Looking at 6 different potential Milwaukee Brewers starting rotation combinations

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The Milwaukee Brewers 2024 starting rotation is going to look vastly different than it did in 2023. Freddy Peralta, Wade Miley, Colin Rea and Aaron Ashby are back, but gone are Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff and Adrian Houser. Newly added are DL Hall, Joe Ross and Jakob Junis.

While we don't know exactly what the entire rotation is going to look like, there is one thing we know for sure, Freddy Peralta is going to get a chance to be the Milwaukee Brewers ace. Freddy is deserving of a chance to lead the rotation given how stellar he was after the All-Star break. After the mid-summer classic, Peralta in 13 starts and 73.2 innings compiled a 7-3 record, 2.81 ERA, 103 strikeouts, only 16 walks, and just 49 hits against 284 batters (a .184 opponent batting average).

If Freddy Peralta can replicate his performance from last August that earned him the NL Pitcher of the Month nod, he'll be a sure fire Cy Young candidate. Last August, Freddy started five games to the tune of a 2.10 ERA with 46 strikeouts, just 10 walks, and only 17 hits to 115 batters faced (.162 opponent batting average).

So Peralta will lead the starting rotation, logically Miley likely follows as a starter in just about any scenario, but who else comprises the rest of the rotation? The Brewers have a lot of different pitchers that can start in the rotation, bullpen, or minor leagues. There are several different types of combinations new manager Pat Murphy can go with, whether it be five man or six man rotations. What might some of those combinations be?

Milwaukee Brewers 2024 starting rotation combinations: Experience

If the Milwaukee Brewers decide that they want to begin the 2024 season with a starting rotation built on the players with the most experience in Major League Baseball, their five man rotation could look something like:

1. Freddy Peralta (97 career starts)
2. Wade Miley (308 career starts)
3. Jakob Junis (110 career starts)
4. Joe Ross (76 career starts)
5. Colin Rea (49 career starts)
6. (If desired) Aaron Ashby (23 career starts)

This lineup would feature the five (or six) players out of the seven to ten players who could factor into the Brewers starting rotation. The concern with a lineup built based on experience, even with a six man rotation, is health.

Freddy Peralta has dealt with some injuries in his young career. Wade Miley has had a career resurgence over the last few years but has missed time in both of the last two seasons due to injury. Jakob Junis has dealt with some minor injuries over the years. Joe Ross has had not one but two Tommy John surgeries and Aaron Ashby should be ready to go after missing all of 2023 with a shoulder injury.

If the Milwaukee Brewers go with a starting rotation based on experience they will be betting a lot of chips on these guys staying healthy or they will be plugging young guys in potentially often.

Milwaukee Brewers 2024 starting rotation combinations: Young Guns

To go the complete opposite direction, the Milwaukee Brewers could decide to take their starting rotation to the young, talent laden, potential-filled young guys. That rotation would look a little bit different after the top two of Freddy Peralta and Wade Miley:

1. Freddy Peralta (97 career starts)
2. Wade Miley (308 career starts)
3. DL Hall (1 career start)
4. Aaron Ashby (23 career starts)
5. Colin Rea (49 career starts)

This potential five man rotation by removing Ross and Junis does alleviate some of the injury concern to the starting lineup as DL Hall is a young player which projects to being able to stay healthy more easily and Colin Rea who despite playing overseas at points in his career, has been overall pretty reliable for the Brewers.

Now, the Brewers could take the youth movement to an absurd level if they decided to go outside the 40-man roster and bring up some of the young pitching talent currently waiting in the minor leagues.

The three players the Brewers could potentially stick as the sixth man in a youth-based rotation would be first, Evan McKendry. McKendry turned 26 earlier in February and pitched decently in Triple-A last season. Over 23 starts and 28 total appearances, McKendry totaled a 4.30 ERA over 142.1 innings. The numbers don't jump off the page, but if the Brewers decided they didn't want to start the service time clock on the next two pitchers I'm going to bring up, McKendry could be an option.

One of McKendry's teammates from last season, Robert Gasser, could be another candidate for a sixth man spot in a rotation based on young guys. Gasser led all of AAA in strikeouts last season and Brewers fans are eager to see him hit the major league roster so they can decide if the Hader trade was a win or not for the Brewers. Gasser also had one of the best ERAs in Triple-A in 2023, so whether or not he starts the season on the roster, it's not likely going to be a long wait to see him in a Brewers uniform.

Last but certainly not least, one of the Brewers' most exciting pitching prospects, Jacob Misiorowski, could be a super dark horse candidate for Milwaukee's hypothetical youth movement for the starting rotation. Misiorowski is just 21 years old, was drafted in 2022, and has rocketed through the Brewers minor league system, all the way to finishing 2023 with five starts for the Double-A Biloxi Shuckers and also dazzling in the MLB Futures Game last July.

While it isn't likely that any of the three of McKendry, Gasser, or Misiorowski start the 2024 season on the Milwaukee Brewers roster, it is certainly feasible that we could see one, two, or all three at some point this season.

Milwaukee Brewers 2024 starting rotation combinations: Strikeout guys

Peralta is already the de facto ace for the 2024 Milwaukee Brewers starting rotation, but looking at which starting pitcher options can rack up the most strikeouts is right in Peralta's wheelhouse. Who else could the Brewers put in the rotation with Peralta and Miley though (I know he's not a strikeout guy outside rare occurences)?

(Strikeout percentages are 2023 numbers except for Ashby and Hall)

1. Freddy Peralta (30.9 K%)
2. Wade Miley (16.1K%)
3. DL Hall (29.0 K%) - his career percentage to increase sample size
4. Aaron Ashby (26.5 K%) - 2022
5. Robert Gasser (28.0 K%) - Triple-A
6. Jacob Misiorowski (33.6 K%) - Double-A

Peralta ranked in the 92nd percentile of Major League Baseball in 2023 with his 30.9% strikeout percentage. Miley, again, is not a strikeout guy but is basically a lock for the rotation. The rest of this rotation is comprised of some young guys that the Milwaukee Brewers could rely on for years and years to come! Over the next five to six years we could be watching the Brewers starters rack up the strikeouts.

Milwaukee Brewers 2024 starting rotation combinations: Low Walks

The potential opposite of guys who strike out a lot of batters is that some of them struggle with walks, so a potential rotation built on players who don't walk a lot of batters may look a lot different. Still starting with Peralta and Miley, the rest would round out like this:

(Walk percentages are 2023 numbers unless otherwise stated)

1. Freddy Peralta (7.9 BB%)
2. Wade Miley (7.8 BB%)
3. Jakob Junis (5.7 BB%)
4. Joe Ross (7.4 BB%) - 2021
5. Colin Rea (7.4 BB%)
6. DL Hall (7.6 BB%)

This list ends up looking more similar to the experienced group of pitchers, potentially suggesting a correlation of experience and control.

Milwaukee Brewers 2024 starting rotation combinations: Ground Ball Guys

The Milwaukee Brewers have a roster with a lot of guys who can get ground balls, which is beneficial given that they play in a stadium that can find fly balls going over the fence. If the Brewers built a lineup for ground balls, it would look like this:

(Ground ball percentages are 2023 unless otherwise noted)

1. Freddy Peralta (47.8 GB%)
2. Wade Miley (47.4 GB%) - 2023 was his career low
3. Aaron Ashby (57.4 GB%) - 2022
4. DL Hall (48.9 GB%) - Career number to increase sample size
5. Joe Ross (44.7 GB%) - 2021
6. Colin Rea (44.1 GB%)

Going through these potential combinations really begins to show that guys like Aaron Ashby and DL Hall could be real assets for the Milwaukee Brewers at the back end of the rotation.

Milwaukee Brewers 2024 starting rotation combinations: Low On Base

The last combination I'll be looking at is the lowest allowed walks and hits per inning pitched (WHIP) to keep guys on base. Freddy Peralta and Wade Miley lead the charge:

(WHIP numbers are 2023 unless otherwise noted)

1. Freddy Peralta (1.12 WHIP)
2. Wade Miley (1.14 WHIP)
3. Colin Rea (1.19 WHIP)
4. Joe Ross (1.22 WHIP) - 2021
5. Jakob Junis (1.29 WHIP)
6. Evan McKendry (1.27 WHIP)

Basing the rotation on WHIP for the Brewers would be another logical way to justify bringing up McKendry to the starting rotation instead of inserting Aaron Ashby (1.43 WHIP in 2022) or DL Hall (1.39 career WHIP).

Gasser is essentially the same as McKendry, just behind with a 1.28 WHIP in Triple-A last season. Misiorowski has a little bit of work to do on limiting baserunners as his 1.57 WHIP is inflated slightly by his 15.0 walk percentage last season.

All in all, the starting rotation is not likely to be fully decided until spring training is well underway and we get a sense of who will start and who will be coming out of the bullpen. That said, the rotation will almost certainly be made up of some combination of these aforementioned players.

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