Brewers Rumors: Crew "Quietly Scanning" For Starting Pitching Upgrades

The Milwaukee Brewers will be showing off a completely remade rotation in 2024 and there may still be more moves made. Gone are Corbin Burnes and Adrian Houser, while Brandon Woodruff is on the IL. New faces include Jakob Junis, Joe Ross, and DL Hall as well as several homegrown prospects.

But according to Fansided's Robert Murray, the Brewers are not done looking for rotation help. Per the Baseball Insiders podcast, Murray reports the Brewers are quietly scanning the mid level starting pitching market.

Several names are still out there on the open market as spring camps are into full swing. Those names include Michael Lorenzen, Mike Clevinger, Matthew Boyd, Brad Keller, and Noah Syndergaard.

There's also the top level of the market, including Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery who are still free agents. Both are represented by Scott Boras and he says several new teams have reached out to him on both free agents since camp has opened. Their prices are likely dropping from what the ask was earlier in the offseason. While it wouldn't be a surprise to see the Brewers check in on either Snell or Montgomery, actually landing one of them would be quite the surprise.

The Brewers rotation is lacking proven innings right now. Wade Miley is questionable for Opening Day, Jakob Junis has made just 33 starts over the last 4 years combined, spending a lot of time out of the bullpen. Colin Rea just had his best season that will be tough to repeat and the rest of the rotation options are young prospects who aren't proven at the big league level.

Adding another veteran innings eater would help offset the losses of Burnes, Woodruff, and Houser and make this rotation more likely to help this team contend for another NL Central title in 2024.

However, the Brewers are also seeking to give opportunities to their young starters of the future, which is why they felt comfortable trading away Burnes and Houser a year before free agency. Junis, Rea, and Ross are stopgap options that can provide innings when needed but won't stand in the way of any of the young prospects when the Brewers want to give them a chance. Adding one of these veteran mid level starters like Lorenzen or Clevinger may stifle opportunities for those young pitchers, even if they may be productive pitchers in 2024.

It remains to be seen if the Brewers will continue to add. It feels like they've done their offseason work and would be comfortable to go into the season with the group they have. But if the right opportunity presents itself, the Brewers are seemingly open to adding more rotation help and are monitoring the available free agents if the price falls far enough.