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Looking Ahead To Club Options: NL Central

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MLBTR continues our division by division look at next year’s team/mutual option class with the NL Central. Virtually all of the mutual options will be bought out by one side. Generally, if the team is willing to retain the player at the option price, the player will decline his end in search of a better free agent deal.

Previous installments: player options/opt-outs, NL West, AL West

Chicago Cubs

  • Shota Imanaga, LHP (team has three-year, $57MM option covering 2026-28; if they decline, Imanaga has $15MM player option for 2026)

Imanaga signed a somewhat complex four-year, $53MM deal when he made the jump from NPB during the 2023-24 offseason. Next winter, the Cubs need to decide whether to trigger a three-year, $57MM option for the 2026-28 seasons. That’d come with respective salaries of $20MM, $20MM and $17MM. If the Cubs decline their end, Imanaga would be able to decline a $15MM player option for ’26 and test free agency.

It’d almost certainly take an injury for that to happen. Concerns about how Imanaga’s stuff might translate against MLB competition proved unfounded. The southpaw finished fifth in NL Cy Young balloting during his first major league season. He turned in a 2.91 earned run average across 173 1/3 innings, striking out a quarter of opponents against a 4% walk rate. The punchouts haven’t been there through this year’s first five starts, but he takes a 2.22 ERA into tonight’s appearance against the Dodgers. He’s getting whiffs on an excellent 14% of his pitches, so he’ll likely finish off a few more strikeouts moving forward. Imanaga’s deal looks like a bargain, and the Cubs should happily sign up for another three seasons at a $19MM average annual value unless he suffers an injury.

  • Colin Rea, RHP ($6MM club option, $750K buyout)

Rea reunited with Craig Counsell in Chicago after the Brewers declined his $5.5MM club option. It actually worked out slightly to his financial benefit. The righty collected a $1MM buyout from Milwaukee and secured a $5MM guarantee with the Cubs. He’s playing this year on a $4.25MM salary and will make at least a $750K buyout on next year’s club option. That’s valued at $6MM, so it’ll be a $5.25MM decision.

The Cubs had Rea work in long relief to begin the season. He has stepped into the rotation since the Justin Steele injury. The 34-year-old righty is out to a strong start, allowing two runs through his first 13 2/3 innings. He has punched out 12 while only allowing one walk in 56 plate appearances. Rea had held a rotation role in Milwaukee for most of last year, posting a 4.29 ERA through a career-high 167 2/3 innings. As a mid-30s swingman with league average whiff rates, he’s never going to break the bank, but the option price is reasonable for a capable #5/6 starter.

Turner’s option is mostly an accounting measure designed to push back $2MM of his $6MM free agent guarantee by a few months. Option buyouts are paid at year’s end, while the money would have been evenly distributed throughout the season had it simply been a $6MM salary. It’s unlikely that the Cubs would want to sign up for a $10MM salary covering Turner’s age-41 campaign even if he repeats his solid 2024 production.

The 17-year big league veteran has posted 11 consecutive above-average offensive seasons since his 2014 breakout with the Dodgers. His power numbers have declined with age, but he put up a strong .354 on-base percentage in 139 games between the Blue Jays and Mariners a year ago. Turner’s start on the North Side hasn’t been good. He’s hitting .147 without an extra-base hit over 14 games. He’s taken six walks against nine strikeouts but will obviously need to make more of a slugging impact.

Cincinnati Reds

Cincinnati took a buy-low flier on Barlow, a former closer who was released by the Guardians shortly before the playoffs. The righty had fallen quickly down the depth chart in Cleveland. He carried a 3.52 ERA with a 32% strikeout rate into the All-Star Break. Barlow allowed a near-6.00 ERA while striking out just 19% of batters faced in the second half. A fastball that typically sat around 93 MPH had dropped to the 90-91 range.

The early tenure in Cincinnati has been mixed. Barlow has gotten his velocity back, averaging 93 on both his four-seam and sinker. He’s getting whiffs on a huge 15.3% of his offerings, nearly two percentage points above last year’s level. The stuff is certainly more encouraging, but the results haven’t followed. He has a pedestrian 9:6 strikeout-to-walk ratio while allowing five runs on eight hits through 9 1/3 innings. He was limited to a $2.5MM guarantee last offseason. He’ll need a more convincing rebound for Cincinnati to retain him on what amounts to a $5.5MM call.

Hays signed for $5MM after being non-tendered by the Phillies. The righty-hitting outfielder has been a capable regular for most of his career, but his production dipped last season while he battled a grueling kidney infection. A Spring Training calf injury delayed his team debut until last week. Hays has been on tear since his return, connecting on three homers while hitting .406 in 34 plate appearances. He has a hit in all seven games, including three straight multi-hit performances against his old teammates in Baltimore over the weekend.

Suter, who grew up in Cincinnati, joined the Reds on a $3MM deal during the 2023-24 offseason. He posted a 3.15 ERA through 65 2/3 innings and signed a $2.25MM extension at the start of last winter. The 35-year-old southpaw is out to a customary start. He has managed 9 2/3 frames of three-run ball despite striking out just four of 38 opponents. Suter’s stuff is never going to jump off the page — he’s sitting in his typical 85-88 MPH range with his fastballs — but he avoids hard contact and is aiming for his seventh straight sub-4.00 ERA showing. Assuming he continues on his usual pace, the Reds should want him back on a $2.75MM decision.

Milwaukee Brewers

Milwaukee made a big investment by their standards in signing Hoskins to a two-year, $34MM contract during the 2023-24 offseason. The longtime Phillies first baseman had missed his walk year after suffering an ACL tear during Spring Training. The Brewers expected Hoskins to recapture his consistently above-average offensive form after a healthy offseason.

That didn’t happen in year one, as he hit a career-worst .214/.303/.419 across 517 plate appearances. Hoskins still managed 26 homers, but the overall offense was essentially league average. It wasn’t attributable to lingering knee discomfort. Hoskins did his best work early in the season, carrying an .813 OPS through the end of May. He hit .203/.285/.395 over the season’s final four months and bypassed an opt-out opportunity.

Hoskins has gotten out to another strong start this year. He’s batting .270 with a trio of homers and what would be a career-low 20% strikeout rate over his first 75 trips to the plate.

Milwaukee signed Peralta to a $20MM extension just before Spring Training 2020. He was mostly unproven at the time, but it only took one more season before he developed into a top-of-the-rotation starter. This quickly became one of the more team-friendly contracts in baseball. The deal included respective $8MM club options for 2025 and ’26, which would have been Peralta’s first two free agent years had he gone through arbitration.

The 28-year-old righty has been the clear staff ace since Milwaukee traded Corbin Burnes. He posted a sub-4.00 ERA in each of the five guaranteed seasons of the contract. Peralta has rattled off another 28 1/3 frames of 1.91 ERA ball through his first five starts this year. Unless he suffers a significant injury that’d threaten his availability for next season, the Brewers are going to rubber-stamp the option.

Quintana signed late on a $4.25MM pillow contract after finding a weaker market than he expected. The net present value was actually just under $4MM, as Quintana agreed to defer the $2MM buyout on his ’26 mutual option. The Brewers aren’t going to exercise their end of the $15MM option for what would be the veteran lefty’s age-37 season. It looks like they got great value on the one-year deal, though, as Quintana is coming off a 3.75 ERA showing for the Mets. The late signing delayed his team debut, but he has fired 12 1/3 innings of one-run ball over his first two starts.

Woodruff underwent shoulder surgery late in the 2023 season. The Brewers re-signed him to a backloaded two-year deal with a $17.5MM guarantee. They knew he’d spend all of ’24 rehabbing. They’ve taken his progression carefully and didn’t push him during Spring Training. Woodruff began a minor league rehab stint on April 12. He has made a pair of rehab starts and could be back with the big league team in the next couple weeks.

Note: William Contreras’ arbitration contract contains a $12MM team option for next season. He’s excluded from this list because he’d remain under arbitration control if Milwaukee declines the option, as they did with Devin Williams last offseason.

Pittsburgh Pirates

  • None

St. Louis Cardinals

  • None

Brewers To Select Craig Yoho

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5:55pm: The Brewers have made it official, announcing Yoho’s selection. In corresponding moves, they optioned right-hander Logan Henderson to open an active roster spot and transferred lefty Nestor Cortes to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot. Cortes landed on the 15-day IL in early April due to a flexor strain in his throwing elbow. His status is unclear but he’s now unable to return until early June at the earliest.

2:20pm: The Brewers are going to select right-hander Craig Yoho, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The righty isn’t yet on Milwaukee’s 40-man roster, so they will have to make a corresponding move.

Yoho, 25, wasn’t really on the radar as of a few years ago but has been turning some heads lately. The Brewers drafted him with an eighth-round pick in 2023 and signed him to a tiny $10K bonus. He had only thrown 37 innings in college, on account of spending some time as a position player and also undergoing two Tommy John surgeries as well as a knee surgery.

Since then, he has been surging through the minor leagues. Last year, he went from High-A to Double-A to Triple-A, tossing 57 2/3 innings with a 0.94 earned run average. He had a massive 42.4% strikeout rate, a passable 9.7% walk rate and strong 54.5% ground ball rate.

Baseball America ranked him the #15 prospect in the system coming into this year, noting that his changeup is easily his best pitch. Both his fastball and changeup have armside run and look similar out of the hand but are separated by about 13-14 miles per hour in terms of velocity, with his fastball in the 91-94 mph range and his changeup 77-81. He also mixes in a curveball on occasion.

Yoho didn’t break camp with the Brewers but has been posting strong numbers in Triple-A so far this year. He hasn’t yet allowed an earned run in 9 2/3 innings, striking out nine opponents while giving out three walks and continuing to get grounders like last year.

Milwaukee will give him a chance to see if the stuff plays against big league hitters. If it works out and he stays in the majors the rest of the way, it’s too late for him to get a full year of major league service time here in 2025.

Photo courtesy of Curt Hogg, Imagn Images.

Brewers Acquire Cesar Espinal To Complete Mark Canha Trade

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The Royals announced Monday that minor league righty Cesar Espinal has been traded to the Brewers. He’s the player to be named later from the swap that sent Mark Canha from Milwaukee to K.C. late in spring training.

Espinal is just 19 years old, but this is already the second time in his career that he’s been traded. He originally signed with the Orioles out of his native Dominican Republic, but Baltimore flipped him to Kansas City in a December 2023 deal that sent right-hander Jonathan Heasley over to the O’s.

The 19-year-old Espinal has spent his entire pro career pitching in the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League. He’s totaled just 73 innings and worked to a 3.95 ERA with 22.7% strikeout rate and 13.7% walk rate. He’s kept the ball on the ground at a 43.8% clip. Espinal wasn’t a high-profile prospect when signing as a 16-year-old in 2022 and hasn’t appeared among the top-30 prospects for either Baltimore or Kansas City to this point.

That sort of return is to be expected, given the nature of the trade. Canha signed as a non-roster invitee with the Brewers and looked like a long shot to make the roster this spring. Milwaukee adding any kind of lottery-ticket arm in exchange for a spring NRI who could’ve opted out of his contract if he didn’t make the roster is a nice bit of business.

Of course, it should be mentioned that the Royals likely don’t have any buyer’s remorse. Canha missed 10 days with an adductor strain but has started out 7-for-18 with a pair of doubles, two walks and three strikeouts in 21 plate appearances with Kansas CIty. It’s a nice start for a typically productive veteran whose offense last year was about league-average and who hasn’t posted a below-average offensive output since establishing himself as a big leaguer back in 2018.

NL Central Notes: Pirates, Cherington, Myers, Steer

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The Pirates have gotten off to a difficult start in 2025. The club is 8-15 overall, leaving them in last place in the NL Central and six games back of the division-leading Cubs. While the club’s pitching staff is right around league average by measure of ERA and top-six by FIP, an offense that has produced a wRC+ of just 70 to this point in the year. Despite those struggles on offense, general manager Ben Cherington told reporters (including Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review) before Friday’s game that external solutions to the lineup are unlikely, though the team is always open to exploring deals.

“It’s April. Most teams are going to rely on the players that are inside the organization,” Cherington said. “We certainly have an eye out and already we have an eye outside the organization. We will keep an eye on things. We keep having conversations, but trades don’t usually happen this soon. We’ve got to rely on the guys that are here….We are going to get healthier. And then over the course of the season if we do what I believe we will do, then they’ll be opportunities to add to it at some point.”

Spencer Horwitz, Nick Gonzales, and Endy Rodriguez are all currently on the injured list, robbing the Bucs of three players expected to operate in starting or regular roles this season. Perhaps their returns will be enough to get Pittsburgh on track, yet the Pirates will also need several of their healthy but struggling regulars to start heating up.

More from around the NL Central…

  • The Brewers’ injury-riddled rotation might be getting some help this week with the return of Tobias Myers, who told MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy that he expects to be activated from the 15-day IL to start Thursday’s game. Myers suffered an oblique strain in mid-March that delayed his 2025 debut, but he came out of his third minor league rehab start Friday feeling in good shape, and ready to get back to the Show. It is a testament to Milwaukee’s pitching depth and development that even the makeshift version of its rotation is still posting good numbers, but obviously the Crew will happily welcome back Myers. A surprise emergence himself during his 2024 rookie season, Myers posted a 3.00 ERA over 138 innings for the Brewers last year.
  • Spencer Steer was the Reds’ starting first baseman today, marking the first time this season that Steer has played a position other than designated hitter.  Steer’s longstanding right shoulder problems have been an issue since last season, and after the injury resurfaced during Spring Training, the decision was made to keep Steer as a DH (and off the injured list) until he could throw without discomfort. Today’s return to the field is a good sign that things are slowly returning to normal for Steer, though the larger issue is his ice-cold start at the plate — Steer had a .111/.186/.204 slash line in 59 plate appearances heading into today’s game.

Brewers To Use Caleb Durbin As Regular Third Baseman

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Caleb Durbin is making his big league debut tonight, as he’s hitting ninth against A’s right-hander J.T. Ginn. The Brewers promoted Durbin from Triple-A Nashville this morning, optioning out Oliver Dunn in the process. Manager Pat Murphy confirmed before the game that the Brewers will use Durbin as their primary third baseman (relayed by Todd Rosiak of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Durbin joined the Brewers alongside Nestor Cortes in the Devin Williams trade. The righty-hitting infielder was coming off a .275/.388/.451 batting line over 90 minor league games during his final season in the Yankees system. New York added him to the 40-man roster rather than risk losing him in the Rule 5 draft. They traded him a couple weeks later.

The 25-year-old hit .259 with a pair of homers and 10 steals over 16 games during Spring Training. Milwaukee optioned him, tabbing Dunn and Vinny Capra to split time at the hot corner. They haven’t produced. Brewers third basemen have hit an MLB-worst .150/.188/.233 with one longball in 67 plate appearances. Dunn had a .205 on-base percentage without a home run in 41 trips to the plate. Capra, who is out of minor league options, has three hits without a walk and 10 strikeouts in 13 games.

Durbin has been out to a much better start in Nashville. He hit .278/.316/.481 with a couple homers over 13 games. He’s not going to provide much power, but he has excellent bat-to-ball skills and plus speed. Durbin stole 31 bases in 35 attempts last year. He joins Joey Ortiz, Brice Turang and Rhys Hoskins on Murphy’s infield. Jake Bauers can spell Hoskins at first base, while Capra is on hand as a utility option.

Brewers Recall Caleb Durbin For MLB Debut

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April 18: Milwaukee has made it official, announcing that Durbin has been recalled from Triple-A Nashville.

April 17: The Brewers are set to recall infield prospect Caleb Durbin tomorrow, reports Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. Milwaukee announced this morning that infielder Oliver Dunn had been optioned to Triple-A Nashville but did not provide a corresponding move. Durbin, whom the Brewers acquired in the trade sending Devin Williams to the Yankees, is already on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding move will not be necessary. He’ll make his MLB debut the first time he’s in the lineup (presumably tomorrow).

A 14th-round pick by the Braves in 2021, Durbin has already been traded twice in his career. He went from Atlanta to New York in exchange for lefty Lucas Luetge, and the Yankees coupled him up with Nestor Cortes in a trade bringing Williams to the Bronx this past offseason. He’ll now get the first big league opportunity of his career with his third organization.

The 25-year-old Durbin has hit at every stop in his minor league career. Listed at a stocky 5’7″ and 183 pounds, he has below-average power but plus contact skills and plus speed. The righty-swinging speedster is out to a .278/.316/.481 start in Nashville, where he’s already tallied a pair of homers, five doubles and three steals in 58 plate appearances. His premium contact ability has been on full display; Durbin has fanned only five times in those 58 plate appearances (8.6%). He’s walked more than he’s fanned (or posted identical walk and strikeout totals) and tallied at least 31 steals in every full season of his professional career thus far.

Second base has been Durbin’s primary position in pro ball, but he has 733 career innings at third base, which has been his most frequent position this season in Nashville. He’s also played 370 innings at shortstop and has a handful of appearances both in center field and in left field. He’s likely to slot in as a regular or semi-regular at third base in the short term, but depending on future acquisitions or player development success stories, Durbin has the skill set to be a versatile and valuable utility option.

Enough of the season has elapsed that Durbin can’t earn a full year of major league service time in 2025. If he’s in the majors to stay, he’d be controllable all the way through 2031. He’d finish out the current season with 150 days of service, putting him on pace for Super Two status and four trips through arbitration rather than the standard three (the first of which would come following the 2027 season).

Dunn, 27, is a quality defensive player but hasn’t provided value at the plate in parts of two MLB seasons with Milwaukee. He’s a .206/.260/.291 hitter in 145 big league plate appearances, including just a .167/.205/.222 output in 41 plate appearances this season. Dunn and journeyman Vinny Capra have handled all of the Brewers’ reps at third base this season, though the latter has struggled even more than Dunn (and is out of minor league options, meaning he couldn’t be sent down without being designated for assignment and clearing waivers). Brewers third basemen are batting a combined .150/.188/.233 on the season, placing them 29th in batting average, last in on-base percentage, 25th in slugging percentage and 29th in wRC+ (18).

Brewers Promote Logan Henderson

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The Brewers announced Tuesday that righty Logan Henderson has been recalled from Triple-A Nashville. Fellow right-hander Elvin Rodriguez was optioned to Nashville in his place.

Whenever Henderson takes the mound for Milwaukee, he’ll be making his MLB debut. The 23-year-old was their fourth-round pick back in 2021, and while he’s never cracked into the very top echelon of leaguewide prospects, he’s consistently ranked among the Brewers’ top 20 or so prospects. He currently sits No. 20 in their system at Baseball America and No. 12 at MLB.com.

Henderson, 23, opened the season with a clunker in Nashville (four innings, five runs on six hits and three walks) but has bounced back with 10 straight shutout frames. He’s punched out eight hitters in each of his three starts this year and is now sitting on a 3.21 ERA with a gargantuan 40.7% strikeout rate but also a sky-high 16.9% walk rate. Command hasn’t been an issue in the past, however; Henderson has walked only 7.7% of his opponents since being drafted in ’21. Last year, he made 19 starts across three levels and turned in a 3.32 ERA, 32.8% strikeout rate and 4.7% walk rate. His changeup, in particular, draws praise as a potential plus offering in the big leagues.

Though Henderson has been a starter in the minors, it seems he’ll be tasked with providing some length in the bullpen for now. Righty Quinn Priester is set to start for the Brewers today, and veteran Jose Quintana is slated to be on the bump tomorrow. The Brewers then have an off-day Thursday before a weekend slate against the visiting A’s. Unless there’s an injury the team hasn’t revealed at this time, Henderson will provide a long relief option in place of the optioned-out Rodriguez, who tossed five innings of one-run ball yesterday in mop-up duty when the Tigers trounced lefty Tyler Alexander for eight runs.

Even if he’s not in the rotation right now, Henderson is a clear candidate to join Milwaukee’s rotation at some point this year. The Brew Crew currently has Brandon Woodruff, Aaron Civale, Nestor Cortes, Tobias Myers, Aaron Ashby, Robert Gasser and DL Hall on the injured list. The rotation presently includes Peralta, Quintana, Priester, Alexander and 26-year-old rookie Chad Patrick. If Henderson shows well, he’ll be in line to potentially secure a long-term rotation spot. Each of Woodruff, Civale, Quintana, Cortes and Alexander is a free agent at season’s end, so there’s ample long-term opportunity for a promising young righty like Henderson.

Trevor Megill Undergoes MRI On Knee, Seeking Second Opinion

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The start of the 2025 campaign has been a bit of a mixed bag for Brewers right-hander Trevor Megill. The righty seemed like the natural successor to Devin Williams in the ninth inning after Milwaukee’s star closer was traded to the Yankees over the offseason, but a difficult spring appears to have carried over into the regular season. While Megill has struck out 36.4% of his opponents this year, that’s been paired with an 18.2% walk rate and a 5.79 ERA across six appearances.

That’s just 4 2/3 innings of work, a sample small enough for any reliever to run cold and have it be nothing more notable than that. That hasn’t stopped the Brewers and Megill from seeking answers, however. MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy noted last night that Megill has been pitching through a knee issue that proved to be bothersome enough that the club sent him for an MRI. The initial results came back clean, but McCalvy later added this morning that Megill told reporters this morning that he’s seeking a second opinion on his knee after the first look at his recent imaging showed “nothing alarming.”

That’s certainly encouraging news, although the fact that Megill is experiencing enough discomfort that he’s seeking a second opinion is at least somewhat worrying. The righty was down for six days earlier this month before pitching in back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday, after which he opted to seek a second opinion. Until that updated review of Megill’s imaging results comes in, it’s hard to say whether or not an IL stint is in the right-hander’s future. At the very least, it seems likely the Brewers will hold him out of games until those results come back and confirm that he’s healthy enough to pitch. Losing the right-hander for any amount of time would be a significant blow to the bullpen. Since joining the Brewers in 2023, Megill has been nothing short of fantastic with a 3.11 ERA and 2.69 FIP, including a 2.72 ERA in 48 appearances last year.

Those impressive numbers surely helped contribute to the club’s willingness to part ways with Williams this winter rather than hold onto him in his final year before free agency the way they kept shortstop Willy Adames in the fold last year due to his importance to the club’s ability to contend. No internal replacement can reasonably be expected to replace the production of Williams, who is on the shortlist for the very best relievers in all of baseball. Even so, his departure for the Bronx over the offseason makes Megill all the more important for the Brewers in a season where the NL Central figures to be far more competitive than it was last season, when Milwaukee cruised to a division crown with a ten-game lead over the second-place Cubs and Cardinals in the standings.

If Megill were to require a trip to the injured list, the Brewers do have some internal options they could lean on in the late innings. Righty Abner Uribe as well as lefties Bryan Hudson and Jared Koenig have all looked excellent to this point in the season and have past success with the Brewers in leverage situations and any of them could reasonably called upon in the ninth inning if Megill does require a trip to the shelf to address his ailing knee at some point. Elvis Peguero is the only reliever on the 40-man roster who’s available in the minors to be called up should a roster move be necessary, though Deivi Garcia and Vinny Nittoli are among the non-roster players with big league experience the club could turn to if they so desire.

Brandon Woodruff To Begin Rehab Stint; Aaron Civale Suffers Setback

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The Brewers provided mixed injury news on their rotation. Brandon Woodruff will begin a rehab assignment at Triple-A Nashville tomorrow, according to an announcement from the Sounds. In less encouraging news, the team informed reporters (including MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy) that Aaron Civale is headed for further evaluation after a setback in his recovery from a left hamstring strain.

It’ll be Woodruff’s first regular season game action since September 2023. The two-time All-Star underwent surgery to fix a capsule tear in his shoulder during the ’23 postseason. Milwaukee declined to tender him an arbitration contract before bringing him back on a backloaded two-year deal. Woodruff made $2.5MM while rehabbing last season and is playing on a $5MM salary this year. He’ll collect a $10MM buyout on a $20MM mutual option and return to the open market next offseason.

The Brewers knew at the time that Woodruff would not be able to pitch in 2024. They took things slowly this spring, announcing before camp opened that he’d begin the season on the injured list. Woodruff only tossed one MLB inning during exhibition play. He has continued throwing and will take on a decent workload in his first appearance. Curt Hogg of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel relays that Woodruff will work around 65 pitches and/or four innings tomorrow. He’ll presumably need a few turns through the Triple-A rotation before the Brewers are comfortable reinstalling him into the MLB staff.

Milwaukee has needed to stitch the rotation together behind Freddy Peralta. They acquired Quinn Priester from the Red Sox and recalled Spring Training signee Jose Quintana for his team debut tonight. Rookie Chad Patrick has been pressed into rotation work. He has managed 11 innings of three-run ball across his first three big league appearances, albeit with an unexciting 10:7 strikeout-to-walk ratio. It’s a similar story for swingman Tyler Alexander, who has surrendered four runs with 12 punchouts and seven walks over 12 2/3 frames.

Woodruff brings far greater upside than anyone else in the rotation aside from perhaps Peralta. He owns a 3.10 ERA with a near-29% strikeout rate across 680 1/3 career innings. It remains to be seen whether he can regain that effectiveness after a major shoulder procedure and 18-month layoff.

Civale opened the season in the rotation, but he landed on the IL after his first start. Nestor Cortes subsequently suffered a flexor strain that sent him to the injured list. Woodruff, Tobias Myers (who is on a rehab stint), DL Hall, Aaron Ashby and Robert Gasser had all begun the season on the shelf. While details on the setback are sparse, it doesn’t seem Civale is on the verge of a return. He is playing on an $8MM salary and will reach free agency next offseason.

Brewers Recall Jose Quintana For Team Debut

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The Brewers announced that they’ve recalled Jose Quintana from their complex league affiliate. He’ll get the ball tonight opposite Eduardo Rodriguez in Arizona. Milwaukee optioned Elvis Peguero to Triple-A Nashville in a corresponding move.

Quintana will be making his season and team debut. The veteran lefty lingered in free agency into Spring Training. He signed a $4.25MM free agent deal in early March. Quintana managed five innings over two appearances before camp came to a close. He allowed two runs with two strikeouts and a walk. He stayed back at the complex for the first couple weeks of the regular season to continue building into game shape.

The 36-year-old southpaw is coming off a strong season with the Mets. Quintana worked to a 3.75 ERA despite a subpar 18.8% strikeout rate across 170 1/3 regular season innings. He fired six scoreless innings against Milwaukee in the decisive Game 3 of the Wild Card Series. Quintana followed up with another five scoreless frames against the Phillies in the Division Series before the Dodgers tagged him for five runs over 3 1/3 frames in his lone NLCS start.

Milwaukee opened the season with Brandon Woodruff, Tobias Myers, Aaron Ashby and DL Hall on the injured list. They’ve lost Aaron Civale and Nestor Cortes to the IL since Opening Day. That contributed to their early-season trade to land Quinn Priester from the Red Sox. The young righty went five innings of one-run ball against Colorado in his team debut yesterday. Priester and Quintana join swingman Tyler Alexander and rookie Chad Patrick as part of a patchwork rotation behind staff ace Freddy Peralta.

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