3 Possible paths the Brewers could take to address the pitching staff needs

The Milwaukee Brewers' pitching depth has faced Herculean levels of tests. They've dealt with trades, injuries, tough performances, walks, bad luck, and suspensions. The Brewers could use help in the starting rotation and bullpen.

There are three main options the Milwaukee Brewers can consider for the pitching to be at the level it needs to be for the rest of the 2024 season: wait it out, sign someone, or trade for someone. Each option comes with its own pros and cons, so which should they do?

Option 1: Wait it out

The Milwaukee Brewers could just stand pat, Colin Rea and Freddy Peralta are both candidates to bounce back from their previous appearances. DL Hall made a rehab appearance with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers on Sunday and is on his way to Nashville to rehab with the Sounds and could be back with the Brewers soon.

Robert Gasser in his first two starts looks fantastic and has given the rotation and fanbase a boost.

Bryse Wilson has been pretty good as a starter despite some high walk totals. Even with the high walks, Wilson has given up just seven total runs in 25 innings pitched as a starter (2.52 ERA since moving to the rotation).

Joe Ross has been pretty decent in his last three starts totaling 16 innings, 11 hits, 12 strikeouts to just three walks, and has given up six earned runs. That totals out to a 3.38 ERA over those last three starts, certainly a livable number and one that can absolutely give the Brewers chances to win games.

Jakob Junis is eligible to come off the injured list on June 5th.

Tobias Myers has been up and down but was up in his most recent appearance for Milwaukee. Against the St. Louis Cardinals he pitched four innings, gave up three hits and struck out six. Myers did surrender four walks but similar to Wilson they didn't hurt on the scoreboard as he allowed just one run.

As far as the starting rotation is concerned, the Milwaukee Brewers are a couple bounce back appearances from Peralta and Rea away from being in decent shape with the reinforcements coming.

What does that mean for the bullpen that could also use some help so Pat Murphy doesn't have to trot out Mitch White in a two run game again?

With the aforementioned reinforcements coming to the starting rotation, it would also give the Brewers the ability to move Bryse Wilson back to the bullpen to his previously held middle/long relief role. Bradley Blalock has also been promoted from Double-A to help out and could start.

On the bullpen front, there could be reinforcements coming in the next two to three weeks there also. JB Bukauskas reportedly started playing catch on Friday according to Adam McCalvy and was fantastic before his injury (1.50 ERA in six appearances).

Also, offseason acquisition Taylor Clarke has begun rehabbing with AAA Nashville and has thrown five innings so far, so Clarke could be on the horizon to help the bullpen.

Lastly, fitting with his original timeline of around the All-Star break, Devin Williams is starting to play catch and is expected back in July.

With the reinforcements coming, the Milwaukee Brewers could certainly just look to tough it out with the guys they have for another couple of weeks until they're healthier.

Option 3: Make an early trade

As far as trading for pitching help, the basic conundrum is you're either trading for a guy who has been good previously and is underperforming, betting on a return to previous success (someone like Mike Clevinger) or you have to pay a steep price for a good pitcher on a bad team (someone like Mason Miller). Are there any players that could be found in the middle ground?

Looking at some of the bad teams in Major League Baseball, the Milwaukee Brewers could maybe make a call to the Colorado Rockies for Jalen Beeks. Beeks is 30 years old and having a pretty good statistical season. In 19 games (21.1 innings), Beeks has a 2.11 ERA, 220 ERA+ and 1.219 WHIP. His strikeout to walk ratio is less than ideal at 1.36 (15 strikeouts, 11 walks), but that could be a way to help keep the asking price down a bit. It's also worth mentioning that Beeks is left handed and combined with Hoby Milner and Bryan Hudson would give the Milwaukee Brewers three extremely formidable lefties in the bullpen.

In very similar fashion to Beeks, Tanner Scott of the Miami Marlins is another lefty on a bad team that is likely to sell. Scott is 29 so his price tag might be slightly lower than other relievers who are pitching well on bad teams like Mason Miller or Victor Vodnik. While Tanner Scott doesn't have an alliterate name like those two, he does have solid stats. A 1.89 ERA in 19 games and 228 ERA+ are solid, where he could fit in as a happy medium to low cost/high reward is his age as previously mentioned but similarly to Beeks is his strikeouts to walks which have contributed to a slightly inflated WHIP. Scott's WHIP is 1.474 thanks in part to 17 walks compared to 20 strikeouts.

The Milwaukee Brewers could make a call about a different Los Angeles Angels pitcher without having to grab a guy with a high ERA. Matt Arnold could make an offer to the Angels for familiar face Hunter Strickland. Strickland, despite being 35 years old, has pitched well so far in 2024. A 2.37 ERA in 19 innings with 16 strikeouts and just three walks. Strickland was with the Brewers in the second half of 2021 and was fantastic. Strickland was mentioned by the Athletic as a player who could be traded.

Tim Hill of the Chicago White Sox could be a low cost option for the Brewers to trade for. Hill was mentioned in an MLB.com article of players most likely to be traded by the deadline. Hill is 34 years old but having a solid season, in 16 innings pitched his ERA is just 2.25 and his ERA+ is an impressive 181, however, some of his other numbers are troubling, just eight strikeouts to six walks and a 1.688 WHIP are reasons for caution.

So what should the Milwaukee Brewers do about their pitching situation? Standing pat and waiting out some of their injuries would be an understandable strategy. Swapping a guy like Mitch White for Mike Baumann or Nabil Crismatt would be a good move for multiple reasons. Lastly, if Matt Arnold wants to kick off trade season a little early by looking for one of the four guys mentioned and get in on them before other teams desperation meter cranks up a bit, that would be understandable as well.

Don't expect them to be in on the biggest names in the rumor mill that will cost huge packages of prospects. These middle ground guys are the type of guys the Brewers should target for the betterment of 2024 and beyond.