What to expect from the Brewers' newest starting pitcher

The Milwaukee Brewers play just their 13th game of the young 2025 season this afternoon, and recent trade acquisition Quinn Priester will be the seventh starting pitcher that the injury-riddled ball club has used thus far. The team is well on its way to surpassing the 17 starters that it used last season. To supplement the depleted staff, the front office swung an early-season trade for Boston Red Sox's starter Quinn Priester.

Coming off of two emphatic wins against the struggling Colorado Rockies, the Brewers will turn to Priester for the series finale in hopes of securing their first sweep of 2025. Priester will be working on six days rest after making a start for Boston's Triple-A affiliate, the Worcester Red Sox, last Thursday.

Priester's past offers much to be excited about

A highly touted high school prospect, Priester was taken 18th overall in the 2019 MLB Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates. According to MLB Pipeline, Priester's upside initially revolved around his ability to reach high velocity with his four-seam fastball and generate high spin rates with his secondary pitches. Fast forward to today, and Priester's arsenal looks quite different.

The high-velocity potential never really panned out for Priester, who averaged just 93 MPH on both of his fastball shapes last season. As documented on FanGraphs, Priester became heavily reliant on his two-seam fastball last season, throwing it 30% of the time in comparison to his four-seamer, which he threw just 14% of the time. This decision was warranted, however, as Priester generated a ridiculous 66.7% ground ball rate with his two-seam fastball in 2024.

However, where Priester really struggled last season was against left-handed hitters. Lefties posted a slash line of .330/.404/.500 when facing Priester last season, prompting him to make a few changes to his repertoire. These changes came after Priester was traded from the Pirates to the Red Sox at last year's trade deadline. With Boston, Priester added a third fastball shape, a cutter, and started to use his changeup more often, in an effort to neutralize left-handed opposition. The Brewers have prioritized pitchers that can throw all three fastball shapes, most notably with their mid-season acquisitions of Aaron Civale and Frankie Montas in 2024. Priester made just one start with the Red Sox last season, so time will tell whether his new arsenal will consistently perform well against big-league batters.

The combination of Priester's prospect pedigree, his willingness to tinker with his pitch repertoire, and the Brewers' pitching departments' ability to get the most out of their players should have fans excited about what Priester could bring to the organization for the next several seasons.