Milwaukee Brewers: Should Freddy Peralta Make The Playoff Roster?

The Milwaukee Brewers have seen young Freddy Peralta make several starts for the team during the 2018 season. He’s back in the bullpen for now, and it’s fair to question if he has a spot on the postseason roster.

The Brewers can’t take all 36 of their active players with them to the postseason. They’re going to have to cut their roster back down to 25. When they do so, there is going to be a bunch of players who have been with the team all year long who aren’t going to see time in the postseason.

We’ve covered the cases for Eric Thames and Keon Broxton, and now we take a look at Freddy Peralta’s case to make the postseason roster.

How Has Freddy Peralta Pitched This Year?

Peralta has made 14 starts for the Brewers this season, and owns a 4.40 ERA in those starts. He’s shown flashes of his tremendous upside this year, but he’s also had a couple starts where he just doesn’t look right.

In his last two big league starts, Peralta faced the Cincinnati Reds each time. The first time, he went seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts. The second time, Peralta could only make it through 4.1 innings, while allowing five runs. That’s basically Peralta’s season in a nutshell.

Since being recalled from the minor leagues, Peralta has yet to pitch in a game situation. The return of Zach Davies and the addition of Gio Gonzalez have pushed Peralta to the bullpen.

Should Peralta Make The Playoff Roster?

When Peralta earned that role as a regular in the starting rotation, the big knock against him was going to be his inexperience. With the Milwaukee Brewers in a heated pennant race, could they trust a 22 year old rookie?

It doesn’t look like it.

Craig Counsell hasn’t really made a big effort to get Peralta into games, and there’s nothing wrong with that. While the Brewers haven’t placed a specific innings limit on Peralta, he has already thrown a career high number of innings this season, and it might be best for him to rest towards the end of the season.

Peralta is a talented young arm, and he’s going to be a big part of the starting rotation next season. But barring an injury to someone in the current starting rotation, Peralta figures to be left off the postseason roster.

For the Milwaukee Brewers, they shouldn’t really need a long reliever in the postseason, but a more experienced arm like Junior Guerra may be in a better position to get that job should there be one.