The Brewers have hovered around .500 for much of the season. There haven’t been any explosive runs where the team looks like a true contender with their longest winning streak coming in at four games. This month, their record stands at 11-13. Those are mediocre results, but to focus on a more particular aspect of their play, is there anything that the Brewers can build upon moving forward? Rather than their offensive stars, their biggest strength might just be their pitching depth.
Similar to last season, the Brewers have found quality pitching in unexpected places. Chad Patrick is one example, posting a 2.97 ERA so far. Quinn Priester arrived in a trade and has provided meaningful, if not spectacular, innings.
But what about recent returns from injury too? DL Hall and Aaron Civale are back in the fold. Brandon Woodruff could return soon with Nestor Cortes also beginning his throwing program and targeting an All-Star break return. Quality depth like this is fine, but the Brewers will need to tap into higher upside to make a claim on the division. Will someone emerge as a co-ace with Freddy Peralta?
The Brewers’ team ERA from starting pitchers is 3.54. That’s good for eighth best in the majors. The starters will need to sustain that pace if the team’s going to make up any ground in the playoff race. There are plenty of reasons to believe the Brewers’ offense could improve as the season goes on, but that will only matter if the pitching continues to perform well.
In the minors, the reinforcements in the wing are a strength, not a desperate measure. If you’re sending players like Logan Henderson — who had a 1.71 ERA across 21 innings — to the minors, it’s probably a sign there’s an abundance of major league caliber pitching. Jacob Misiorowski is another young arm tearing up Triple-A. Pitchers of such promise waiting for their turn is a sign the Brewers have an opportunity to build a contender based on deep pitching, a trait that many teams across the league would envy.
The Brewers, as a whole, aren’t a dominant strikeout team. They rank 15th, exactly league average, in team strikeouts. While that’s usually a characteristic of the best pitching staffs, it’s not necessarily a requirement for Milwaukee. Buoyed by one of the best defenses in the league, the roster works in tandem to create an impressive run prevention structure.
Perhaps the most worrying sign about this depth so far is that they haven’t worked, well … deep into games. The bullpen has been taxed, pitching the second-most innings of any bullpen. That’s why the starting rotation could prove pivotal moving forward as the team looks to elevate from middling to playoff contender — the starters can’t provide quality over just four or five innings.
The team has managed pitch counts for players like Patrick, who hasn’t pitched 90 or more pitches in his last four starts. Priester has only exceeded 80 pitches in one of his last four appearances. The Brewers are in a fortunate position to be able to rely on the bullpen in such a heavy workload, but the rotation will likely need to juggle more innings if the team is going to push forward throughout the summer.
