Brewers 2025 season in review: The starting rotation

On the minds of many Milwaukee Brewers fans this offseason is the state of their favorite team's starting rotation heading into the 2026 campaign. With Freddy Peralta still on the roster despite his name constantly being brought up in trade rumors, Brandon Woodruff re-joining the team via the qualifying offer, and the Brewers adding another potential starting option in Ángel Zerpa, Milwaukee has an opportunity to build on their rotation's success from their memorable 2025 season. Let's take a look back at the role that the Brewers starting rotation played in the team's record-breaking 2025 season.

A swath of early-season injuries

As Brewers fans will painfully remember, Milwaukee's rotation was no certain thing at the beginning of the season. With Woodruff and José Quintana, who the team added on a free agent deal late in the offseason, both unavailable on Opening Day, the Brewers were forced to get creative with their initial starting staff. Relying on offseason trade acquisition Nestor Cortes and 2024 trade deadline acquisition Aaron Civale to anchor their rotation behind Peralta at the beginning of the season, the Brewers seemingly had the depth to wait out the returns of Woody and Quintana.

However, then came the swath of injuries. With Aaron Ashby, Tobias Myers, and DL Hall, three starting options, already on the IL to start the season, Milwaukee lost Cortes and Civale to injuries within the first two weeks of the 2025 campaign. The Brewers were forced to turn to Elvin Rodríguez and Chad Patrick in their first two home games of the 2025 season. The former, who joined the Brewers after two seasons in Japan, found little success in Milwaukee's rotation, but the latter, Patrick, became a necessary stabilizing force in the Brewers' rotation during the first two months of the season, possessing a sub-3.00 ERA through his first 13 starts of the year. Patrick went on to finish his rookie season with a 3.53 ERA in 23 starts, after spending much of the second half in Triple-A, as a result of the Brewers' crowded rotation.

The front office swings big for rotation help

Even with Patrick's early-season breakout, the injuries to Cortes and Civale left the starting staff in a dire situation in early April. As a result, Matt Arnold and the Brewers' front office swung a surprising early-season trade with the Boston Red Sox, acquiring right-handed starter Quinn Priester, who immediately joined Milwaukee's big-league rotation.

Priester got off to a slow start in a Brewers uniform, but by mid-May he had found his footing and kick-started a streak of impressive starts that landed him in the Brewers' record books. Priester became Murphy's second-most trusted arm behind Peralta, making Arnold and company once again look like psychics. Priester finished his first season in Milwaukee with an impressive 13-3 record and a 3.55 ERA to go along with it.

May brings more obstacles, but also a light at the end of the tunnel

May was a month of turmoil in the Brewers' starting rotation, and it showed in the team's record. With appearances from Tobias Myers, whose follow-up to his 2024 breakout season was underwhelming, Logan Henderson, who looked excellent in his limited opportunities last season, and Carlos Rodriguez, who avoided a major elbow injury after pitching on either side of a rain delay, the Brewers were constantly recalling pitchers from Triple-A to piece together a starting rotation that didn't get healthy until the end of the month.

Civale joined the rotation at the end of the month, but that was shortly after Quintana, who pitched well in his first six appearances in a Brewers uniform, went on the IL with a shoulder impingement. Additionally, May saw the teasing of Woodruff's return, but a last-minute ankle injury kept him off an MLB mound for a few weeks longer than he was expecting.

A rookie breakout like no other

Now in June, the Brewers' rotation started to stabilize, but not before some fireworks at the beginning of the month. After electing to finally promote prospect phenom Jacob Misiorowski to the big leagues, Milwaukee was actually left with a surplus of starters. The casualty was Civale, whose move to the bullpen prompted him to request a trade. The Brewers fulfilled his wish and sent him to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for Andrew Vaughn.

What followed was one of the most impressive introductions to MLB in recent history. After tossing a hitless five innings in his debut, Miz followed it up with four more impressive starts and was named to the NL All-Star team, despite only having five MLB starts under his belt. After some second-half struggles, Miz finished the regular season with a pedestrian 4.36 ERA, but his incredible performance in the postseason left Brewers fans optimistic about their emerging star going forward.

Summer stability in the starting rotation

Miz's arrival also coincided with the Brewers finally finding some stability in the starting rotation. The group of Peralta, Priester, Quintana, Patrick, and Misiorowski were key to the Brewers' turnaround in June, but there was still one key season debut that the team and fans were anxiously awaiting. On July 6, it finally arrived, with fan favorite Brandon Woodruff taking the mound against the Miami Marlins.

Woody, who took the spot of Patrick in the starting rotation, a decision that was far from easy, was excellent in his debut, displaying a new efficiency-focused repertoire of pitches that allowed him to cover at least four innings in each of 12 starts without ever approaching the 100-pitch mark.

The stability in their rotation eventually turned into a surplus of starting options when Cortes returned from the IL at the end of July. As a result, Milwaukee traded Cortes, who ended up making just two starts in a Brewers' uniform, to the San Diego Padres in exchange for Brandon Lockridge.

Late-season injuries lead to lack of options in the postseason

Once their rotation was healthy, the Brewers simply couldn't lose. A 14-game winning streak to start the month of August was the culmination of their winning ways, and it was in large part due to the impressive performances of their starting pitchers.

Unfortunately, when September rolled around, a similar swath of injuries that plagued the Brewers in the beginning of the season arose. In the starting rotation, the Brewers lost Quintana at the beginning of the month and Woodruff at the end, all while trying to give rest to Peralta and Priester who were going to be key pieces of the Brewers' success in the playoffs.

Though Quintana was able to return for the postseason, his missed time in September clearly impacted his effectiveness, and he wasn't a large part of the Brewers' success in October. Meanwhile, with Woody out for another postseason, the attention turned to Peralta, Priester, and surprisingly Misiorowski, when the playoffs arrived. Of that group, Misiorowski, who wasn't a guarantee to make the postseason roster, was by far the MVP, but Peralta's performance wasn't far behind. However, a five-game series in which the Brewers were essentially down a starting pitcher, left them in a tricky spot when the NLCS arrived, and no one needs to be reminded how that went.

All in all, it was another highly successful season for the Brewers' starting rotation, during which they posted the second-best collective ERA in the National League despite having to navigate an absurd amount of injuries. It's a testament to Chris Hook and the team's pitching coach staff, the front office's ability to bring in enough depth to sustain all of the injuries, and Pat Murphy's ability to create cohesion in a group that experienced so much change.