The Brewers are wrapping up their final decisions on the Opening Day roster. Adam McCalvy of MLB.com reports that veteran lefty Jose Quintana has consented to be optioned to Triple-A Nashville to finish building up. The 36-year-old signed midway through spring training and has thus far only pitched five official spring frames (in addition to side sessions and work on the back fields). It’s a largely procedural move; Quintana will join the big league rotation in early-to-mid April, though it’s not yet clear how many starts the Brewers want him to make in Triple-A.
Beyond that, the Brewers will have to clear at least one 40-man spot. McCalvy further reports that first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers has made the roster. He’d been in camp as a non-roster invitee and will take a bench spot in Milwaukee. He held a similar role last year. Bauers, 29, appeared in 117 games with the Brewers and hit .199/.301/.361 with a dozen homers. He was far too strikeout-prone, fanning in 34.1% of his plate appearances, but he also drew walks at a stout 11.3% clip, went 13-for-14 in stolen base attempts and played 553 innings of solid defense at first base.
The Brewers non-tendered Bauers rather than pay him a projected $2.3MM salary. He returned on a minor league deal and has mashed his way onto the roster with a big Cactus League performance. In 42 turns at the plate, he’s logged a .263/.333/.605 slash with three homers, four doubles and a pair of stolen bases. He’ll presumably need to outpace last year’s production to stick around for the long haul, but he’s off to a nice start this spring.
Right-handers Chad Patrick and Elvin Rodriguez and utilityman Isaac Collins have all made their first Opening Day rosters as well. All three are already on the 40-man roster. Rule 5 southpaw Connor Thomas is also breaking camp.
Per McCalvy, Milwaukee will open the season with only three true starting pitchers: Freddy Peralta, Nestor Cortes and Aaron Civale. Quintana will be a fourth once he’s ready. Righty Brandon Woodruff is still on the mend from 2023’s shoulder surgery but could be an option in the season’s first month or so as well. In the meantime, the Brewers have Rodriguez, Patrick, Thomas and veteran swingman Tyler Alexander stretched out for multiple innings to piece things together at the back end of the staff.
Patrick, 26, is not only making his first Opening Day roster but will make his MLB debut the first time he takes the mound. Milwaukee acquired him from the A’s in exchange for Abraham Toro in November 2023. Patrick spent the entire 2024 season in the Brewers’ Triple-A rotation, turning heads with 136 1/3 innings of 2.90 ERA ball. He fanned 26.1% of his opponents against a 7% walk rate.
Thomas, also 26, will also make his debut the first time he throws a pitch for the Brewers. Milwaukee plucked him from the Cardinals’ system in December’s Rule 5 Draft, and he posted 11 1/3 frames with just three runs on nine hits and five walks against 11 punchouts this spring. He spent 2024 as a multi-inning reliever in Triple-A Memphis and logged 90 1/3 innings with a tidy 2.89 earned run average. Thomas logged a below-average 20.6% strikeout rate but notched plus walk and grounder rates of 6.3% and 53.5%, respectively.
The 26-year-old Rodriguez is a former Angels and Tigers prospect who very briefly pitched with Detroit earlier in his career. He drew a big league deal from Milwaukee after spending the past season and a half pitching with Japan’s Yakult Swallows. In 78 NPB innings, Rodriguez recorded a sharp 2.77 ERA, albeit with a sub-par 20.4% strikeout rate. He was tagged for nine runs in 10 2/3 innings this spring, but his 15-to-2 K/BB ratio offers more encouragement.
Collins, 27, made his MLB debut last year and went 2-for-17 in a quick cup of coffee. The Brewers claimed him off waivers from the Rockies back in 2022. He spent the majority of the 2024 season in Triple-A Nashville, where he hit .273/.386/.475 with 14 homers, 24 steals and a gaudy 14.2% walk rate. He has significant experience at second base, in left field and in center field in his pro career, in addition to more sparse work at third base and in right field. He’s a switch-hitter with good speed who can back up at nearly any position on the diamond.
Bauers getting MLB at bats every year confuses me. I get every team needs bench players but he always ends up playing too much and has never been even a league average hitter. Teams can’t quit these guys. Even “smart” teams.
Remember – HE GETS ON BASE – He gets on base a lot. Do I care if it’s a walk or a hit?
Not really. He gets on base more than you’d expect from someone who can’t hit but I wouldn’t call a .302 career OBP “getting on base a lot”.
No but his OBP this Spring was .333 and the Brewers don’t have much else to work with. He outplayed Canha and Margot and both those guys got picked up right away after being cut. He’s not bad for a bench bat and he would have won the Brewers their series against the Mets with a clutch pinch-hit home run if Devin Williams didn’t blow the game.
Separate the starters from the bench players, and .302 OBP looks a lot better. If it was .350, he wouldn’t be a bench player.
He walks a lot which helps is abysmal BA but still doesn’t “get on base” at a reasonable clip. Maybe I am just too harsh, oh well.
I had to go check his on base percentage. .301 career. That’s not great, but it’s not bad. Considering his career average is .200 I guess it’s pretty good. .100 points over average is decent
It’s bad. He ranks #237 out of 280 players with 1500 PAs since he broke in.
@LaFleur As a late inning pinch hitter those walks he draws are huge. Not only do they often get a base runner, they have a pinch hitter who piles up pitch counts on relief pitchers.
I had no clue people were giving up on Bauer like that ? You keep batting him in hopes he figures it out before his prime pasts. Many players, Anthony Rizzo is 1, underperformed for years until finally putting it together past his prospect prime, that can easily be Bauer’s future
Rizzo has provided + WAR every season since his first full season at age 22. Bauers through parts of 5 seasons and age 28 has not once provided + WAR. By the point Bauers is at Rizzo was already a 2 time All Star.
Not saying this as a knock on Bauers, he’s just not of same pedigree as Rizzo. At bestI see Bauers maybe coming across a hitting coach who helps him become a .220-230ish hitter. That with his knack for walks tho could be tolerable for many teams.
Yeah, that .228/.301/.335 (lower OPS than Bauers) slash line of Rizzo sure shows he’s still got it. And he was probably wanting about to sign for about ten times what Bauers got.
@pdx Wow he had a lower OPS… Rizzo was better even in a down year in every other facet of the game.
Rizzo was better at being a washed-up has-been that wants to get paid way more than he’s worth.
Yet he was still more valuable than Bauers last year or any season Bauers has had.
Just shows how overrated and completely useless a fake stat like WAR is.
Aside from Bauers slightly higher OPS he trailed Rizzo in everything statistically.
And at a salary cost that far exceeds the slight increase of those stats. THAT is the problem. If he wanted to sign for the $1.5 million that Bauers got, he would be worth it. At the $10 million or so that he was looking for, he ain’t.
He’s ax superb 1st baseman, and a good outfielder. He has a+100 obp over his average, and stole 13 of 14 attempts, runs well 1st to 3rd. Strikeouts are really an issue, but even with that, he does a lot of little things right, and has had positive impact on the team. He actually hit lefties better than righties. It was a small sample size vs. lefties (33 AB), he isn’t likely too last the season, as pitchers are still ramping up. They’ll need roster spots in a week or two.
I wanted Bauer’s to break out so badly, but…that time will never come.
And to think, if Pete Alonso didn’t exist, Bauers would be remembered as a Postseason Hero in an elimination game.
This could be the beginning of a shift in how baseball organizations approach pitching depth, making the traditional five-man rotation obsolete in favor of a more agile and adaptable structure that relies on smart roster management rather than “set” pitching roles.
Dodgers have already been doing this, working around off days to get people extra rest, phantom ILs, spot starts, bulk guys, etc
@Reynaldo’s
What Milwaukee’s current strategy suggests, as evidenced by their deliberate choice to open with only three true starters and a fluid, multi-inning support cast (Patrick, Thomas, Rodriguez, Alexander), is a proactive redefinition of pitching depth as a dynamic system. This isn’t merely about working around off-days or maximizing rest; it’s a structural shift toward a game-theoretical optimization of pitcher usage, where the roster becomes a modular matrix rather than a fixed hierarchy. The Dodgers’ tactics, while innovative, still anchor to a core rotation as a stabilizing constant; Milwaukee’s setup discards that anchor entirely, betting on adaptability as the stabilizing force instead.
Did you craft this response with ChatGPT? ELI5 how this is any different than what the Dodgers and other teams are already doing with core starters + a stable of bulk inning guys around them.
For years, I’ve wondered if a team will ever move to getting rid of starting pitchers entirely.
I’ve always thought a team could go with basically two six-man staffs. One group pitches one day, the other group pitches the next. And back and forth. None would go more than one time through the lineup, so the most anyone would pitch would be three innings, and most of the time it would be no more than two (three outs, one baserunner per inning). I’ve had people say the pitchers would be overworked, but I have a hard time believing that throwing two innings every other day (never throwing two days in a row) would overwork a pitcher.
It’s injuries, dude. If they hadn’t lost starters Tobias Myers, Aaron Ashby and D.L. Hall to injuries this spring, they’d have a traditional 5-man rotation. Quintana will join the rotation after two outings at Triple A. They also have former ace Brandon Woodruff who’ll join the rotation when he’s healthy. Robert Gasser is another injured starter who could pitch later this season. A pitcher will take the ball for the Brewers in games 4 and 5 this season, guaranteed.
81 games * 3 = 243 IPs per pitcher per year
That’s still too many innings per pitcher.
You would still need some bulk guys.
@Reynaldo’s
The Dodgers use a main group of starters and tweak things around them with extra pitchers. The Brewers are different—they’re starting with just three starters and a bunch of flexible guys, not as a quick fix, but as a whole new way to run their pitching. It’s like they’re betting they don’t need a set rotation at all, just a mix of good arms they can swap around. If it works, it could change how teams think about building their staff.
If Milwaukee had 5 healthy quality starters, they would be using a very traditional rotation, this is out of necessity, not design. If Quintana and Woodruff ramp up healthy, they’ll have a 5 man or 6 man rotation. They plan to bring Ashby back stretched out to starters innings, after the injury rehab, sounds like 6 man is the plan.
81 games times 2 =162. It’s not reasonable to expect a pitcher to throw 243 perfect innings. They would be the runaway Cy Young winner with a 0.00 ERA and a WHIP of 0.000. It’s most likely they would throw two innings (again, six outs, two or three baserunners over the two.) And if one were to throw three innings one day, then it’s likely they wouldn’t throw more than one (or not pitch at all) two days later.
@old. I agree. Feel like it always happened just like jesse Chavez always landed back in Atlanta. The players might be more receptive to being the third in the callup queue instead of changing 5 jerseys in a year. Probably more of handshake deals you get your chance to build your stock and it’s better than going to the kbo and coming back. Quijada problem is he needs more pitches. Otherwise he’s just going to be the first guy cut.
Isn’t this what Stearns has been doing?
I’m drinking the Kool aid so it’s a very sensible approach in my eyes but there’s ~MANY~ people here who comment both “Why don’t the Mets have an ace? So stupid!!” And “I can’t believe how every pitcher gets TJS, what’s happening?”
@piazzaparty. The pitchers market has taken a crap with injuries. It was a joke about the angels and dodgers getting them. Teams now pivoted to the cheaper ways.
Wild that Quintana can’t get an MLB job this year
He is getting a MLB job this year. They’re only sending him to Triple-A to open the season because he signed late into spring training and only pitched 5 innings. He’ll probably be back after like 2-3 starts at Triple-A.
@reynaldo’s. Thought he would’ve brought something back. If saurez was able too. Players probably rather stay in a same city longer than two weeks. Edited thought you were talking abouts quijada
Did you read the article? He’ll be with the team as soon as he’s stretched out.
@cheeseman. I didn’t was talking about the wrong José. I agree with york, and the fringe guys have folded so it’s a newer strategy instead of leaving every two weeks.
LFG
He has a career ERA of 3.74 and his ERA last year was 3.75 so …. How is he not good?
@LFG
I see why you’ve been banned.
His contract in Milwaukee is a major league contract. He signed late so he’s only at AAA to get built up. They can’t keep him there by his contract.
This is a bad team with a cheap owner more interested in pocketing tens of millions in profits than putting a truly competitive team out there. It will be satisfying to see the Brewers finish under .500 but sad for their loyal fans.
Username checks out lol
Playoffs six of the last seven years (and the one year they didn’t make it they finished one game out), but the owner doesn’t try to put out a competitive team. Some people’s kids.
Idiotic comment by Never. They finish first every year in a division with two larger market teams.
People said that last year, too. Then that “bad team” won the division by 10 games. People are focused on Adames and Williams leaving, but they have talent to replace both. Chourio, Contraras, Mitchell, Frelick, Ortiz, Yelich, Hoskins, Turang, and Dunn is a really good starting lineup, and probably the best defense in the NL. Let’s revisit in September, shall we?
There is no way that Collins and Bauers should be on the roster. It should be Black and Martinez that are on it. Martinez makes more contact and his defense is just as good as Bauers. Black can handle first, second, third and corner outfield spots plus you have Frelick too. Black’s defense isn’t as bad as what they make it out to be. Plus Yoho and Yeagar should eventually make it into the bullpen eventually this year. Also think that Henderson and Miz should eventually make it into our starting rotation over Rodriguez. The only benefit is if they are trying to make these guys season shorter so they don’t wear out in September and October their first years.
Feel like when the brewers signs Rhys, black was still developing for 3rd. While I think to this point Rhys was always a waste,I think he comes back quite a bit this year. Blacks development in that time has also changed, he’s painted himself into a corner where now I think the last play is keep his clock from winding this year so if he breaks out you have him as long as possible. If he doesn’t work out at 1st next yr I think he’s done. Without injuries this year though I think they wanna stash black as long as they can wait until Rhys is gone.
Ain’t always about the best possible on the field now. Gotta stash some guys sometimes. Huge black fan, but he’s done this to himself. They planned for more but he’s 1st or bust now.
Gotta agree with you on this. I’m a huge fan too but I was really disappointed in the hustle and his plate appearances. Thought he was being almost too selective at plate needs a little more aggressiveness.
It appears you haven’t watched Black that much. With all the hoopla he came in with last year, he has been a disappointment.
I said in a different thread, I watched Black six times this spring and he looks horrific. No hit and a complete disaster at 1B.
Right now, he is the next Hiura, but at least Hiura had a great one-half season.
And apparently you can’t read. You’re saying the same thing only in different words. Also sucking in spring as a gauge…. lol.
A timetable on Tobias Myers would’ve been nice.