Coming off a close vote at No. 6, in which Jackson Chourio eked out Quinn Priester, Priester bounced back to dominate in the voting for No. 7. Priester took the seventh spot with 12 votes from the BCB community, while Abner Uribe and Andrew Vaughn each picked up one vote to round out the voting totals.
Priester, 25, was a first-round pick out of high school in 2019, going 18th overall to the Pirates. After debuting with Pittsburgh in 2023, Priester struggled in his first two seasons in the majors, accumulating -1.0 bWAR across 21 appearances (15 starts) with the Pirates and Red Sox, whom he was traded to in the middle of 2024.
After beginning 2025 in Triple-A for Boston, the Brewers acquired him in a rare April trade as they quickly faced the injury bug, depleting the pitching staff just a couple of weeks into the season.
That trade quickly paid off.
In 29 appearances (24 starts) with Milwaukee this season, Priester was a reliable arm, pitching to a 3.32 ERA, 4.01 FIP, and 132 strikeouts across 157 1/3 innings. He finished with a 13-3 record as the Brewers regularly provided him with great run support, resulting in a franchise-record 19 consecutive appearances in which Milwaukee won the game, a streak that ran from late May until his final start of the season in late September.
Priester’s Baseball Savant page isn’t the prettiest site, but he did do some things really well. His xERA ranked in the 70th percentile at 3.58, while his groundball rate of 55.7% ranked in the 93rd percentile. He also ranked in the top half of the league in barrel rate, hard-hit rate, average exit velocity, expected batting average, and walk rate.
Priester’s best start of the season by game score came on June 28 against the Rockies, when he went seven scoreless frames with a career-high 11 strikeouts, allowing just one hit and a pair of walks. Other great starts included six scoreless innings against the Dodgers in July (10 strikeouts), seven innings of one-run ball against the Braves in August, and five scoreless against the Tigers in his second start with Milwaukee in April.
In two postseason appearances, Priester paired one really rough start (he recorded just two outs and allowed four runs against the Cubs in NLDS Game 3) with a solid start (four scoreless innings against the Dodgers in NLCS Game 1, a game the Brewers would ultimately lose).
We’ll continue these rankings on Tuesday with our No. 8 player. To weigh in on the voting, visit The Feed.
