Brewers Reinstate DL Hall, Option Logan Henderson
The Brewers announced that left-hander DL Hall has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. They opened a 40-man roster spot last week when right-hander Joel Payamps was designated for assignment but are now back to an even 40. Righty Logan Henderson has been optioned to Triple-A Nashville as the corresponding active roster move.
Hall was diagnosed with a lat strain back in February. He was placed on the 60-day IL fairly quickly, getting put there in early March when the club signed Jose Quintana. That indicated the Brewers didn’t expect him to be available until late May but he has managed to get healthy right around that time frame. He started a rehab assignment earlier this month and was able to make four starts as part of that rehab.
The Milwaukee rotation has been in flux all year long. They came into the year knowing that Brandon Woodruff would need some more time to get fully healthy after his 2023 shoulder surgery. In addition to Hall’s injury, they also lost Aaron Civale, Nestor Cortes, Aaron Ashby and Quintana to the IL early on. That has led to pitchers like Henderson, Quinn Priester, Chad Patrick and others getting starts.
But the injury situation has been settling more recently. Civale and Ashby have come off the IL in the past week, though Ashby has joined the bullpen rather than the rotation. Hall is now back as well with Woodruff likely to be reinstated in the next week or two.
As the group gets a bit less snakebit, Henderson has been nudged out despite a strong start to his career. Through four starts, he has a 1.17 earned run average. He’s not going to maintain a 100% strand rate nor his .256 batting average on balls in play, but his 35.8% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate are both strong figures. He has fairly similar strikeout and walk numbers in his minor league work so he should get another rotation opportunity in the future.
For now, it’s possible Hall will get a shot to put a stretch of good outings together, something that he has been hard-pressed to do. The Brewers sent Corbin Burnes to the Orioles in February of 2024 for Joey Ortiz, Hall and a competitive balance round draft pick. The lefty dealt with a knee sprain last year, which limited his workload. He logged 43 big league innings and another 41 in the minors. As mentioned, a lat strain has been the culprit this year.
Though he was once a top prospect, he hasn’t been able to build a sizeable track record thanks to those injuries and the O’s largely using him in relief. He debuted back in 2022 but still has just 76 big league innings under his belt. Assuming Hall is taking a rotation spot, he will slot in next to Civale, Priester, Patrick and Freddy Peralta. If Woodruff is able to return soon, he’ll push someone else out of that group.
A few stars could align for the Brewers to trade some pitching this summer. They are currently 26-28 and 4.5 games back of a playoff spot. Even if they manage to gain some ground there, it wouldn’t be a shock for them to trade some of their veteran arms. Peralta is in the final guaranteed year of his deal, though with an affordable $8MM club option for 2026. Civale, Cortes, Quintana and Woodruff are all impending free agents and making decent money. Quintana and Woodruff have mutual options for 2026 but those are almost never picked up.
Perhaps the Brewers could make some of those pitchers available, especially since they have some strong replacements on hand. In addition to Henderson now being in Nashville, the Brewers have Tobias Myers and Jacob Misiorowski there as well. It may lead to a situation where the club is able to flip a veteran or two, adding talent elsewhere while opening opportunities for younger and more controllable pitchers.
Photo courtesy of Benny Sieu, Imagn Images
Brewers To Select Craig Yoho
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 Promote Logan Henderson
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.
Looking At The Brewers’ Rotation Depth Options
The Brewers have won the National League Central two years in a row and three of the last four. They will be looking to defend that title in 2025 but might face a steeper challenge than in years past. The Cubs have had an aggressive offseason, adding Kyle Tucker, Matthew Boyd, Ryan Pressly, Ryan Brasier and more. The Reds added Brady Singer, Gavin Lux, Austin Hays and will be getting several players back from injury. The Pirates have had a quiet winter but have a rotation loaded with young talent, fronted by Paul Skenes and Jared Jones. The Cardinals planned to do a teardown but ended up standing pat, so they’re going into the year with a very similar roster to the one that finished above .500 last year.
Milwaukee hasn’t done a lot to remake its roster relative to last year. They have added Nestor Cortes and Caleb Durbin but lost Willy Adames, Devin Williams and others. Whether the team is better or worse than last year is debatable.
The rotation wasn’t a strength in 2024. Their starters put up a collective 4.09 earned run average, putting them 17th out of the 30 teams in the league. Their bullpen was one of the best, however. Their relievers had a collective ERA of 3.11, second only to the Guardians, which helped the team cruise to that division title. That was despite Williams being injured for much of the year.
Going into 2025, the rotation looks like it could be in a similar situation overall, though with some personnel changes. Of the seven players that made at least nine starts for the club last year, four of them are gone. Frankie Montas and Joe Ross hit free agency at season’s end, the former by declining a mutual option. Bryse Wilson was outrighted and Colin Rea had a club option turned down, so they also hit the open market as well.
Freddy Peralta, Tobias Myers and Aaron Civale are the three holdovers. Cortes was brought in from the Yankees as part of the Williams trade. In an interview this week with Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, manager Pat Murphy confirmed that those four make up his rotation core to start the season. Brandon Woodruff, who missed 2024 recovering from shoulder surgery, will be in there at some point but probably won’t be ready by Opening Day.
“I would think those four guys are [penciled in],” Murphy said, “and you can put Woody in there, too. But you can’t have him ready to start the season; he probably won’t be. But I think it’s pretty safe to say that those five guys are starters that, when healthy, are going to get opportunities.”
Taking things easy with Woodruff makes sense after his lost season, but that means the club will likely have to reach into its depth. Perhaps that will only be for a short time, but injuries are inevitable over the course of a season. For the long term, the need will be even greater. Civale and Cortes are both slated to be free agents after the upcoming season. Woodruff will certainly join them, as his deal has a $20MM mutual option for 2026 with a $10MM buyout. That was basically designed so that he would re-sign but with the club able to kick most of the payment down the line until the end of 2025. Peralta can be retained for 2026 via an affordable $8MM club option but is slated for free agency after that.
That means Myers is the only guy slated to still be on the roster when November of 2026 rolls around. Even he is not a lock to keep a spot going forward, as his strong 2024 season came after several years of poor minor league numbers. In short, the long-term rotation is wide open. Can the Brewers fill some of that in with guys already in the system? Let’s take a look at some of the options.
Ashby, 27 in May, seemed like a potential rotation building block a few years ago. He tossed 139 innings in a swing role over the 2021 and 2022 seasons. His 4.47 ERA wasn’t especially impressive but his 27.1% strikeout rate, 9.7% walk rate and 57.8% ground ball rate seemed like a solid recipe for success.
The Brewers were intrigued enough to make a bet on the lefty, signing him to a five-year deal during the 2022 campaign which guaranteed him $20.5MM and also came with club options for 2028 and 2029.
Unfortunately, shoulder problems got in the way. Arthroscopic surgery wiped out his 2023 season. He returned last year and was kept mostly in a relief role, but with some good results. Down the stretch, he tossed 19 2/3 innings over 12 appearances with a 1.37 ERA, 36.8% strikeout rate, 3.9% walk rate and 51.1% ground ball rate.
With those numbers, it might be tempting to keep him in a bullpen role, but the club seems interested in stretching him out. Back in November, Murphy said the club still hopes to see what Ashby can do as a starter. He still has one option year and can be sent to the minors if the club would like.
Hall, 26, was a first-round pick of the Orioles in 2017 and went on to be a top 100 prospect. He came to the Brewers as part of the Corbin Burnes trade last offseason. He hasn’t lived up to that prospect hype just yet.
He has pitched in the past three seasons but logged only 76 innings. His 4.74 ERA doesn’t impress but his 25.1% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate and 46.5% ground ball rate make for a decent mixture. A left knee sprain hobbled him last year, limiting him to just 84 frames between the majors and minors. In 2022 and 2023, the Orioles shuttled him between the majors and the minors, as well as moving him between starting to relieving. He tossed 98 innings in 2022 between the majors and minors, then 71 1/3 in 2023. His minor league work has generally featured big strikeout numbers but also plenty of walks.
Hall is still a work in progress but the Brewers probably don’t want to give up on him, given the upside here. Like Ashby, he has one option year remaining, so pitching out of the Triple-A rotation isn’t off the table. He has one year and 74 days of service time, meaning he is currently slated for five years of club control, though a lengthy optional assignment could push that to six. Either way, he’s cheap and controllable for a long time to come.
Gasser, 26 in May, won’t be an option in the short term but is definitely part of the long-term plans. A former top 100 prospect, he debuted with a splash last year by posting a 2.57 ERA in his first five big league starts. Unfortunately, he required Tommy John surgery in June, wiping out the second half of his 2024. He’s now slated to miss most or perhaps all of 2025. He has less than a year of service time at the moment and the Brewers therefore have six years of club control over him.
Misiorowski, 23 in April, is not yet on the 40-man roster but is one of the top pitching prospects in the league. He reached as high as Triple-A last year, though the club eased off his workload by having him pitch shorter stints out of the bullpen to finish the year. Between Double-A and Triple-A, he tossed 97 1/3 innings on the year with a 3.33 ERA. He struck out 30.5% of hitters and got grounders at a 45.8% clip but also gave out walks 14.4% of the time. Though the club eased off the gas, that innings total is still his personal high thus far.
The righty is clearly going to factor into the mix at some point, but there’s clearly still some development going on. 2025 will likely be about reining in the control and getting the workload beyond the 100-inning mark, but it’s entirely possible that he throws some big league innings this year.
Rodríguez, 27 in March, is a wild card at the moment. He spent 2024 in a multi-inning role for the Yakult Swallows in Japan. He logged 45 innings over 32 appearances with a 1.80 ERA, 24% strikeout rate and 6.5% walk rate. Whether the Brewers view him more as a starter or a reliever is unknown.
Rodríguez, 23, made a limited MLB debut last year. He tossed 12 1/3 innings over three starts with a 7.30 ERA. Over the past three years, he has logged 365 2/3 innings on the farm with a 3.49 ERA, 27.4% strikeout rate and 10.4% walk rate. Most prospect evaluators consider him a capable back-end starter but he’s still young and has a couple of options remaining, so he’ll likely be in the Triple-A rotation until circumstances change.
These two were each just added to the 40-man roster in November, to keep them out of the Rule 5 draft. Henderson, 23, is considered more of a legit prospect but he is still a question mark. Elbow surgery limited him to just 13 2/3 innings in 2022. He got that up to 78 2/3 in 2023 and then 81 1/3 last year. His minor league numbers are strong overall, with a 3.11 ERA, 34.1% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate. However, he mostly gets by with a fastball/changeup mix that leads some to predict he’ll end up in the bullpen. Patrick is considered more of a depth/spot starter.
Bruce Zimmermann/Thomas Pannone/Easton McGee
These three signed minor league deals with the club this offseason. They all have a bit of major league experience and give the club some non-roster depth. Zimmermann has a 5.57 ERA in 158 1/3 innings and Pannone a 5.46 ERA in 118 2/3 innings, while McGee hasn’t allowed a run in his 9 2/3 innings.
______________
Though the Woodruff timeline creates some uncertainty, there are plenty of intriguing options here for the short term. But as mentioned, the Brewers will likely see three starters departing at the end of the year and a fourth after 2026. Ideally, guys like Ashby, Hall, Misiorowski and Gasser would step up take those spots, because the club usually doesn’t have a lot of spending power for bringing in free agents. That makes 2025 a key season in Milwaukee, since their future rotation plans are completely in flux.
Brewers Add Logan Henderson, Chad Patrick To 40-Man Roster
The Brewers added right-handers Logan Henderson and Chad Patrick to their 40-man roster in advance of today’s Rule 5 deadline, MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reports (X link). Since Milwaukee has two more open spaces on the 40-man, McCalvy writes that more players could still be protected prior to 5pm CT.
Henderson was a fourth-round pick for the Brewers in the 2021 draft, though an elbow surgery kept him from making his pro debut until over a year after his draft date. After pitching only 13 2/3 innings in 2022, Henderson tossed 78 2/3 frames at A-ball in 2023, then 81 1/3 innings across four different minor league levels this past season. The overall numbers (3.32 ERA, 32.8% strikeout rate, 4.73% walk rate) were very impressive, though Henderson had a 4.56 ERA in 23 2/3 Triple-A innings and ran into some home run trouble.
Henderson’s signature pitch is a plus changeup that is so effective that it allows him to get away with a fastball that has movement but sits in the 88-92mph range. This two-pitch arsenal could mean that Henderson will ultimately end up as a reliever, though obviously the Brewers will first give him plenty of looks to see if he can further develop as a starting pitcher. Since the 22-year-old Henderson has already cracked the Triple-A level and could be close to his Major League debut, it stands to reason that he might’ve gotten a lot of attention from teams in the Rule 5 Draft.
MLB Pipeline ranks Henderson 11th among all Milwaukee prospects, while Baseball America ranks him 21st. Patrick isn’t on either outlet’s top-30 list, though considering his solid amount (158 innings) of Triple-A experience, he also likely would’ve been on rival teams’ R5 radars.
Patrick was also a fourth-round pick in 2021, as the Diamondbacks took the right-hander nine spots before the Brewers selected Henderson. Arizona dealt Patrick to the Athletics for Jace Peterson at the 2023 trade deadline, and the A’s then flipped Patrick to the Brewers almost exactly one year ago in the trade that sent Abraham Toro to Oakland.
After struggling badly in 2023, Patrick found his footing in his new organization, posting a 2.90 ERA, 26.1% strikeout rate, and seven percent walk rate across 136 1/3 innings with Triple-A Nashville. While a .267 BABIP and 79.2% strand rate helped Patrick’s cause, he started 24 of his 26 games and delivered quality bottom-line results, thus earning his first 40-man placement. Since the Brewers frequently churn pitchers up and down from the minors, the 26-year-old Patrick also could get a look for his MLB debut next season.