Brewers to throw cast of minor league pitchers in 2026 Cactus League opener

The Milwaukee Brewers play baseball this afternoon.

Just over four months after the Crew was defeated in the 2025 National League Championship Series, the 2026 journey begins. At 2:10 p.m. CT, the Cactus League Brewers take on the Cleveland Guardians at American Family Fields of Phoenix. Though the game won't be televised, Brewers fans can listen to the game on the radio.

The Guardians, who are set to play two games this afternoon, are sending a split squad to Maryvale to take on the Brewers. Left-hander Joey Cantillo, who posted a 3.21 ERA in 95.1 innings during his impressive rookie campaign in 2025, gets the start for the Guardians. The Brewers saw Cantillo last May in Cleveland and scored two runs off of him during a two-inning stint thanks to a two-run homer from Rhys Hoskins.

Pat Murphy's pitching lineup, meanwhile, will consist of several arms from the Brewers' minor league system. 28-year-old right-hander Garrett Stallings will kick things off for the Crew. Stallings, who was acquired from the Baltimore Orioles in May of 2024 in a trade for Thyago Vieira and Aneuris Rodriguez, posted a 3.99 ERA in 99.1 innings for the Nashville Sounds in 2025. Despite having more than 250 innings of experience in Triple-A, Stallings, a 5th-round pick out of the University of Tennessee in the 2019 MLB Draft, is still waiting for his big-league debut.

Brewers opting for lineup of minor league pitchers in 2026 Cactus League opener against Guardians

Though Murphy hasn't officially revealed who will follow Stallings this afternoon, the team did reveal that it will only be pitchers from minor league camp this afternoon, meaning anyone on the Brewers' 40-man roster and their list of non-roster invitees is supposedly not pitching today.

The Brewers also revealed which minor league pitchers are joining the Cactus Crew roster this afternoon. In addition to Stallings, Jesús Broca, Will Childers, Stiven Cruz, Jaron DeBarry, Anthony Flores, Michael Fowler, Sam Garcia, Tyson Hardin, Blake Holub, Edwin Jiménez (pictured above), Mark Manfredi, Manuel Rodriguez, and Brett Wichrowski will all be available this afternoon, though they all won't necessarily pitch. Of the group, Hardin was the only one to finish the 2025 season in MLB Pipeline's list of the Top 30 Brewers prospects, but several others could join him there this year.

Though the Brewers aren't electing to throw a big leaguer in today's Cactus League opener, they did reveal that two players who will be locked in the starting rotation position battle all spring will start each of the two split-squad games on Sunday afternoon. Robert Gasser has been named the starter for the Brewers' home game against the Kansas City Royals, and Logan Henderson will start the away tilt against the Chicago White Sox. Henderson's start against the White Sox tomorrow will be televised on Brewers.TV.