Why the Brewers Pitching Staff Will End Up Being Just Fine
Despite some severe early struggles, the true face of the Milwaukee pitching staff looks more like their last two games than their first four.
On Wednesday, a version of the Milwaukee Brewers emerged that was familiar to fans. Ace Freddy Peralta went eight strong while giving up just one run. The bullpen was largely impressive following him. And the Crew pulled off an exciting, extra-inning victory to win the rubber match of their series.
That was far from the version that fans saw to start the 2025 season.
The Brewers kicked off the year with a three-game series against the Yankees. To say it was an utter disaster would be the understatement of the season so far.
Things started innocently enough, as the Yankees pulled out a 4-2 win on Opening Day. Then, the Brewers would go on to get absolutely stomped over the weekend, losing by scores of 20-9 and 12-3.
If that weren’t bad enough, the bad vibes carried over to the team’s home opener on Monday. Hosting the Royals, Milwaukee was out of it early, and the excitement of the day quickly was extinguished en route to an 11-1 loss.
That loss gave the Brewers an uncharacteristic 12.27 ERA through four games. It was the worst mark in MLB through Monday’s games by almost five runs over the next worst team (Twins, 7.31).
Things finally turned in the right direction on Tuesday. The Brewers pitched a 5-0 shutout behind Chad Patrick making his first career start, then won the series with the 3-2 win on Wednesday.
The shift was a sigh of relief for fans who had withstood one of the worst starts to a season in the league. But it posed a question to some: What version of the pitching staff was closest to reality, the one from the first four games or the one from the next two?
Don’t Panic, Brewers Fans. The Real Pitching Staff Is More Dr. Jekyll and Less Mr. Hyde.
It was well-documented that there would be noticeable differences to the Brewers’ pitching staff from last year. The most notable of which was the loss of All-Star closer Devin Williams, who was traded to the Yankees in the offseason.
But that wasn’t all. Colin Rea, who started 49 games for the Brewers over the last two seasons, had his contract option declined. Joe Ross, who filled in for the rotation and had a 3.77 ERA in 25 games, was lost to free agency.
Relievers Hoby Milner (non-tendered) and Bryse Wilson (outrighted, elected free agency) were gone as well. That was another 169.1 innings combined out the door.
But there were plans to overcome the losses. Brandon Woodruff would be expected to join the rotation relatively early in the season. He’d join Nestor Cortes, who was acquired in the Williams trade.
Once injuries started hitting the team early on in the spring, veteran starter Jose Quintana was signed, though he is still not quite ramped up to contribute yet.
In the bullpen, Elvin Rodriguez, Tyler Alexander, Rule 5 pick Connor Thomas, and Grant Anderson were all added to provide backup to the holdovers from last season.
Unfortunately, injuries ravaged the pitching staff before the season even began. Six pitchers started the season on the injured list: Woodruff, fellow starter Tobias Myers, swingmen Aaron Ashby and DL Hall, reliever Nick Mears, and prospect Robert Gasser.
And just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, Aaron Civale, the team’s No. 3 starter to begin the season, was pulled after three innings in Sunday’s game against the Yankees and eventually placed on the IL with a hamstring strain.
It left the Brewers with two healthy starters: Peralta and Cortes. It also had them taxing their bullpen very early in the season, either to cover short outings by their starters or to pitch in a bullpen game on Tuesday.
Now despite all that, there is a reason why this pitching staff can, and will look like the strong ones the Brewers always seem to put out. Many of their injured pitchers appear to have a chance to return very soon.
The Brewers Simply Need To Tread Water Until Their Arms Return
Mears is already making rehab appearances at Triple-A, while Quintana is just about stretched out to start. Both could return when eligible on April 8 and 11, respectively.
Meanwhile, Myers will be heading to Triple-A himself next week for rehab starts and could be ready to roll before the end of April. Woodruff also continues to progress as planned and is most likely to return in May.
While the Brewers wait for those players to return as well as others, two players stepped up big in the meantime. Patrick, who helped Milwaukee to their first win of the season, pitched 4.2 scoreless innings and earned himself additional starts.
At the back end of the bullpen, flamethrower Abner Uribe returned from a four-game suspension to start the year to pitch in both wins, dominating hitters with his elite fastball-slider combo.
Yes, both a four-game losing streak and two-game winning streak are both small sample sizes with which to infer much of anything. But there’s no denying how big of an impact the currently injured pitchers have had on the performance of the staff.
Even with those injuries, the Brewers have plenty of talent remaining in the pitching staff. All they need to do is tread water for the next month or so, because when the staff gets back to nearly full strength, it’ll go back to the type of pitching that fans have been used to watching for years.
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Matt Carroll is a writer for Just Baseball and former site expert at Reviewing the Brew. He studied journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and currently…