The Milwaukee Brewers somehow managed to win 93 games in 2024. Before the season, they traded their ace, 2021 NL Cy Young Award winner Corbin Burnes, to the team Baltimore Orioles for Joey Ortiz and DL Hall. With two-time All-Star Brandon Woodruff sidelined for a year after suffering a shoulder injury in 2023, many believed starting or not starting throwing would keep Milwaukee from competing in 2024.
Don’t get this wrong. Starting pitching depth was anxiety indeed. While Freddy Peralta set a career high with 32 starts in 2024 and Colin Rea was a surprisingly reliable starter with 27 starts, the Brewers’ backfield was plagued by injuries.
In 2024, Milwaukee breweries used 17 different starting pitchers
Unfortunately for Milwaukee, their starting pitchers suffered a number of injuries throughout the season. Some of them caused pitchers to miss several starts. Others ended their seasons earlier.
In total, the Brewers used the following 17 pitchers as starters/openers in 2024:
- Peralta (32 starts)
- Rea (27 starts)
- Tobias Myers (25 starts)
- Aaron Civale (14 starts)
- Frankie Montas (11 starts)
- Joe Ross (10 starts)
- Bryse Wilson (nine starts)
- Hall (seven starts)
- Jared Koenig (six starts)
- Robert Gasser (five starts)
- Dallas Keuchel (four starts)
- Rob Zastryzny (three starts)
- Carlos Rodriguez (three starts)
- Aaron Ashby (two starts)
- Wade Miley (two starts)
- Hoby Milner (one start)
- Jakob Junis (one start)
While a few of these pitchers will return in 2025, most of them will not. As such, Milwaukee must spend this offseason adding to its rotation depth because, as everyone learned in 2024, it can’t have too many starting pitchers.
Milwaukee Brewers urged to re-sign Justin Verlander through 2025
The Brewers are well-known for taking chances on aging pitchers as they try to extend their Major League careers. Since they need to add starting pitching, one potential option could be the three-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlanderwho is expected sign a one-year, $13 million free agency deal this winter.
Patrick McAvoy z Illustrated sports suggests that the Brewers used this reasonable expected salary to sign a star who challenged them in 2007:
“The Brewers should be able to contend again in 2025, but adding another starting pitcher wouldn’t hurt. For this reason, the Brewers should sign nine-time All-Star Justin Verlander.
While the addition of such a notable pitcher would be intriguing, the fact remains that Verlander was just 5-6 with a 5.48 ERA and 1.38 WHIP in 17 starts for the Houston Astros last season.
However, in 2023, he was 13-8 with a 3.22 ERA and 1.13 WHIP in 27 starts for the Astros and New York Mets. In 2022, he went 18-4 with a 1.75 ERA and 0.83 WHIP en route to his third career Cy Young Award.
Verlander will be 42 years venerable next season and there is no reason to believe that he still has a long career ahead of him. However, if any team can squeeze another year of solid production out of him, it will be the Brewers and their famed pitching lab.
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