Final Brewers Opening Day roster predictions: Rotation questions are abound

Opening Day is almost here. Finally! After a long winter, Major League Baseball is ready to greet us into spring, with images of green grass, diving catches, and hopefully, many postgame Gatorade baths for the Milwaukee Brewers.

With Opening Day looming, roster announcements are upcoming. For some, it is business as usual. For others though, it is an anxious couple days, as decisions are needing to be made. Dreams are about to either come true, or be shattered, with many questions to follow. The Brewers have a few of these decisions to make, and here is how we see things shaking out with the Opening Day roster.

Brewers Catchers

This is about as much of a slam dunk as it gets with this roster. In our previous roster prediction, William Contreras and Eric Haase were locked in, barring injury. The only thing that could have potentially derailed that, would have been a monster spring from Jeferson Quero, who is returning from injury.

Quero figures to be a candidate for a midseason call up, but after not appearing in any Brewers spring action, and being optioned to Triple A Nashville back on March 10th, he will need to wait his turn just a bit longer. If there would be a pressing need, keep your eye on Jorge Alfaro, who will start the season in Nashville as well, and did appear in 11 Cactus League games.

Brewers Infield

Our first really big shakeup from the previous version, as the Brewers made several moves that threw this off. First, the team optioned Andruw Monasterio to Nashville, and then traded longtime veteran Mark Canha to Kansas City late Friday evening.

Roster locks Rhys Hoskins, Brice Turang, and Joey Ortiz have done their part, all having pretty productive springs, with Hoskins leading the club in Spring Training home runs, mashing 6 long balls. Speaking of home runs, Vinny Capra figures to earn a nod.

Capra smashed six home runs this spring, and plays a pretty good third base. Over the weekend, the team announced that Capra would make the Opening Day roster, his first as a big leaguer. Jake Bauers and Oliver Dunn are poised to grab roster spots, outlasting Andruw Monasterio and top prospect Caleb Durbin. Bauers' versatility, specifically being able to play outfield at the major league level, and outplaying Mark Canha boosts him to the roster.

Brewers Outfield

This is all in all pretty simple. The Brewers outfield will consist of Christian Yelich, Sal Frelick, Garrett Mitchell, Isaac Collins, and budding superstar Jackson Chourio. Yelich returns from injury, hitting .353, cranking 3 home runs, and 2 doubles over 12 games. This is stellar for the former MVP, but it was outshadowed by an even bigger performance from a future MVP candidate.

Jackson Chourio is the face of the Brewers, and an incredible spring has kept the hype train going for the now 21 year old. Not to be completely outdone either, Sal Frelick had a really productive spring as well, hitting .390/.457/.561 with 2 home runs, after gaining 25 pounds of muscle in the offseason.

Brewers Starting Pitchers

Well this is rough, the one area that has been one of the biggest strengths of the Brewers over the past couple years, is now one of the biggest question marks for this team at least to start the season. Freddy Peralta, Nestor Cortes, and Aaron Civale will be the true starters on the roster to start the season, with Peralta getting the Opening Day start.

Jose Quintana is a bit of a question mark. They may option him to the minors to ramp him up, if he agrees to do so, as he will not be ready for what would be his first start in the rotation. Of course, him deciding not could mean that the team has to do decide between an IL stint or keeping him on the roster without him starting. My money says he will agree, as all parties know the situation.

Of course, the team will have to get starts from some of the guys in the bullpen, which is very familiar territory for the Brewers the last few years. Which leads us to the 'pen.

Brewers Bullpen

This group will have to do some heavy lifting with the rotation down to three guys. Some of the stalwarts are back, Trevor Megill will be the closer, Elvis Peguero and Joel Payamps will be available for high leverage spots, as we have seen the past couple years. Same with Bryan Hudson and Jared Koenig.

New to the Brewers bullpen will be Elvin Rodriguez, Tyler Anderson, Chad Patrick, and Rule 5 selection Connor Thomas, who found out over the weekend that he was making the big league roster. Look for Rodriguez, Anderson, and Patrick to be some of those guys that could spot start here in the early going of the season.

As Adam McCalvy points out, the Brewers face a decision with what to do with Abner Uribe. Uribe faces a 4 game suspension after his role in the bench clearing incident last spring against the Tampa Bay Rays. However, it seems like the team will allow him to serve the suspension right away, which makes sense, given that this is the healthiest the unit will be, and not need to call up two players in the event of injury.

Craig Yoho was making a push to the big league roster, after having a fantastic spring. This comes after Yoho was the Brewers Minor League Pitcher of the Year last year. Unfortunately for Yoho, at this point, he was not on the 40 man roster, and will have to wait his turn just a bit longer.

Brewers Injured List

Blake Perkins will be starting the season on the injured list, the lone position player to be doing so. Joining him will be starting pitchers Tobias Myers, Brandon Woodruff, Robert Gasser, and DL Hall, as well as bullpen arms, Nick Mears and Aaron Ashby.

Myers will be most likely of the starters to work his way back, as he has began throwing last week. All eyes will be on Woodruff, as he continues to work his way back from the injury that took him out of the 2023 postseason hunt, and forced him to miss all of 2024. Adam McCalvy reported that he will be traveling with the team to the Brewers home opener, and throwing a simulated game at American Family Field before heading back to Phoenix to continue the ramp up.

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