Jack Stern

The Brewers are not favorites for the Japanese phenom, whom pundits have projected as most likely to land with a West Coast contender. However, comments from his agent at the winter meetings provided another hint that they could make a competitive pitch for his services. The Roki Sasaki sweepstakes officially opened on Tuesday. The Japanese phenom was posted by the Chiba Lotte Marines, opening a 45-day negotiating window for big-league teams. By making the stateside jump now, Sasaki has already established that money is not his prime concern as he chooses his next club. Because he is just 23 years old, he’s limited to signing a minor-league deal with a signing bonus from a team’s international signing bonus pool as his only guaranteed money. After selecting his contract, that club can employ him for the standard six years of control before he hits free agency. Those restrictions, along with rumblings in the weeks preceding his posting that an organization’s pitching development infrastructure matters more to Sasaki than its market size, created a glimmer of speculative hope that the Brewers could make a competitive pitch to the right-hander. Milwaukee has developed a reputation as an excellent landing spot for pitchers looking to elevate their game, and its $7,555,500 bonus pool for the 2025 international signing period is in the top tier of clubs. Fresh comments by Sasaki’s agent, Joel Wolfe, may add more fuel to that fire. Speaking to reporters at the winter meetings in Dallas, Wolfe speculated that Sasaki’s tumultuous relationship with Japanese media while pitching for the Marines may sway him toward a “soft landing” with a small- or mid-market team. While fans of small-market teams will undoubtedly use that soundbite to argue that their team’s odds of signing Sasaki just increased, such a conclusion is reading too much into Wolfe’s comments. He emphasized that he had not discussed market sizes with Sasaki. From his perspective, there’s no reason to publicly rule out any team on the first official day of the negotiation process. At the same time, this is not just shallow posturing by Sasaki’s camp. Given the league-imposed financial limit on his eventual contract, he and Wolfe are almost certainly open to hearing as many pitches as possible that are not centered on money. If the Brewers are interested in Sasaki, they won’t be competing on a level playing field with other organizations, but the slope isn’t nearly as steep as it usually is in pursuits of such a talent. It’s easy to whip up potential ideas they may have for refining what is widely regarded as some of the best stuff in professional baseball. Sasaki’s arsenal is headlined by a powerful fastball with triple-digit velocity. When he appeared in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, it averaged 100.3 mph with 16.8 inches of induced vertical break and 12 inches of horizontal break. On top of being blazing fast, that’s a unique fastball shape. Most pitchers excel at generating carry or run on their primary fastball, but rarely both; Sasaki’s four-seamer has above-average carry and run. However, its velocity and total movement took steps back in 2024 amid speculation over an arm injury. His signature pitch is a unique upper-80s splitter. Because of its gyroscopic spin (the same kind of spin as a football spiral), it often sharply drops straight down or cuts to his glove side instead of fading arm-side like most splitters. Sasaki’s third pitch is a slider with up to one foot of sweeping movement but an inconsistent shape. The Brewers emphasize throwing multiple fastballs to maximize deception. They might do the same for Sasaki by splitting his heater into two pitches – a riding four-seamer he can use at the top of the zone and a sinker he can throw at the bottom and run inside on right-handed batters. Because his splitter often behaves like a short bullet slider, finding a breaking ball shape that does not overlap with it should be the top priority for any team that acquires him. Sasaki has no shortage of suitors, but if he’s looking for a winning organization with the resources to help him improve, the Brewers can make a competitive pitch. Don’t expect them to land him, but know they have a better shot at this free-agent talent than they usually do. View full article

The Brewers knew this day was coming and made the right decisions as it approached. They and Willy Adames can happily reflect on his time in Milwaukee while productively moving forward. Image courtesy of © Bill Streicher-Imagn Images The Willy Adames era of Brewers baseball is over. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported on Saturday afternoon that the veteran shortstop agreed to a seven-year, $182 million deal with the San Francisco Giants, pending a physical. A four-year partnership that began with Adames’s acquisition from the Tampa Bay Rays in May 2021 is now in the rearview mirror. During that time, he quickly became a leader for the Brewers on and off the field. Adames immediately brought stability to the shortstop position. He posted a 113 wRC+ and belted 107 home runs, surpassing 30 homers in two seasons. Paired with solid defense in most of those years, Baseball-Reference credited him with 14 wins above replacement as a Brewer. He also emerged as the most prominent veteran leader in the clubhouse. Several young Brewers players have cited Adames’s mentorship as impactful in their development. He was a leading member of Jackson Chourio’s support group, which helped the 20-year-old rookie break out as one of the club’s best players from June through the rest of the season. Brice Turang credited Adames with helping him become a Platinum Glove Award winner at second base. His impending departure was a central talking point dating back to last offseason, and it lingered amid another successful regular season for the club. While never uttered publicly in certain terms, the consensus was that Adames would sign a lucrative contract in a larger market upon hitting free agency. Faced with this looming reality, the Brewers were at a crossroads as Adames entered his final season of club control. They chose the right path. Pundits speculated that the club would follow its recent precedent of trading players on expiring contracts. In a desire to compete every year, the Brewers flipped Josh Hader and Corbin Burnes to recoup long-term value before they left as free agents. Counterbuilding moves are all about balance, though. Hader was a one-inning reliever with a potential replacement behind him in Devin Williams. Burnes was a durable starter with elite top-of-the-rotation upside, but pitching development is the Brewers’ specialty. They could keep chugging along without both pitchers, and they did. The Adames case was different. He was too valuable at a premium position and as a clubhouse leader, and his presence assumed even greater importance as one of the few holdovers after an offseason of upheaval. Trading him would have severely disrupted the competitive vision for 2024. The immediate cost did not outweigh the long-term benefits. With this in mind, the Brewers retained Adames through his final campaign before free agency. General manager Matt Arnold and owner Mark Attanasio revealed during the season that they rejected several trade offers to do so. He played in a career-high 161 games, hitting .251/.331/.462 (119 wRC+) with 32 home runs, the second most by a primary shortstop in franchise history. Manager Pat Murphy frequently cited him as one of his clubhouse pillars. That platform showing cemented his eventual departure. Adames was among the few big fish in a lackluster infield free-agent market. Murphy and Attanasio openly admitted multiple times they expected other clubs would promise him more money than the Brewers were willing to devote to one player. As they did in keeping him through his original years of club control, the Brewers made the right choice in not re-signing Adames to a deal in the neighborhood of the guarantee the Giants gave him. Red flags in his profile paint Adames as a candidate to age poorly. His alarming defensive dropoff (8 Defensive Runs Saved in 2023 to -16 in 2024) raises questions about how long he’ll remain at shortstop. While he’s walked at a 10.9% clip over the last two seasons, his chase rate is roughly average. As a power hitter with a long and violent swing, his decline could hit harder and faster than others as he loses bat speed with age. All of this means there’s a risk Adames plays out much of his deal as a third baseman with unremarkable or below-average offense. The Giants are evidently comfortable with assuming that risk, but it would not have been a wise gamble for his now-former team. The Brewers played their cards right. Knowing his value to the 2024 team, they kept Adames to be integral to another winning season. When he elected free agency, they extended a qualifying offer to ensure a compensation pick after the first round of the 2025 draft. In his four seasons in Milwaukee, the Brewers won 366 games – the fifth-most in baseball – and reached the postseason thrice. While neither side accomplished the ultimate goal of winning a World Series during that time, both received just about everything else they sought. The Brewers received what will likely go down as Adames’s best on-field seasons amid the most successful run in franchise history, a lasting clubhouse culture he helped build, and an extra top-30 pick in next summer’s draft on his way out. Adames earned his free-agent payday and enjoyed one last ride with an organization he grew to love before inking his new deal. Was it the storybook ending of Adames winning a championship in Milwaukee? No. But as the book closes on his Brewers tenure, both parties should be pleased with the last four seasons and content with the transition to the next phase of his career. View full article

Leaving a reigning Platinum Glove Award winner at the same position is the obvious choice, but the Brewers may have to relocate one of their best defenders to the other side of second base to most cost-effectively round out their infield. Image courtesy of © Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images While Brice Turang progressed through the farm system as the Brewers’ homegrown shortstop, Joey Ortiz looks like the in-house favorite to take the reins at the position after Willy Adames’s departure in free agency. The presence of Adames shifted Turang to second base when he reached the big leagues, where he quickly established himself as a world-class defender. In 271 games at the position, Turang has averaged 19 Defensive Runs Saved per 1,200 innings. He won the National League Platinum Glove Award for his excellence in the field in 2024. Turang has more than enough range to handle shortstop. However, Ortiz also developed as a shortstop and was scouted as an even better defender, receiving as high as a 70 grade from FanGraphs for his glovework. He backed up that reputation in his rookie season, accruing 8 DRS in 1,098 ⅓ innings at third base. Neither infielder has a great throwing arm, but Ortiz has showcased the slightly stronger one. While judging throws from second base against throws from third is hardly a fair comparison – the longer throw across the diamond always requires the defender to use more of his arm strength – there’s still a meaningful gap between the two. Ortiz’s hardest throws of 2024 regularly exceeded 84 mph. Turang averaged 80 mph with max-effort throws on double-play turns. He matched Ortiz’s velocity a few times, but almost exclusively when given the chance to step into an over-the-top throw after receiving the ball as the cutoff man. The difference would be negligible for many plays at shortstop, but Ortiz is better equipped to fire a strong throw on plays where his momentum does not help him, particularly ones in the hole where he ranges toward third base. Unless the Brewers sign a strong defensive shortstop, the best infield alignment has Ortiz sliding there and Turang remaining at the keystone. It’s seemingly the one Pat Murphy prefers. “In my mind, if I’m being honest with you, I’m like, ‘Why take this guy off there?’” Murphy said last month of moving Turang off second base. He repeated that sentiment a few days later, telling the hosts of Foul Territory that his “tendency is probably to leave Brice alone” due to his elite defense at second base. Murphy acknowledged that Turang can play shortstop and left the possibility open. Even if it’s not the Brewers’ preferred choice, circumstances could force them to pivot in that direction. The list of available infielders the Brewers can fit within a tight budget is underwhelming, especially if they prefer a right-handed bat with power potential to help replace Adames. Jorge Polanco and Brendan Rodgers are two of the very few who fit that description. Both are lackluster defenders, and neither has the arm strength to be a comfortable fit at third base. Smart teams in small markets use all of their resources to get the best bang for their buck. The Brewers have often done so by approaching their roster as a dynamic puzzle, instead of focusing on a perceived need at any single position. They must operate under that same mindset as they fill out their infield. To maximize leverage and opportunities, the Brewers must be willing to move Turang to shortstop and keep Ortiz at third. It may not be Plan A, but sometimes the market dictates that you settle for Plan B or C. That may mean scooping up Rodgers or Polanco to play second base instead of paying more for a third baseman with a lower offensive ceiling. “I think you’ve got to have the discussion and then see where the other pieces are and see who you have,” Murphy said. Ortiz looks like the preferred and most likely choice to assume Adames’s old post. Still, having Turang as another option is a luxury that affords the Brewers an opportunity to get more creative. They may have to take advantage of it. View full article

The recently non-tendered infielder has several traits the Brewers value, but that would not necessarily make him an opportunistic signing. Image courtesy of © John Froschauer-Imagn Images The tender deadline near the end of November added several low-cost infielders to the free-agent pool. While expected, that’s still good news for the Brewers, who are in the market for infield help with Willy Adames all but guaranteed to sign elsewhere. One of those newcomers to the market is Josh Rojas. The 30-year-old hit .225/.304/.336 (91 wRC+) for the Seattle Mariners in 2024. Upon accounting for the run environment (T-Mobile Park was the worst place to be a hitter in 2024), that production matched his career line of .247/.323/.362 (92 wRC+). The trajectory of Rojas’s season, not his overall numbers, likely convinced Seattle to move on. He began the season on a tear, posting a 1.029 OPS through May 5, but his bat cratered for a .196/.274/.282 line the rest of the way. After that hot start, he limped to the fourth-worst wRC+ among hitters with at least 350 plate appearances. It was Rojas’s second consecutive season of below-average offense, after posting a 106 wRC+ across the 2021 and 2022 seasons. His batting average on balls in play sunk to its lowest mark since 2020, perhaps partly because Rojas hit more balls in the air. That can be a recipe for success for those who hit the ball hard, but is often detrimental to those with suboptimal exit velocities. While Rojas makes much more hard contact than both, we’ve seen this movie before with Brice Turang and Sal Frelick. When they elevate, those lazy fly balls are often automatic outs. Therefore, they try to avoid hitting the ball in the air. Then there’s Rojas, who was similarly unproductive on fly balls but hit more than the average batter. Leveling out his contact to produce more line drives could boost Rojas’s offense, as would improving his fourth-percentile bat speed. He already boosted his hard-hit rate to a career-best 38.2% in 2024. That’s still lower than the league average, but it gives him more to work with than Turang and Frelick have in terms of generating pop. Even without improvements to his offense, Rojas is arguably the most Brewers-esque infielder available. He’s versatile, having appeared at every infield position and both corner outfield spots. He’s coming off a solid defensive season while playing primarily third base, compiling 7 Defensive Runs Saved at the hot corner. He doesn’t offer much power, but is a selective hitter whose 22% chase rate ranked in the 89th percentile. These qualities would make him a seamless fit in the Brewers’ run-prevention and run-producing systems. The club prioritizes positional flexibility, excellent defense, and smart swing decisions. It could be a fruitful match between player and organization, but Rojas’s offensive limitations and similarities to existing Brewers position players should prompt the team to look elsewhere first. Milwaukee posted baseball’s fourth-highest on-base percentage in 2024. With nearly that entire lineup set to return, the floor is already high enough. The Brewers need more hitters with greater power and higher ceilings, especially after losing one of their most consistent home-run hitters in Adames. The light-hitting Rojas does not meet those needs. He would also force Andruw Monasterio into the short side of a third-base platoon, when he’s better suited for a stricter bench role or as Triple-A depth. Rojas should be on Matt Arnold’s radar but not near the top of his list as he shops for infielders. With the potential to be a league-average hitter with strong glovework, he’s a more reliable fallback option than Monasterio or Oliver Dunn. There’s a viable scenario in which he’s the free-agent third baseman who lands in Milwaukee. View full article

Last week, the Brewers added a younger reclamation project with upside. Could they further stock their rotation depth with a flier on an underperforming veteran? Image courtesy of © Geoff Burke-Imagn Images The 2024 season saw the Brewers piece together innings from several unlikely sources, some of them buy-low reclamation projects. The club dipped into that well again last week by signing former New York Yankees prospect Deivi García to a minor-league deal. It’s unknown whether he’ll remain in a relief role or attempt a conversion back to starting, but in either case, the Brewers should continue stockpiling rotation depth. There’s another free agent who has struggled for several years, but falls on the other end of the stuff and age spectrums: 35-year-old Patrick Corbin. The veteran left-hander just concluded a six-year deal with the Washington Nationals. In year one, he was a key part of an elite starting rotation that carried the club to a World Series championship, but things quickly took a turn for the worse. Corbin declined in 2020, and the wheels fell off thereafter. Over the contract’s last four seasons, he pitched to a 5.71 ERA, the worst of any qualified starting pitcher. He did, however, eat innings for rebuilding Nationals teams during that time. Corbin’s 679 innings pitched from 2021 through 2024 were the 15th-most in baseball. Excluding the shortened 2020 season, he’s the only pitcher who has started at least 31 games in every campaign going back to 2017. With that kind of durability, remotely competitive results would make him a useful back-end starting pitcher. The Brewers are as capable as any organization of coaxing solid innings from unassuming pitchers. Corbin fits that mold, and could fit nicely into the now-vacant Colin Rea role at the back of the rotation. It’s often tricky to say with certainty whether Milwaukee’s elite defense will elevate a pitcher’s results, but the effect would be tangible for Corbin. Since 2020, he’s allowed a .331 BABIP while pitching in front of Nationals defenses that combined to rank last in baseball in Fielding Run Value (-142) and fifth-worst in Defensive Runs Saved (-122). Meanwhile, the Brewers finished within the top five in both metrics in each of the last two seasons. The real key to unlocking a productive version of Corbin, though, is furthering the development of the cutter he introduced in 2024. Corbin added the pitch to keep right-handed hitters off his signature slider, which had fallen from an elite pitch in his prime to a below-average one in recent years. As opponents became more familiar with the slider over time, they chased less and did more damage against it in the strike zone. During this time, Corbin threw fewer sliders and more sinkers, presumably in an attempt to keep hitters off the breaking ball. The problem is that Corbin’s sinker has never been an intrinsically good pitch. Opponents have slugged .467 against it for his career and .512 since the start of the 2020 season. According to Statcast, the pitch has yielded a positive run value twice in Corbin’s 12-year career, the last time being in 2019. Enter the cutter. In theory, having a pitch with characteristics residing between Corbin’s slider and sinker should help him keep hitters off the former without overexposing the latter. He turned to the pitch 19.2% of the time, including 23.2% against right-handed batters, who were the primary instigators of his struggles. It worked, to an extent. Opponents slugged just .335 with a .267 wOBA against Corbin’s slider in 2024, and it accumulated a favorable run value for the first time since 2020. The average exit velocity against it fell to 83.1 mph. His sinker, meanwhile, remained batting practice for hitters, who slugged .567 against it. There’s room for Corbin’s cutter to better complement his main two offerings, and he took steps in the right direction later in the year. That’s what makes him an intriguing possibility for a Brewers team that has helped several veteran hurlers get the most out of their suspect fastballs in recent years. For much of the season, Corbin’s cutter was not a fastball variant that filled the gap between his sinker and slider. Instead, it behaved like a harder version of his slider, with very similar movement. That changed in the final two months of the year. Corbin gained a few ticks of velocity and added a couple of inches of lift to his cutter, while slashing the same amount of horizontal break. This created a little more separation from the slider. Months Cutter Velocity Cutter IVB Cutter HB Slider Velocity Slider IVB Slider HB March-July 84.6 3.7 2.9 79.8 0.4 2.9 August-September 87.5 5.9 0.9 80.2 0.1 2.4 For a visual representation, notice how much more the cutter (orange) and slider (green) overlap on the left graphic compared to the one on the right. As a result, the pitch gained far more separation from his slider down the stretch. Coincidentally (or not), opponents fared worse against his slider in August and September than they had at any point in the year: a .235 slugging percentage and 39.6% whiff rate. The chase rate against it did not meaningfully improve. Corbin’s cutter needs more development, as it still resembles a breaking ball more than a cutting fastball. Further refining it would give him the three-fastball triangle the Brewers have repeatedly maximized, plus a breaking ball that has still flashed the capacity to be effective. Corbin has next-to no upside at this stage of his career, but plucking him off the scrap heap could potentially give the Brewers a durable arm at the back end of a rotation that is once again in flux. View full article

With Gary Sánchez gone and Jeferson Quero needing more development time, Eric Haase is now behind William Contreras on the depth chart. Can he fill that role successfully? Image courtesy of © Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK For months, Eric Haase has appeared to be the leading candidate to back up William Contreras in 2025. Squeezing him onto the roster in the second half despite nearly nonexistent playing time as a third catcher allowed the Brewers to retain control of Haase through arbitration, and the sides agreed to a one-year deal ahead of Friday’s tender deadline. An additional acquisition could change plans, but Haase will likely begin the year second on the catching depth chart. The question is how the Brewers will utilize him in that capacity, and how effectively he’ll fill the role. Contreras shouldered a heavy workload (at his own request) for much of the season, but Pat Murphy eased that burden down the stretch with more starts as the DH and full days off. Doing that more frequently to save Contreras from himself should be a priority moving forward, which would leave more starts for Haase than the 43 he and Gary Sánchez combined to start in 2024. The last time Haase was effective in a role at least that extensive was in 2022. He struggled mightily in 2023, hitting .201/.247/.281, for a 43 wRC+. After spending most of the first half of 2024 in Triple A, he drew just 69 plate appearances with the Brewers. Haase made a nice impact in that minuscule sample, though, slugging .515, smacking five home runs, and posting a 125 wRC+. He’s unlikely to recreate those results in a larger sample next year. Beneath Haase’s strong surface-level output, the red flags that have hampered him in the past remained. Haase has always had excellent raw power, but he’s an aggressive hitter with significant issues making contact. Since reaching the big leagues in 2018, Haase has struck out 30.1% of the time while walking at just a 6.3% rate. Among hitters with at least 1,000 plate appearances during that span, his 4.79 strikeout-to-walk ratio is in the seventh percentile, and his 74.9% in-zone contact rate is in the third percentile. The swing-and-miss is still a glaring issue. Haase struck out at a 32.9% clip for Nashville, with a nearly identical whiff rate. With the Brewers, he punched out at an alarming 40.6% rate, with a 39.4% whiff rate. He relied on unsustainable damage on balls in play (a BABIP of .386 in Triple A and .394 in the big leagues) to compensate for his lack of consistent contact. When he did make contact, Haase looked more like the hitter who combined for a 105 wRC+ across the 2021 and 2022 seasons. His hard-hit rate in Triple A was 48.4%, and his average exit velocity was 90.5 mph. He also tempered his aggressiveness, cutting his chase rate to just above the league average at 27.3%. Even so, he’s due for significant regression. Haase profiles as a below-average hitter, but he could still provide some timely home runs throughout next season. The offensive bar for a productive backup catcher is pretty low; if Haase keeps his offense above an 85 wRC+, he’ll be doing fine for his role. More intriguing is how Haase will fare behind the plate. He became the latest backstop to transform from a poor pitch framer to a solid one after joining the Brewers. Because Statcast offers Triple-A pitch-tracking data, public framing metrics have a larger sample to consider than his sporadic big-league appearances. Haase already improved his framing ability at the bottom of the zone in 2023, by switching to a one-knee stance that positioned him closer to the ground, but he remained one of baseball’s worst framers at the top. In 2024, he transformed into one of the best. A quick video search indicates that Haase set more high targets for Brewers pitchers than he did in Detroit. If true, that would mean he often had the easier task of framing at executed locations, instead of elevated misses. However, most of the improvement stems from adjustments to his setup. Here are a couple of Haase’s unsuccessful frame attempts around the top of the zone from 2023. haase_failed_frames.mp4 Constant motion is the theme in these examples. Haase was constantly shifting his weight around behind the plate and would often reposition his left leg as the pitcher began his motion. He was on one knee, but he was not taking advantage of the added stability that the one-knee setup is supposed to provide. This was a weakness Matt Trueblood highlighted when Haase signed last winter and named as one thing the Brewers would work to correct. Here’s how Haase framed pitches at the top of the zone as a Brewer. haase_frames.mp4 Instead of nonstop movement, what stands out now is how little Haase moves while receiving these pitches. Once he gets his base knee down, there’s no shuffling. As the pitch comes in, Haase appears more focused on using his hand and wrist to guide it toward the corners instead of his entire arm. While the growing popularity of the one-knee stance has helped catchers steal strikes at the bottom of the zone, framing pitches at the top remains more elusive. If Haase has unlocked a legitimate knack for doing so after toning things down, it gives the Brewers a backstop uniquely equipped for catching at least a couple of their starters. Freddy Peralta and Aaron Civale live at the top of the zone with their fastballs, and Tobias Myers and Brandon Woodruff also show plenty of elevated four-seamers. Haase stealing extra strikes up there would be valuable for those hurlers. Blocking has been a struggle for Haase throughout his career. He was not successful at controlling the running game in 2024 but previously graded out well in that regard. Framing holds the most weight among the quantitative aspects of catching, so Haase’s growth on that front boosts his defensive value. Plate discipline is most likely to make or break Haase’s season. If his strikeouts come in under an unplayable extreme and he adequately limits wild swings on pitches outside the zone, his combination of power and improved receiving will make him a solid backup to Contreras. View full article

The Brewers' new minor-league signee is still a young pitcher with limited big-league experience. His new organization offers the proper guidance for him to blossom, something he did not get at his previous stops. Image courtesy of © Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images The Brewers snagged their latest pitching reclamation project on Monday, signing former New York Yankees prospect Deivi García to a minor-league deal with an invitation to big-league spring training. Brewer Fanatic’s Matthew Trueblood provided a snapshot of the 25-year-old’s current standing as a pitcher and some basic tweaks the Brewers could be planning to help him implement. Here’s the CliffsNotes summary: García is nowhere close to a good big-leaguer in his current form, but his stuff can dominate hitters if he learns how to harness and sequence it. The Brewers are García’s third organization, and the third time could be the charm for the talented right-hander. That’s because he’s finally landed with a club that offers what he’s lacked for much of his professional career: consistent messaging from a coaching staff that advances his development instead of hindering it. García’s mix has long been headlined by a mid-to-upper-90s four-seamer that induces ample whiffs at the top of the strike zone. His secondary pitches have been in constant flux, marred by inconsistent and sometimes unproductive messaging from his first two teams. Going into 2023, García and the Yankees lowered his arm angle and tweaked his sequencing by eliminating his curveball – a big 12-6 breaker he can only throw from a higher release point than the rest of his arsenal – and shorter gyro slider. The goal was to optimize García’s mechanics and pitch mix. The Chicago White Sox claimed him off waivers in August and immediately undid those changes. García’s curveball returned as his go-to secondary pitch. The slider was also back, and the cutter was scrapped. He did not throw another sweeper until the final weekend of the regular season. Within one season, García underwent two overhauls to his plan of attack, and the second was nearly the exact opposite of the first. That continued into 2024, during which repeated tinkering was the only constant throughout his season. García returned with a reinstated sweeper, and the slider was seemingly gone for good. He began the year in the big leagues with a fastball, sweeper, curveball, and changeup mix, but it would again change repeatedly throughout the season. After a rough 14-game stint in the major leagues, the White Sox designated García for assignment and outrighted him to Triple-A. When he reported to his new affiliate, they immediately brought back his cutter, but it was not the same pitch it was the year before. As a Yankee, the characteristics of García’s cutter fell somewhere between a cutting fastball and a hard slider, but it was slightly closer to the former. When he and the White Sox reimplemented in Triple-A, its shape shifted toward slider territory. Its induced vertical break decreased from 10.1 to 7.1 inches, and its glove-side movement increased from 3.8 to 4.8 inches. These changes didn’t just make the cutter look more like a breaking ball to hitters; they also separated it more from García’s four-seamer. Notice how there’s more space between the blue and orange clusters in García’s White Sox movement plot. That added space is not necessarily a good thing. Cutters and four-seamers are supposed to look similar from release through their early trajectories, before moving in opposite directions as they approach the plate. The four-seamer rides through the zone with some arm-side run. The cutter has less ride, but does not drop like a breaking ball and moves late to the glove side. The greater the movement separation between the pitches, the easier it can get for a hitter to discern them after release and make a better swing decision. The new cutter induced whiffs at a 30.4% rate, but the Brewers may prefer the previous iteration because of how it interacts with García’s four-seamer. They’ve utilized both kinds of cutter shapes, but the goal is usually to make fastball variants look as similar as possible out of hand for maximum deception. Look at how much wider the movement gap is between García’s four-seamer and cutter, compared to other notable Brewers who threw both pitches in 2024. García will never close that gap as fully as the others, because his four-seamer has more run than most. Still, it’s plausible to predict that when it comes to the cutter, Chris Hook and company may focus on later, more subtle cut and more carry to make both fastballs more deceptive. When García and the White Sox restored his cutter after his demotion, they also abolished his sweeper from game action for nearly three months. García’s sweeper returned at the end of July, and like the cutter, it came back in a different form. It was harder, with less break. The pitch had significant movement at the beginning of the year, breaking an average of 16.9 inches horizontally and often surpassing 20 inches. Later in the season, it averaged 13.8 inches and never exceeded 17.4 inches. Its average induced vertical break also changed from -4.3 to -1.9 inches, meaning the pitch dropped less as it approached the plate. Finally, its average velocity ticked from 80.2 to 81.6 mph. There may have been a method to the madness. García struggled to control the sweeper early in the year, throwing just 33.3% of them in the strike zone in the majors, and opponents only chased 16.7% of sweepers he threw outside the zone. Breaking balls with big movement can be tougher to land for strikes, and dramatic movement early in a pitch’s trajectory can make it easier for hitters to identify its trajectory and take it for a ball. When the Brewers acquired Aaron Civale, they cautioned him against making his curveball and sweeper too big, partially for these reasons. Slashing a few inches of movement can alleviate both issues. In a small sample, García threw his new sweeper in the zone 42.3% of the time, and it produced a 36.4% chase rate. Keeping a pitch off-limits in games for half of the season is still unusual, even if the thought is to fine-tune it in the background instead, but this could be an adjustment that the Brewers carry into 2025. The pitching development brass has its work cut out for it. García pitched to a 7.07 ERA in the big leagues in 2024 and a 6.18 mark in Triple-A. He’s a mess right now, but given his career trajectory, that is not surprising. Young pitchers take time to mature. They must grow comfortable with their arsenal and mechanics and learn to use them productively against the best hitters in the world. García has not received that runway because teams have modified his repertoire every few months for multiple years. Enter the Brewers, who have successfully maximized various pitching profiles in recent years. Milwaukee’s staff has been lauded for its communication skills and ability to help pitchers implement productive adjustments natural to how each individual’s body moves and how the ball leaves their hand. The exact tweaks they have waiting for García remain to be seen. They might tweak his cutter shape and alter how he sequences it off his four-seamer. Perhaps they’ll scrap or minimize his curveball and increase the usage of his tighter sweeper. Maybe a mechanical tweak will make his delivery more consistent and reduce his alarming walk rate. Whatever the message, it will be concise, consistent, and realistic, and the Brewers will put García in a position to grow as a pitcher. Those are the things he needs most. View full article

The Brewers can make do without their former run prevention coordinator, but his absence could be felt in the short term more than the losses of other coaches. Image courtesy of © Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK When Pat Murphy was named the National League Manager of the Year Tuesday night, he emphasized the role of his entire coaching staff in the Brewers’ success. A key member of that group will not return next year, as new White Sox manager Will Venable announced on Tuesday that Walker McKinven is joining his staff as bench coach. McKinven follows Quintin Berry as the second coach to depart Milwaukee for a promotion in Chicago this offseason, and he won’t be the last bright baseball mind to leave in the coming years. However, his exit may be among the most significant. The 35-year-old spent nine seasons with the Brewers, including the last five in the dugout as an influential figure within the team’s run-prevention infrastructure. He didn’t always garner the same public recognition as Chris Hook and Charlie Greene, but he was nearly as vital as a game-planning, pitch-sequencing, and catching savant. In 2024, McKinven operated under the blanket title of run prevention coordinator, which reflected his hand in multiple aspects of the Brewers’ 88 ERA-. That figure ranked second-best in baseball. He was a bridge between the front office and the dugout, synthesizing relevant data so coaches and players could understand and apply it. McKinven was instrumental in identifying and implementing successful pitch usage tweaks for countless Brewers pitchers, giving Hook needed information for his hands-on work and freeing him to focus more on physical adjustments. The pair led daily game-planning meetings together with pitchers and catchers. During games, Hook, McKinven, and assistant pitching coach Jim Henderson would be in near-constant conversation along the dugout rail. He also worked closely with catchers on techniques and mechanical adjustments to improve their receiving. McKinven was heavily involved in the defensive transformations of Omar Narváez and William Contreras, two catchers other organizations thought could not stay behind the plate. When a pitcher productively transformed his pitch mix and how he attacked hitters after landing in Milwaukee, McKinven was part of the success story. When a recent Brewers catcher turned into an excellent pitch framer seemingly overnight, it was often because McKinven tweaked his stance and ran him through drills that retrained his arm, wrist, and hand movements to better guide pitches just off the plate toward the edges of the strike zone. It was only a matter of time before other organizations noticed McKinven’s impact and offered him a higher-ranking job. As the White Sox bench coach, he figures to have increased responsibility and authority throughout a full-blown rebuild, not to mention a higher salary. He’s long deserved the opportunity. The Brewers have a deep organizational coaching staff, built to withstand the loss of any individual in the big-league ranks. However, McKinven’s departure arguably leaves bigger shoes to fill than others. Berry’s instincts and preparation as a baserunning and outfield sherpa were valuable, but many of the straightforward principles he preached should be easy to uphold without him. He laid the groundwork for what should be a sustainable system. Game-planning and pitch-calling are arts predicated on several constantly changing factors, including scouting reports, pitch characteristics, and reading swings within a plate appearance. There is no universally agreed-upon methodology, and the process varies from one pitcher to the next. That’s why the Brewers have an army of pitching strategists. McKinven’s impact within that system was tremendous, and his success may not be as replicable as that of a baserunning or outfield coach. The Brewers still employ several coaches and analysts who are knowledgeable in the pitch sequencing realm, including Hook, so losing McKinven is hardly a death sentence for the pitching staff’s success. However, there may be short-term bumps in the road as they try to backfill the excellent analysis and communication he brought to the staff. The change poses a new challenge for Hook, who will be without one of his right-hand men of several years. Regardless of whom the Brewers tab with more responsibilities in McKinven’s stead, how complex information makes its way from the scouting department to in-game pitch-calling and receiving will look slightly different in 2025. If a coaching absence will be deeply felt next season, it will be McKinven’s. View full article

The Brewers' first-year skipper received due credit for leading a young and unproven group to success in 2024. Image courtesy of © Milwaukee Journal Sentinel-Imagn Images MLB’s award season continues, and the Brewers continue to be well-represented. After the club went 93-69 in the regular season and won a division title under his leadership, Pat Murphy was named the National League Manager of the Year on Tuesday night. Murphy edged out New York Mets manager Carlos Mendoza and San Diego Padres manager Mike Shildt to win the award. He's the tenth skipper to win in his first year as a non-interim MLB manager, joining American League winner Stephen Vogt. Voted on by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, the Manager of the Year Award is a flawed accolade, partially because there’s no great way to measure the impact a manager’s impact. Murphy echoed that sentiment before being announced as a finalist, saying it was “embarrassing” to be considered individually for an award when building a winner is a group effort. He struck a similar tone after officially taking home the honor. "Evaluating the job that the manager does, it encompasses so many things," Murphy said. "Unless you've lived it, it's kind of tough... I don't want to disrespect the award in any way, but I think there's a tremendous emphasis put on these types of things that I don't think are necessarily indicative of what the award should be about." Still, it’s deserving recognition for a baseball lifer who paid his dues at all organized levels of the sport. A longtime college and minor-league coach, Murphy was finally promoted to his first full-time managerial gig at age 65 after serving eight seasons as Craig Counsell’s bench coach. He inherited a Brewers team that always intended to compete in 2024, but roster and coaching turnover threatened to complicate the path to another playoff berth. He wasn't perfect. At times, Murphy looked like a first-year manager while handling in-game strategy and player workloads. The greater takeaway, though, is how he approached the role. Murphy squared confidence with humility and open-mindedness. He emphasized that he is still a student of the game and welcomed constructive criticism and analytical input. At the end of the day, Murphy positioned his players to succeed far more often than not, and his continued willingness to grow as an established baseball thinker should help him continue improving in his post. Most importantly, he was the stabilizing figure the Brewers needed at the helm as they transitioned to a new era in franchise history. Counsell and Corbin Burnes were gone. Brandon Woodruff would not pitch as he recovered from major shoulder surgery. Many positions were wide open for players who had yet to establish themselves in the big leagues. Murphy motivated his troops throughout a long regular season filled with adversity, laying the groundwork of the scrappy identity that helped the team avoid prolonged losing streaks. The clubhouse culture didn’t skip a beat and arguably improved under his leadership. Players regularly spoke about their eagerness to go to battle for their skipper. He always credits those players for establishing a productive atmosphere. "I've got young hungry players," Murphy said. "I know the role of the [Wade] Miley's and the [Christian] Yelich's and the [Willy] Adames's. That's a difference maker." The players insist it starts with the manager. “He keeps it light, but he’s intense, too,” Yelich said. “He demands a lot out of his players, and he expects you to conduct yourself and play in a certain way, but he also keeps it light, which is important over a six-month season where there’s going to be ups and downs.” “You walk around our clubhouse, and you can’t look in any direction where it doesn’t say, ‘Win tonight,’” Mark Attanasio said. “I think he’s brought that demeanor and edge to the team.” While there was value in maintaining organizational continuity by promoting Murphy, Attanasio and Matt Arnold insisted he went through the fully exhaustive interview process that any outside candidate would have. They concluded he was the right man for the job, and he rewarded their judgment. “I can’t say enough good things about him,” Arnold said. “The way he connected with our fans and our staff and our players, how much he cares day-to-day, his ‘win tonight’ mentality, his ‘undaunted’ mentality – all those things, they’re real for us in this building. He meant a ton to this franchise, and he has for a long time.” “With Murph, it’s always been about people,” Attanasio said. “Not every number two can be a number one. And we learned that Murph is a true number one.” Writers across the sport agree. He might not believe he deserves it, but Murphy received due recognition for his efforts on Tuesday night. View full article

The next offseason deadline is approaching. The Brewers have a handful of minor-league players eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Here's why some candidates are more likely than others to be protected. Image courtesy of © Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images At the beginning of the month, the Brewers trimmed their 40-man roster to 36 by declining club options and waiving several players. That was partially in preparation for the next key offseason date that arrives next week: the deadline to protect players from December's Rule 5 Draft. The draft aims to give big-league opportunities to players who may be buried on their current organization’s depth chart. Unprotected players signed at age 19 or older become eligible after playing four years of professional baseball, and those signed at 18 or younger become eligible after five years. If left unprotected, these players are available for teams to add to their big-league rosters. Players on the 40-man roster of their current club are not available to other teams in the draft, so teams often select the contracts of their best eligible prospects by the deadline to protect them. The deadline to do so is next Tuesday, Nov. 19. The Brewers have more than 40 eligible players (the complete list is available here), but only a handful are serious candidates to be selected by other teams or added to Milwaukee’s 40-man roster. If recent history is any indication, it’s unlikely the club will protect more than two or three of these players. It’s worth noting that leaving a player exposed does not mean the Brewers don’t value them. It’s often a calculated gamble that favors the player’s current team if he’s not an elite prospect. Although the Draft technically lasts until all 30 teams have passed, and can involve multiple rounds, most teams do not make a pick. Only 10 selections were made in last year’s draft, and 15 in 2022. The drafting team cannot send the player to the minor leagues, and that player must remain on the active roster for at least 90 days of the season for the club to retain their rights beyond that year. For this reason, the team that lost the player still has a decent chance of getting them back within a few months. With that in mind, here’s a narrowed-down list of potential additions to the Brewers’ 40-man roster and their likelihood of being protected. RHP Logan Henderson Henderson is the only lock on this list. The 22-year-old righthander shot up prospect rankings with an excellent 2024 season that began in High-A and ended in Triple-A. In 17 starts spanning three levels, he pitched to a 3.52 ERA and 3.63 FIP with a fantastic 31.2% strikeout rate and a 6.27 strikeout-to-walk ratio. The updated rankings at FanGraphs named Henderson Milwaukee’s 12th-best prospect, and Brewer Fanatic recently ranked him 8th. His fastball usually sits in the low 90s, but Henderson can reach back for 95-96. He’s unique in that he generates above-average ride from backspin on his four-seamer while throwing it from a low slot. This helps it play exceptionally at the top of the zone, where the pitch induces plenty of whiffs and pop-ups. Henderson complements the fastball with a 60-grade changeup that has plenty of fade and separation off his heater. Henderson has developed strong command of his fastball-changeup combination, leaving the mastery of a consistent secondary pitch with glove-side movement as his next hill to conquer. Neither his cutter nor slider have developed much in the minor leagues. However, his upside and straightforward path to big-league innings in 2025 make him a slam dunk to join the 40-man roster in a few days. RHP Coleman Crow Every candidate after Henderson has protection odds ranging from toss-up to unlikely, but Crow may have a leg up on his contemporaries due to his promise and Milwaukee’s presumed desire to see more of him. Acquired in return for Adrian Houser and Tyrone Taylor last winter, Crow missed the 2024 regular season while rehabbing from the Tommy John surgery he underwent the previous August. He’s pitched four times in the Arizona Fall League with mixed results, but at the time of the trade, prospect evaluators viewed Crow as someone who could quickly ascend to the big leagues in a bulk role upon recovery. His low-90s fastball isn’t as effective as Henderson’s, but it’s a serviceable pitch when Crow commands it at the top of the zone from his arm slot. His ability to spin the ball is his standout trait. In addition to his fastball, Crow throws two distinct breaking balls that could make him an MLB-ready arm at some point in 2025. All three pitches have excellent spin rates. Crow’s curveball has received as high as a 60 grade from evaluators, and the tracked curves he’s thrown in the AFL have averaged -10 inches of induced vertical break with nearly 17 inches of horizontal break. His slider is a shorter and harder pitch, sitting in the mid-80s with 4.8 inches of induced vertical break and 5 inches of horizontal break. Unsurprisingly, Crow has been plenty reliant on his breaking pitches in the minor leagues. He’ll need that approach to succeed at the game’s highest level. Refining his sinker and changeup could make him more likely to stick as a starter, but his breaking balls should allow him to navigate a lineup once in a multi-inning relief role. The Brewers could take the gamble of leaving Crow unprotected in hopes that nobody is willing to roster him in his first season back from major surgery. They’ve invested player capital and time into his rehab, though, and adding him to the 40-man roster is the safe route for maintaining a chance of a return on that commitment. RHP Shane Smith The 24-year-old Smith signed with the Brewers as an undrafted free agent in 2022 while recovering from Tommy John surgery. He began the 2024 season as a reliever in Double-A before transitioning into a starting role. His performance earned him a September promotion to Triple-A, where he allowed just two runs in five relief outings. Across the two levels, he posted a 3.05 ERA and 2.91 FIP with a 29.6% strikeout rate in 94 ⅓ innings. Like Crow, Smith’s calling card is his slurve-like curveball, but his breaking ball possesses even more depth with less sweep. His mid-90s fastball has also received strong grades and sometimes trends toward a rise-cut shape. Smith also features a hard bullet slider and began experimenting with a sweeper in 2024. Smith could crack the big leagues as a reliever in 2025, but his inconsistent fastball shape and the deep relief corps in Milwaukee could thwart that. It’s unlikely the Brewers will devote two roster spots to pitchers with plus breaking balls but no or limited experience above Double-A, so a decision on who to protect alongside Henderson could come down to Smith or Crow. RHP Chad Patrick The Brewers acquired Patrick from the Oakland A’s a year ago in exchange for Abraham Toro. He was named International League Pitcher of the Year in his first season with his new organization, leading the league in ERA (2.90) and strikeouts (146) while logging 136 1/3 innings for the Nashville Sounds. Despite that showing, Patrick never received a promotion, even as the Brewers looked to shore up what was a patchwork rotation for prolonged stretches of the season. That was likely due to his lack of upside and uncertainty about how his profile will translate to the big leagues, which could also make the club comfortable with losing him to another organization. Beneath that shiny ERA were a more pedestrian 3.98 FIP and 4.84 DRA. Patrick’s bread and butter is his cutter, but while it was highly effective against Triple-A opponents, its shape often varied wildly from one pitch to the next. Clusters on a pitch movement graph are generally not supposed to be that big. While no pitch will leave a pitcher’s hand in exactly the same fashion every time, Patrick’s cutter can look like an entirely different offering within a single outing. No one else in the upper levels of the game has quite this much variability. It raises the possibility that Patrick manipulates the cutter by design. If he doesn’t, it’s an unpredictability that makes it harder to trust him to pitch at the highest level. Add in the home run concerns baked into his heavy fly-ball profile and inconsistent walk numbers, and there are reasons to believe the Brewers are not as likely to protect him as his surface-level numbers might indicate. 1B/OF Ernesto Martinez Jr. Martinez just re-upped with the Brewers on a new minor-league deal after enjoying a breakout campaign at age 25. He spent the entire year in Double-A, hitting .284/.365/.466 with 13 home runs for a 146 wRC+. Standing 6-foot-6 and weighing 250 pounds, Martinez has always possessed an exciting blend of raw power and speed. He still has a ways to go, but the significant cuts to his strikeout rate in recent seasons are the real story. Making more contact is what’s positioned him to finally reach the upper minors after a slower progression through the first several years of his career. He’s been primarily a first baseman, but has also made cameos in center field due to his athleticism and range in the field. Martinez is still raw enough entering his age-26 season that the Brewers likely don’t see a pressing need to protect him. Still, he probably renewed some optimism within the organization (and earned some external looks) with a resurgent season. 1B/C Wes Clarke After smashing 26 home runs in 118 games at Double-A Biloxi in 2023, Clarke made his presence felt in spring training by homering four times. The slugger then went deep 21 times during the minor-league season, spending most of it in Triple-A. Clarke has caught 80 games in the minor leagues but has played primarily first base, and profiles as a DH in the big leagues. Offensively, he’s a stereotypical three-true-outcomes hitter from the right side. Too much swing-and-miss stands between him and being a semi-reliable MLB bat. He struck out 35.1% of the time in Triple-A, where his 40.6% whiff rate was the fourth-highest among hitters with at least 300 plate appearances. The Brewers could use more power in their lineup, but Clarke isn’t the answer. He’s highly unlikely to be protected. While a rebuilding organization could take a gamble on his light-tower power, the low floor presented by the holes in his swing means he’ll probably return to Nashville in 2025. View full article

The Brewers' skipper deserves the recognition he's getting, but his discomfort over it is a reminder that the Manager of the Year Award is flawed and inconclusive. Image courtesy of © Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images After leading the Brewers to a 93-69 record and a second straight division title in his first season at the helm, Pat Murphy was named a finalist for the National League Manager of the Year Award on Monday night. Murphy was expected to be a finalist, and he’s also the favorite to become the latest Brewer to take home offseason hardware when winners are announced on Nov. 19. Murphy is not one to assume credit for anything, so it was unsurprising when he downplayed his consideration for the award on Sunday. He then went a step further by expressing discomfort with it, offering a valuable reminder of the disconnect between the work it takes to build and guide a winning team and how some accolades for those accomplishments are publicly bestowed. “Any award like that is a team award,” he said. “It’s a staff award. It’s embarrassing even to be mentioned [in consideration for] it. It truly is. If you love this profession and you’re passionate about what it means, then those types of things are like it doesn’t fit with what you’re really all about. “It just doesn’t sit as well, but I guess you gotta go through it, and I gotta deal with it,” he added. The problem with the Manager of the Year Award is that it recognizes one individual for success that takes a village to achieve. Players have the task of doing everything they can to help their team win, and many metrics isolate their contributions. There’s no WAR for managers, leaving voters to go on character and team record relative to expectations or adversity. The good news is that Murphy has garnered praise on those fronts, but the reality is there’s too much noise surrounding those factors to come up with a firm answer. It’s a flawed methodology that uses on-field results to evaluate the performance of one man in the dugout. As Murphy alluded to, coaching is a group effort. The size of big-league staffs continues to grow, including in Milwaukee. In-game decision-making is a collaborative process, and it’s often increasingly specialized instructors and analysts helping players make the tweaks to unlock better versions of themselves. Even then, coaches only look good if players work on and off the field and answer the call in the moment. Having good coaches does not automatically lead to success, nor is success always indicative of good coaching. Managers are impactful, but it’s challenging to rank them because compatibility can be just as important as skill. Most managers are gifted leaders or have the traits to blossom into one. It’s why they get the job. A fit between the manager and the rest of an organization is what leads to the most fruitful experience for all parties. A skipper need not agree with the front office or fellow coaches on everything, but they must buy into the club’s larger vision and successfully transpose it onto the field, all while maintaining cohesion throughout the clubhouse. A successful managerial performance not only entails doing the job well, but is also about being the right person at the right time. Because the context throughout the league and an organization constantly changes, that window can be fleeting. It leads to frequent turnover among acclaimed managers. Every NL Manager of the Year from 2019 through 2022 was dismissed by their club within the next two seasons, and 2023 winner Skip Schumaker stepped down after this year. They did not suddenly become worse managers. Instead, they were most likely dismissed or moved on because they were no longer the most compatible with the organization’s executives, coaches, and players. The need for a new voice can arise quickly. That’s why Craig Counsell’s tenure as Milwaukee’s manager continues to stand out after his departure. The Brewers posted winning records in each of his last six full seasons after exiting a rebuild. He remained a productive voice for years while managing rosters of varying shapes, strengths, and weaknesses. Still, his underwhelming first season in Chicago illustrates the importance of having the proper infrastructure behind any manager. As Murphy said, it’s a staff endeavor. It’s impossible to measure which manager is baseball’s best, which is rarely what the Manager of the Year Award highlights. The finalists are often managers of teams that most overperformed external expectations, or most improved their records from the previous season. While those accomplishments can reflect the manager’s efforts, that’s just a small piece of the puzzle on which baseball writers base their votes. Recent history shows that leading any team to overperform significantly is rarely a skill that one can repeatedly attribute solely to a manager. The award’s methodology is flawed, largely because there is no great alternative. Whether Murphy wins or not, the takeaway from his first season as skipper is that he was the right manager for the 2024 Brewers. After an offseason of turnover, the club needed someone to keep this team grounded amid uncertainty. While he was understandably far from perfect in other facets of the job, Murphy was a respected and stable leader throughout a successful regular season. He’ll likely be commended for it next week. View full article

For the second straight offseason, the Brewers have a starting rotation in flux. Some external additions are necessary to lengthen the depth chart, but the pitching staff's outlook hinges on several in-house wild cards above all else. Image courtesy of © Matt Krohn-Imagn Images Welcome to the 2025 Offseason Handbook! This year, we’re offering the format online only through our Caretakers program. The Offseason Handbook is a comprehensive look at what challenges the Brewers face in the coming winter to field a competitive team in 2025. To become a Caretaker, visit this page. On top of receiving exclusive access to the Offseason Handbook, Caretakers also receive in-depth analysis from national writers you cannot find anywhere else. You will also receive exclusive access to events and an ad-free browsing option. In celebration of the Offseason Handbook’s release, we’re offering 20% off all Caretaker programs for the next week. Use the code HANDBOOK at checkout to receive 20% off your purchase! 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. View full article