Pat Murphy wastes no time in declaring who the Brewers' Opening Day starter will be

The Milwaukee Brewers starting rotation still has a few question marks, and a recent injury to DL Hall furthers the concerns. Pat Murphy's first media session was notable for numerous reasons, but none other than him already naming the opening day starter. Brewers fans received good news in regard to Brandon Woodruff, but Freddy Peralta will be given the ball right away on March 27th.

Brewers will start the 2025 season off with Freddy Peralta as their Opening Day starter

With a rotation in place including the former Yankee Nestor Cortes, Peralta gets the nod. Aaron Civale and Tobias Myers are undoubtedly going to be in the Brewers starting rotation, but none compare to fastball Freddy. Civale and Myers could have fantastic seasons of their own, but Peralta was the ace of the staff last season and is a familiar face to lead the charge. With Cortes' experience and Woodruff eventually coming back from injury, the Brewers starting rotation is looking pretty solid.

Last season, the Brewers opened play against the team that ended their season, the Mets. With a date against the New York Yankees to open 2025, Peralta will look to replicate his Opening Day success. The Brewers started their season 1-0 with a 3-1 victory over the Mets, a game that saw Peralta secure his first win of the year.

Peralta threw 92 pitches on opening day, a stellar six inning outing where he struck out eight. Peralta's eight strike outs were met with just one walk, and his only hit given up was a solo shot to Starling Marte in the second inning.

Freddy Peralta finished the 2024 season with one less win than he did in 2023, but his ERA fell from 3.86 to 3.68. He ultimately started two more games last season, but that only resulted in eight more innings thrown. His strikeouts fell from 210 to 200, with his walks increasing by 1.5%.

When it comes to his pitch arsenal, Freddy made a few changes last season. His four-seamer usage increased by over two percent. At 53.9%, it was his clear go to pitch. Peralta's slider usage remained at 21.6%, having stayed consistent for the last two seasons. Most notably, his changeup was thrown 3% more. Now at 17.5%, it has nearly doubled from the 9.6% it was thrown back in 2021. With his changeup usage increasing, his curveball was down five percent. Last season, the curveball was thrown at just 7.1%, down from 16.2% back in 2022.

At the end of the day, he'll always be fastball Freddy. His four-seamer struck out 109 batters, that's 18 more batters than his other three pitches combined. It'll be interesting to see if his curveball usage increases at all in 2025 as hitters had just a .182 average against it.

It is a very small sample size though, having thrown the pitch just 217 times throughout the year. When that is compared to his 1652 thrown fastballs, it's no wonder why the average is so low. Keep an eye on the slider as 2025 approaches, the perfect pitch to mix things up and one that came with a 41% whiff rate last season. It clocks in at nearly 13 mph less than the fastball, continually leaving batters fooled as they hit just .203 against it.

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