particularly depressing series against the Yankees, I wrote a satirical piece about Jake Bauers that slightly embellished his accomplishments as a player, as a way of coping with the trauma of being outscored 36-14 in three games. Through a more objective lens, one can point out that Bauers is not exactly what comes to mind when thinking of who can step up to get the Brewers out of their current slump. He has been below replacement in every year of his big-league career, except for his rookie campaign (when he amassed just 0.5 rWAR). It’s hard to be much better than that, when you’re a first baseman with a career 83 OPS+ and average defensive abilities. But this year feels different, and not just because he still has a perfect 0.00 ERA over his four appearances out of the bullpen. Across an admittedly small sample of just 62 plate appearances, he’s slashing .288/.373/.508, for an OPS+ of 145—the highest mark of any player on the team. He kept the exceptional walk rate from last year, but is combining it with a Barrel rate of nearly 20% and a chase rate of just 23.4%. In other words, he’s making good swing decisions and has great quality of contact. That would be the assumption you'd make if you went to his Baseball Savant page and refused to scroll down or click anything. If you take a peek under the hood, you'll find that there's quite a bit to fix. Throughout his career, Bauers has had an issue with swinging and missing. Last year, he whiffed almost 30% of the time, which was a big contributor to his crippling 34.1% strikeout rate. This year, it’s even worse, with a 36.4% whiff and 37.1% strikeout rate. One might ask how a player can have an elite chase rate and still have bottom decile strikeout and whiff rates. The reason is clear: they don't swing at strikes nearly enough. So far, Bauers is swinging just 42.1% of the time, his lowest rate since 2019. Even worse, his zone swing rate of 58.9% is also the lowest it has been in his career. Essentially, he’s very passive at the plate, even when he’s given the chance to do some real damage. His meatball swing rate (a very scientific metric, I know) is just 72.7%, meaning that he’s keeping the bat on his shoulder for over one in four grooved pitches, right down the middle. As for the whiff aspect, it may be a result of reduced confidence in certain parts of the strike zone. It’s definitely not a symptom of swinging at bad pitches. Let’s do some digging as to what his swing/take profile looks like. As we can see, he’s confidently taking swings at pitches inside and in the middle of the zone. The outside is where the timidity really comes in; he’s swinging at fewer than half the pitches he gets in those areas. If we take a look at what happens when he does swing, we see a similar distribution of blue and red. Okay, so let’s assume he threw caution to the wind and let his hands go just a little bit. What would happen? Well, assuming the thesis of this entire article isn’t predicated solely on an anomalous set of 62 plate appearances, we’d probably see a lot of good contact. As mentioned earlier, his barrel rate is nearly 20%, and when we break that down by swings and parts of the strike zone, we see that when he does decide to go for a pitch, he’s usually hitting it pretty well. Given this information, it seems like Bauers is only operating at partial strength, even with an .881 OPS. If he were to take a few more risks and trust in his own ability to differentiate between balls and strikes, we could finally see a breakout after six years in the majors. Aside from his lack of enthusiasm for taking hacks, another problem Bauers is facing is accessibility to playing time. Fellow first baseman Rhys Hoskins has been having a good year himself, posting a 123 OPS+ over a much more robust 149 plate appearances. However, it seems that the Brewers are making a concerted effort to get Bauers into the lineup more often; he has been making far more appearances in the outfield than he did last year. In fact, he has played more innings in the outfield (67 ⅓ innings) than he has first base (56) thus far. This team needs power, anywhere they can get it. Bauers is looking like a possible source, so they're giving him a chance to prove it. It has been a disappointing season for Milwaukee, to say the least. The postseason odds are trending in wrong direction and it’s tempting to throw in the towel now and just wait for 2026 to roll around. However, the Brewers are just four games behind in the Central, and there’s still plenty of baseball to be played. Could Jake Bauers play an ultimately pivotal role in bringing the Crew back to the postseason? Maybe, but he’ll have to take a swing or two first. View full article

Image courtesy of © Michael McLoone-Imagn Images In 2024, Freddy Peralta was suddenly thrust into the top of the rotation after years of pitching behind Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff. It was a catastrophe-ridden year for Brewers' starters, and while the organization had become renowned for its ability to develop pitching, Peralta hardly felt like a true “ace.” He resembled one in 2021 when he posted a 2.81 ERA over 144 ⅓ innings, but since then, he has managed just a 3.73 ERA over 79 starts, a respectable second or third arm but hardly the man you’d want to lead an elite staff. One of the main obstacles preventing him from reaching the upper echelon of pitching has been his lack of an effective secondary pitch. He has always had a great fastball, but his breaking balls and offspeed pitches haven’t been able to meet the standard. This was especially apparent last year when his slider had a cumulative run value of -3. This figure is a little odd considering he had an opposing average of just .203 and a whiff rate of 41.0%, but it was far more often a ball than a strike. It’s such an interesting example that I used it as an example when unpacking the run value statistic and what it really means. Shameless self-promotion aside, after three seasons of failing to recover what made his slider great in 2021, he seems to have left it behind in 2025 in favor of the curveball. The curveball has always been a part of his toolkit, but it was never a prevalent offering. Last year, he threw it just 7.1% of the time. Despite being an uncommon occurrence, it was typically very effective when thrown: % of pitches BA SLG Whiff % 2021 10.8 .125 .188 27.9 2022 16.2 .125 .175 38.9 2023 12.4 .214 .381 33.5 2024 7.1 .182 .341 37.2 Okay, so he’s throwing the curveball more often. Is that why he’s off to a 2.18 ERA over his first eight starts with a WHIP of 1.04 and top-quartile figures for nearly all of his Stacast metrics? Sort of. As a result of elevating Uncle Charlie to the number one breaking ball offering in his arsenal, he likely spent some time in the offseason messing with it because its profile is noticeably different. Since debuting, his curveball has averaged somewhere in the mid-70s. Now, it’s averaging 80.5 mph. The average RPM on the pitch is 2,427, which is more than 200 more than where it was sitting last year, and the result is a few more inches of induced drop on the pitch, a crucial characteristic for missing bats or, at the very least, inducing ground balls. The improved command helps a ton as well. Curveballs at the bottom of the strike zone, combined with high fastballs, are better than clean sheets and a cold pillow. And like your local Motel 6, Freddy Peralta possesses both this year. But what do all these tables and charts really mean? I sure don’t know. I was raised as an iPad kid. So, like true iPad kids, let’s look at the video to see this dynamic duo in action. In a dominant three-pitch at-bat against JJ Bleday, Peralta starts things off with a fastball on the outside edge. Next, he attacks that same spot with a curveball that just dives below Bleday’s bat for strike two. To finish things off, he throws a changeup to the outside corner to make JJ Bleday look more like Jay Jay the Jet Plane. A more effective secondary pitch improves one’s primary pitch, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing. No longer able to sit on his fastball as easily, the opposing batting average and slugging on his four-seam fastball have both decreased significantly. His changeup is worth a deep dive on its own as that’s actually the most valuable pitch by RV/100 in his arsenal, but if there’s one takeaway you get from this whole article, it’s that the Brewers are seemingly back to having prime Peralta. It’s in part thanks to his fancy new curveball. View full article

william contreras clocking in for work in August

Regardless of whether the velo comes back, it's cool to see the org diversifying away from the dominant fastball.

Image courtesy of © Wm. Glasheen/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images It has been quite some time since we’ve seen Brandon Woodruff toe the slab in the majors. His last outing for the big-league squad was on Sept. 23, 2023, when he pitched five innings against the Marlins to cap an astounding (although already injury-shortened) season. Just two weeks before that, he had thrown a complete game shutout. Unfortunately, just hours before he would have been named as part of the rotation for the Brewers' Wild Card Series showdown with the Diamondbacks, he instead held a press conference to announce that he would need surgery on a torn shoulder capsule. It's sidelined him ever since. Last month, after a recovery process that lasted over a year, Woodruff began a 30-day rehab assignment with Triple-A Nashville. He's made a stop in Appleton to mix things up and sell a few tickets for the cozied-up High-A affiliate, but by and large, he's been with the Sounds ever since. Aside from being a particularly emotional return to the game for Woodruff, that also gave us a glimpse into how his pitching has been affected by persistent injuries and a long layoff. On the surface, it seems like he’s back to business, posting a 2.79 ERA over his two starts with Wisconsin and a 2.63 ERA over three starts with Nashville. However, a closer look tells us that things are far more different than these numbers may lead you to believe. First and foremost, his velocity has decreased significantly. Here is a table of his average velocities across all levels of competitions over the past four seasons he has pitched: Four-Seam Fastball Sinker Changeup Slider Curve Cutter 2021 96.6 96.3 86.6 86.5 83.9 N/A 2022 96.4 95.9 86.2 88.0 84.1 N/A 2023 95.9 95.0 85.8 87.0 83.0 N/A 2025 92.6 92.8 83.5 81.0 79.4 89.5 Data courtesy of Brooks Baseball Not only is his average velocity down, he isn't able to top out at nearly the same levels as he used to. While he could occasionally touch 99 mph in years past, he has yet to eclipse 96 mph a single time while rehabbing. This dip could be due to several factors, such as needing time to ramp back up to full effort or the adverse long-term effects of two serious shoulder injuries in one year. When asked about whether there were concerns about him getting back to where he was, Pat Murphy had this to say: Based on Murphy’s comments, it seems like he could get back to where he was, but the team isn’t betting the house on it. (This is a noteworthy departure from the tone Murphy struck in March, when he said he expected Woodruff's fastball to come back to its full previous strength.) It also explains some of the other changes to his arsenal. After all, if Woodruff was expected to return to his hard-throwing youth, why fix what isn’t broken? So far, the two biggest changes have been adding a cutter and changing the shape of his slider to a sweeper. Let’s start with the slider. First off, although it’s classified as a slider, we can pretty much tell it’s more of a sweeper based on its intrinsic characteristics. The dip in velocity is the first hint, but a closer look at the movement profile gives us the smoking gun. Vertical Movement (inches) Horizontal Movement (inches) 2021 -2.8 2.2 2022 1.0 2.19 2023 1.3 1.8 2025 1.0 7.1 Woodruff’s slider didn’t move all that much to begin with, but a big jump in glove-side break makes it clear that he is working with a different pitch type altogether. Other arms on the Brewers have successfully converted their sliders to sweepers with great results—most notably, this year, Grant Anderson. As for the cutter, it’s probably just another tool in his belt to get outs. As the dominance of each individual pitch decreases, he’ll instead have to rely on sheer variety to keep batters on their heels. Furthermore, his cutter has a similar movement profile to his old slider, with a little more ride. When asked about the importance of his new pitches, Murphy remarked that Woodruff has been liking the sweeper. The new pitches are gradually increasing his confidence that he’ll be ready to face big-league bats soon. For some, it may be equally disappointing and concerning to see slower velocities come out of Woodruff's hand. However, when one considers all the work that he has done to adapt his skillset to his current physical abilities, it’s possible he’ll be just as dominant as he was before—albeit in a slightly different form. His fastball and changeup grade out worse than before, but the sweeper and cutter look like very valuable additions. With his most recent start with the Sounds possibly being the final one, it won’t be long before we get to see what this new version of Woodruff can do against the highest level of competition. View full article

Image courtesy of Thiéres Rabelo Honorable Mentions William Contreras 90 AB, .278/.394/.400, 25 H, 2 2B, 3 HR, 18 RBI, 4 SB Contreras has gotten off to a slow start—especially compared to the torrid pace he set in the first month of last year—but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been productive. His .794 OPS in April was the fourth-highest of any Brewer, and despite lagging slightly behind his understudy Eric Haase, he had six times as many at-bats. The biggest thing that seems to be missing is his power, as his quality of contact numbers have decreased across the board and his cumulative slugging for the season is just .339. Still, his strikeout and walk rate are perfectly matched at 15.7%, and he has been outstanding defensively. With more time to settle in and improve his approach against offspeed pitches and sweepers, he should still be one of the better-hitting catchers in MLB. Statistical Nugget: Despite seeing just 27 curveballs so far, he has already accumulated a Statcast run value of 5, given his .500 average, 2.000 slugging percentage, and 0% whiff rate against the pitch. Christian Yelich 96 AB, .240/.345/.427, 23 H, 3 2B, 5 HR, 22 RBI, 5 SB In 2024, Christian Yelich was seemingly back to his MVP ways—before going down with yet another back injury, one that required surgery. He isn’t quite as impressive this year, but he has done just enough to still be one of the better bats in the lineup. His 22 RBIs were tied for the most on the team in April, and he wasn’t too shabby on the basepaths, either. His launch angles are down once again, and he’s having trouble making contact as frequently as he probably would like, but he’s still hitting the ball hard and walking at a 12.8% clip. He’s absolutely crushing offspeed pitches, but is getting beaten by all sorts of fastballs. That could be a sign that the lingering effects of his injury are still holding him back. Statistical Nugget: Against offspeed pitches, Yelich is averaging .417 and slugging .917. Rhys Hoskins 76 AB, .303/.413/.447, 23 H, 2 2B, 3 HR, 12 RBI, 1 SB A year further removed from the campaign he lost to injury, Hoskins is putting up numbers comparable to what he did with the Phillies. His OPS of .860 was the best mark of any Brewers hitter in April, and he also led the lineup in on-base percentage. His 15.3% walk rate in 2025 so far is close to his single-season best of 16.5%, achieved in 2019. One of the biggest steps forward for Hoskins has been cutting his chase rate by about 6 percentage points year-over-year, which has also helped him reduce his strikeout rate by about 8 percentage points. He’s back to crushing fastballs, but has struggled against breaking pitches other than the slider. Statistical Nugget: Despite averaging just .185 against four-seam fastballs this season, he’s slugging .630. Hitter of the Month - Jackson Chourio 114 AB, .281/.297/.535, 32 H, 9 2B, 1 3B, 6 HR, 22 RBI, 2 SB Chourio is having quite an interesting sophomore year. Like his rookie season, he has had his ups and downs at the plate, but he has managed to lock in a little quicker this time around. He also seems absolutely allergic to drawing free passes, walking at a bottom-percentile 1.3% clip. Instead, he just swings. In fact, his swing/take profile and general approach at the plate are deserving of their own article, something our very own Jake McKibbin did a few weeks ago. As a quick summary, Chourio is still very good and has proven that he is capable of driving the ball out of the park—but a 43.2% chase rate is simply not conducive to long-term success. We expected him to take some time to become accustomed to big-league pitching, and many anticipated a few years of average or below-average offensive production before he really came into his own. He proved to be ahead of an already accelerated development schedule when he posted a .914 OPS in the second half of 2024, so who knows? Maybe he’ll continue to tweak his swing decisions and reach new heights once again in 2025. Statistical Nugget: Chourio has an .869 OPS when swinging at the first pitch and a .612 OPS when taking the first pitch. View full article

Honorable Mentions Grant Anderson 14 ⅓ IP, 1.88 ERA, 12 H, 3 ER, 7 BB, 15 K Anderson is one of the bullpen arms to keep an eye on this year. After a tough first two years in the big leagues, Milwaukee’s pitching development crew seems to have figured out how to unlock the best version of him. Some of this may simply be the result of new scenery but there is quite a bit of evidence to suggest that the Brewers have made very real improvements. One of the major changes has been to change the shape of his breaking ball from a slider into a sweeper which has quickly become his best pitch. Opposing hitters have averaged just .115 with an ISO of .000 against it and the benefits have carried through to the rest of his arsenal, particularly his fastball. It may not be realistic to expect all of his Statcast metrics to go up so drastically but he’s looking very good so far. Statistical Nugget: Anderson’s OPS after getting to an 0-1 count is a perfect .000 over seven plate appearances. Freddy Peralta 34 ⅓ IP, 2.36 ERA, 24 H, 9 ER, 13 BB, 33 K Peralta should be a constant reminder that spring training numbers shouldn’t be overanalyzed. After a very concerning final outing before Opening Day, the team’s ace has locked it in and returned to peak form. Fans have come to know Peralta as a pitcher who has his ups and downs and the larger question is whether he’ll be able to sustain his great numbers. The biggest adjustment he has made has been to seemingly retire his slider. Last year, it was his worst pitch by run value (-3) but he threw it 21.6% of the time. This year, he has thrown it just 7.9% of the time, increasing the frequency of his four-seam fastball and changeup while using his curveball as his primary breaking ball. The results have been good so far, especially with his secondary pitches. Opposing hitters are whiffing 44.6% of the time against his changeup and 56.8% of the time against the curveball. Statistical Nugget: Opposing hitters have a .295 OPS against Peralta with runners in scoring position. Chad Patrick 24 ⅔ IP, 1.82 ERA, 21 H, 5 ER, 10 BB, 21 K Like Tobias Myers before him, Patrick has the potential of exceeding his rookie expectations with strong numbers as a starter. Originally slated to begin the season in Triple-A Nashville, he was elevated to the rotation after a slew of injuries to his big league coworkers. Since getting called up to the show, he has performed like he has been here before. Patrick is a cutter-first pitcher but is quite different from fellow cutter hurler and former Brewer Corbin Burnes. While Burnes is able to sit in the high-90s, Patrick’s cutter averages just 87.4 mph. He has been able to make it work so far but his lack of swing-and-miss might come to bite him later down the line. The biggest concern is that he has given up quite a bit of loud contact and opposing hitters are pulling his pitches in the air 27.5% of the time. Funnily enough, his barrel rate is still just 5.5%. Alas, one’s rookie year is often rife with lessons and adjustments. The Brewers have dealt with lower power arms before and Patrick’s average fastball velocity of 93.0 mph is only slightly below average so there’s a good chance he’ll still end up making the most out of what he has. Statistical Nugget: Opposing hitters have an .860 OPS against Patrick with the bases empty but a .467 OPS with men on. Pitcher of the Month - Jose Quintana 23 ⅔ IP, 1.14 ERA, 19 H, 3 ER, 8 BB, 15 K It can’t be understated how many times the Brewers have dug up an undervalued starting pitcher from a trade or free agency to turn them into a top-tier arm. Jose Quintana is the latest example of this practice. After signing in the latter half of spring training and being left off of the roster to get caught up in his preparation, he has quickly become one of the most valuable players on the roster. A master of deception, Quintana’s raw stuff doesn’t exactly jump off of the page, especially as a 36-year old, but he has created some frustrating at-bats for his opponents, especially with his curveball which opposing batters are yet to record a hit against. With the sinker as his primary weapon, his whiff and strikeout rates have been in the bottom quartile of qualified pitchers for the past few years but his quality of contact figures have been excellent. He isn’t getting as many ground balls as he has in years past but a more subtle ability to keep exit velocities within a reasonable amount keeps most of his batted balls in the park. Who knows if he’ll keep up this torrid pace (he won’t but one dream) and what his role will look like once major names like Brandon Woodruff finally return from the IL. Until we find out, let’s just enjoy what he’s been able to do for the team. Statistical Nugget: Opposing hitters have a .935 OPS against Quintana when swinging at the first pitch and a .478 OPS when taking the first pitch. View full article

When the Brewers scooped up Jose Quintana for just $4 million in March, even the veteran southpaw's biggest boosters—including manager Pat Murphy—couldn't have foreseen this great a return on investment. Image courtesy of © Jeff Curry-Imagn Images The Brewers didn’t do much this past winter. In fact, they rarely ever do much, when it comes to signing big-name starting pitchers. While the world was busy signing aces to fancy nine-figure deals, Milwaukee took a far more conservative approach. Even after losing franchise titans Colin Rea and Frankie Montas, they didn’t seem too gung-ho about reloading the rotation. After all, Brandon Woodruff was slated to return at some point, Tobias Myers looked like an ace in the making, and they still had Freddy Peralta hanging around. The one semi-proactive deal they struck was to acquire Nestor Cortes from the Yankees. Obviously, he brought a certain gravitas and track record, but things haven’t worked out for him in a Brewers uniform so far. Shortly after pitching poorly enough to single-handedly start a social media firestorm about illegal bat construction and ordnance-shaped sports equipment, he hit the 60-day IL with an elbow strain. At first, it seemed like Brewers fans would have to suffer through yet another year of a starting rotation held together with Elmer’s glue and Scotch tape—but they were, all of them, deceived, for another lefty was signed. It was almost as if the Brewers intended to keep his contract under the radar. They didn’t come to an agreement with Jose Quintana until March 5th, inking a one-year, $4.25-million deal with the 36-year-old former workhorse. He had just come off of a solid year with the Mets, posting a 3.75 ERA over 170 ⅓ innings, but is on the older side, a likely contributor to his availability stretching well into spring training. He was signed so late that he wasn’t even able to ramp up quickly enough to start the season with the team. When he finally got around to making his debut on April 11th against the Diamondbacks, however, he threw seven scoreless innings, masterfully utilizing soft contact to limit his own pitch count to just 80. His next three starts would be more strenuous, but each would be at least five innings and include just one earned run, giving him a cumulative ERA of just 1.14 this season and making him the most valuable player on the team by rWAR. How is he getting away with this? It’s not obvious at first glance. His whiff rate, fastball velocity, and many other Statcast metrics are in the bottom quartile of qualified pitchers. But what he lacks in brute force, he has made up for in deception. Jake McKibbin wrote about it when he signed, but Quintana is what some might call a “crafty lefty.” Acknowledging that his intrinsic stuff isn’t nearly enough to beat average major-league hitters, he tends to rely on expanding the zone and using breaking balls to induce ground balls up the middle or fly balls to the opposite side. Both batted-ball outcomes limit the total damage opposing hitters can do, and create an overall frustrating experience. If we take a closer look at his toolkit, we can see that this is accomplished through commanding his arsenal. His most valuable pitches, the changeup, curveball, and slurve, all end up in the lower portion of the zone. The only pitch that fills up the strike zone is the sinker, and even that is closer to the outer portion than it is the heart. Despite a lack of velocity, the movement and placement make it difficult to square up the ball. Batters may make contact, and it may even be decent contact, but it won’t be as hard-hit as they want it to be. Quintana’s average exit velocity is 91.1 mph, which places him in the 19th percentile, but his opponents' maximum exit velocity so far is just 107.3 mph, meaning the distribution of exit velocities off of his work doesn’t stray far from his average. Hitting a ball in the low 90s is rarely enough to do serious damage. We can see a quick example of this in a recent at-bat against Willson Contreras. After getting ahead in the count with a changeup on the outside edge and another changeup fouled away, Quintana eventually sets him up with another sinker just outside of the zone—but close enough to get a swing from Contreras—and inducing a harmless lineout to right field. In another at-bat against Matt Chapman, we find him (again in a 1-2 count) set up the hitter in a similar fashion, before a diving changeup causes a well-hit ball to die at the warning track. Nothing lasts forever, and you wouldn’t be out of your mind to expect some regression. In fact, the Brewers found themselves in a similar situation with Julio Teherán in 2023. A late May signing, he got off to an unbelievable start, before his ERA blew up in July following four rough outings. While his numbers will likely take a step back, Quintana was never meant to lead this rotation. It would be surprising if he was seen as much more than a stopgap. Woodruff has continued to make good progress, and DL Hall (whose move to the 60-day IL opened the roster spot for Quintana to be added) has been throwing and recently participated in a bullpen session, so the front office likely hoped the veteran would hold down the fort before reinforcements arrived. Optimists would remark that this was yet another brilliant move by the front office (followed by stellar work by the team’s pitching development program), which will culminate in the greatest-ever season by a Brewers lefty. A more realistic prediction would be that Quintana regresses slightly to be a more middle-of-the-rotation arm—someone who still contributes while the squad navigates their current injury problems. Regardless of what he accomplishes in the future, what he has done already is enough for him to be one of the most underrated signings of the offseason. View full article

Is it a slider? A sweeper? DiGiorno? Eh, it's probably somewhere in between them all. Image courtesy of © D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images Milwaukee’s bullpen is looking uncharacteristically shaky. After 25 games, Brewers relievers have combined for a 5.07 ERA over 94 innings pitched. Guys who were solid contributors last year (like Bryan Hudson and Trevor Megill) have failed to continue the momentum of 2024, and it seems like Joel Payamps is already past the point of no return. Funnily enough, Jake Bauers has the lowest ERA as a reliever, maintaining a perfect 0.00 from his two appearances. Aside from the two-way hijinks of Bauers, there have been a few other bright spots in this year’s bullpen. Abner Uribe finally seems like he’s back in business, Nick Mears is finally posting numbers representative of his top-notch stuff measurements, and the call-up of Craig Yoho presents an exciting wild card to watch. One of the newest faces on the team is also off to a good start, thanks to some small tweaks that have had a big impact. The Brewers traded for Grant Anderson during this past offseason, sending starter Mason Molina to the Rangers in return. To call Anderson a “project” would be understating things. After debuting for the Rangers in 2023, he accumulated a 6.35 ERA over the first 62 ⅓ innings as a big-leaguer. The most noticeable problem was with his arsenal. His slider has been his primary weapon for the past three seasons, and it was never a very effective pitch in Texas, for several reasons. First, its velocity was unexceptional. It averaged just 82.2 mph last year, making it one of the slowest in MLB. Second, it didn’t move much. In 2024, Anderson’s slider had just 6.1 inches of vertical movement (nearly five fewer inches than the league average, and 7.0 inches of glove-side break. These unexceptional features gave opposing batters a batting average of .314 and a slugging of .514 against the pitch. When you pair this with a four-seam fastball in the low 90s and just 10 inches of induced vertical break, and you get a reliever with an 8.10 ERA. If I had to take a guess as to what the Brewers saw in Anderson to make them want to target him in a trade, it would be his arm angle. It’s almost perfectly flat, averaging anywhere from -3 to 2 degrees. This unorthodox type of pitcher is exactly what Milwaukee aims to find and develop, and they almost never rock the boat too much once they get their hands on them. Rather than trying to turn Anderson into an over-the-top guy with a 12-6 curveball and a knuckleball that would make Phil Niekro blush, they chose to work with what they had and turn his slider into more of a sweeper. As a quick breakdown of the differences between a slider and sweeper, sliders are often thrown harder, with sharper and later break. Sweepers tend to have more gradual “sweeping” movement. The sweeper classification was introduced by Statcast in 2023 because, frankly, calling this pitch and this pitch by the same name doesn’t make a ton of sense. At the end of the day, pitching is a spectrum; no two pitches are really the same, anyway; Devin Williams throws a screwball, not a changeup, yada yada yada. Back to Anderson. While Statcast still classifies his breaking ball as a “slider,” the movement profile is noticeably different. 2024 2025 Velocity 82.2 mph 78.9 mph Induced vertical movement 6.1 inches 3.0 inches Induced horizontal movement 7.0 inches 14.1 inches By the numbers alone, you can see that Anderson has doubled the amount of glove-side movement he’s getting on his breaking ball, while inducing less vertical movement. He has also taken quite a bit of the velocity off to allow for more room to sweep. Let’s compare and contrast a typical slider from last year and this year. As you can see, this pitch is flying across the plate with much more intent, and the outcomes have been largely positive. Opposing hitters are averaging just .048, with a whiff rate of 38.0% against his new sweeper and it has even made his four-seam fastball more effective. In addition to generally keeping batters on their toes with the sweeper, he attacks the lower part of the zone with the breaking ball and the upper part of the zone with the fastball, forcing hitters to change their eye levels constantly. After 14 ⅓ innings as a Brewer, Anderson’s 3.77 ERA has room for improvement, but things are moving in the right direction. His FIP of 3.10 is a career best, and his overall ERA is largely inflated by a rough debut against the Royals, where he gave up three earned runs in 2 ⅔ innings. Not counting that first appearance, he has a 2.31 ERA over 11 ⅔ innings. To me, this is the most fun part of being a Brewers fan. Watching an organization get the absolute best out of a pitcher seemingly at the end of his rope is what some might call “absolute cinema.” Now they just need to figure out what’s wrong with the rest of the bullpen, so they can get back to the top of the NL Central and dethrone those pesky Cubs (who are having bullpen issues of their own... but that’s a story for another time). View full article

Your favorite gas-throwing reliever has been in the lab, and although he's now back on the mound, he's still cookin'. Image courtesy of © Benny Sieu-Imagn Images When Abner Uribe was promoted to the big leagues for the first time in 2023, it was electric. He had a wicked slider and an average fastball velocity of just under 100 mph. Few of us were ready for it, and neither were major-league hitters, who struck out 30.7% of the time against him as a rookie. In a year where serious discussions were had about who would eventually take over the mantle of closer once Devin Wiliams was inevitably traded in his walk year, Uribe threw his hat into the ring as a legitimate contender. After cracking the team’s Opening Day roster in 2024, it seemed like we would simply get more of the same dazzling pitching from him. Instead, a new year brought new struggles. As with many relievers with wicked stuff, command is sometimes hard to come by. He had a 15.7% walk rate as a rookie, but got away with it because his strikeout and ground-ball rates were so high. In his sophomore campaign, his walk rate rose to 18.2%, and he wasn’t getting the same amount of swing-and-miss. He began to lose control, both literally and figuratively, and everything boiled over when he engaged in a meaningless physical altercation against the Tampa Bay Rays in late April, resulting in a suspension and a final season ERA of 6.91. To make matters worse, it was announced that he would need knee surgery, ending his season and preventing him from trying to right his wrongs. It’s now 2025. Not only has Uribe avoided tussling with opposing center fielders (at least for now; let’s not jinx it), he has dialed back into what made him great in the first place. Thus grounded, he's off to a hot start. Over his first 9 ⅔ innings, he has a 0.93 ERA with a 35.3% whiff rate and a 29.7% strikeout rate. What changed? A closer look at his pitch arsenal makes two things clear: his sinker command is significantly better than where it was last year, and he seems to be pushing his breaking ball toward being a sweeper, rather than a traditional slider. Let’s start with the sinker. The ideal sinker can be consistently placed low in the strike zone, primarily because the goal is to induce a softly-hit ground ball. It’s not a whiff-reliant pitch. Contact is actually the intention, so long as it’s not hard contact. If you want to read more about ideal characteristics, feel free to check out this FanGraphs article from a few years ago. When we look at his sinker placement from 2024, there’s far too much red in the middle. Not only did this manifest in a higher opposing batting average, the opposing ISO was .154, far higher than it was in 2023, meaning hitters were getting to it and taking it for a ride. Nowadays, he’s still leaving it a little too close to the heart of the zone, but he's been lucky so far. When he executes and commands the pitch well, it turns into double plays. One intrinsic metric we can use to gauge whether he’s doing what he’s supposed to with the pitch is average launch angle. Other top-tier sinkerballers like Framber Valdez have incredibly low launch angles, something that indicates a high rate of ground balls. Thus far, opposing hitters are averaging a launch angle of just -6° against Uribe's sinker, a great sign. When it comes to reshaping his slider, it looks like the primary focus is to spread the zone laterally. Other relievers (like Blake Treinen) have found success with this strategy, implementing a very lateral sweeper that contrasts with the arm-side run on the sinker. For Uribe, here’s how the movement profile of his slider has changed over the past few seasons. Vertical Drop (inches) Horizontal Break (inches) 2023 32.2 9.9 2024 32.0 10.0 2025 32.0 8.6 It seems like this was something he had been thinking about last year, but couldn’t reap the rewards on due to poor command. With 9.9 inches of glove-side movement on his slider and 13.3 inches of arm-side run on his sinker, there’s nearly two feet of lateral distance that separates his two primary pitches. Don’t be fooled: there’s still plenty that can go wrong this year. Ideally, his sinker would be lower in the zone and his slider would push closer to the bottom corner. However, these are things that can and should improve as the season progresses. More than anything, it’s a relief to see him return to form, especially after a relatively long layoff, and with Trevor Megill facing struggles of his own, maybe it’s time to go back to the closer conversation. View full article