Grading the Milwaukee Brewers rookies through the first quarter of the 2024 season

Robert Gasser

Robert Gasser was acquired as part of the Josh Hader to San Diego Padres trade and as one of the highest rated prospects in the Brewers' organization, he has been off to an electric start in the majors. The injuries to starters has given him the opportunity to take the mound for the Brewers and he is taking advantage of it.

On May 10th, he made his MLB debut against the St. Louis Cardinals in an 11-2 win. Gasser pitched six innings, gave up just two hits, no runs or walks, and struck out four. It really doesn't get much better than that for a starter making his debut in the big leagues.

A second strong outing in the 10-2 win over the Pirates on May 15th saw him pitch five innings, allowing six hits, one earned run and two strikeouts. That means over his first two starts he has a 0.82 ERA, which is phenomenal for anybody, but especially for how young he is and making his first two big league starts.

The road moving forward for him is likely to be a little bit rockier as with all young pitchers. The league will adjust to him at some point but the future is bright and he can be a real cornerstone of the Brewers' rotation going forward.

Grade: A+

Oliver Dunn

Playing time at third base has been a talking point all offseason and so far this season with a number or Brewers players looking to stake their claim to start on the hot corner. Sal Frelick had started to learn the position just to add to the options of Andruw Monasterio and Owen Miller as guys already in the majors, with then Joey Ortiz and Oliver Dunn being traded for and Tyler Black working his way through the minor leagues.

Dunn has seen a fair share of time at third and was on the Opening Day roster following strong outings in Spring Training. Frelick has remained in the outfield due to the injuries out there and so Dunn has been competing with Ortiz as both look to tie down the starting job.

On the season he's batting .226/.278/.333 with one home run and six RBIs in 90 plate appearances. Dunn started the season really strong, dipped slightly but was having a strong May so far, batting .292/.370/.417 in 27 plate appearances across 10 games. Across the board, Ortiz has had a better season with him hitting .277/.384/.511 with four homers and 12 RBIs, so that stakes his claim to start stronger but it is fair to say Dunn has been solid in his start in the majors.

He did really struggle however from April 8th to the end of the month as he only hit at a .132 average which show those difficulties rookie batters can have when they make the step up. The Brewers have optioned Dunn down to Triple-A after that down stretch, but there's been a lot of promise shown.

Grade: B