Brewers Continue to Find Successful Pitching

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Brandon Woodruff

Brandon Woodruff

The Brewers’ ability to track down pitching help has already faced major tests this season, and their continued success on that front is a big part of the reason they still have a winning record in April.

With Brandon Woodruff, Aaron Civale, Nestor Cortes, Tobias Myers, Aaron Ashby, DL Hall and Robert Gasser all spending some or all of the season’s opening weeks on the injured list, the Brewers have had a lot of question marks on their list of probable starting pitchers already in April. It’s similar to the problem they had last year at this time, when they used nine different starting pitchers in their first 22 games.

Once again in 2025, however, some of the pitchers who have found an opportunity in Milwaukee have taken that chance and run with it. Jose Quintana was a free agent well into spring training this year before landing with the Brewers on a minor league deal in March. Quinn Priester was pitching in AAA for the Red Sox before coming to the Brewers in a relatively rare early season trade. Chad Patrick is pitching in his third professional organization and had never reached the majors before getting the call to join the Brewers this season. Combined they’ve started eight games, pitched 43 innings and allowed just five earned runs. The Brewers have won five of their eight starts.

Quintana, in particular, is having one of the more successful debuts in Brewer’s franchise history. He led off his Milwaukee tenure with seven shutout innings against the Diamondbacks on April 11, then held the Tigers scoreless for five more on Wednesday before finally allowing a run in the sixth inning of that outing. No true starting pitcher (not counting openers) has ever started a Brewers career with back-to-back scoreless outings, a feat Quintana nearly accomplished.

Even one step down the ladder, however, puts Quintana, Priester and Patrick in rare territory. There are only a handful of pitchers in Brewers’ franchise history who have led off their Milwaukee careers with back-to-back starts allowing one run or less. Here are some of the others:

Robert Gasser, 2024

Gasser burst onto the scene with a flourish about a year ago, responding to the Brewers’ dire need for rotation help with six scoreless innings in a win over the Cardinals. He was off to a red-hot start with the Brewers and had a 2.57 ERA across five starts before going down with an elbow injury that has kept him out to this day.

Julio Teheran, 2023

Signed as an in-season free agent to make a spot start for the pitching-depleted Brewers in late May, Teheran was an 11-year veteran who wasted no time showing he still had some gas in the tank: He held the Giants to a single run across five innings in his Brewers debut and stuck in the rotation until going down with an injury at the end of July.

Wade Miley, 2018

When the Brewers signed Miley for the first time as a free agent in February of 2018 he had bounced around between four teams across the prior four seasons and had a 4.89 ERA over that span. He found new life with Milwaukee, however, posting a 2.57 ERA across 16 starts and making the first postseason start of his career. Miley’s Brewers tenure started with six innings of one-run ball against the Reds on May 2, then an abbreviated start on May 8 that he left in the first inning due to injury. He rejoined the team in July and was a big part of the hot streak that pushed the team into the postseason.

Matt Wise, 2004

Wise spent most of his Brewers and MLB career as a reliever, logging 191 of his 209 career appearances out of the bullpen. In his first season with the Brewers, however, he got a few opportunities to start and made the most of them. On May 20 of that season, he held the Expos to a single run across 3 2/3 innings and two weeks later he pitched five shutout innings against the Dodgers. Wise’s destiny was in the bullpen, however, and he made just one more MLB start after those two games.

Ben McDonald, 1996

A former #1 overall pick who struggled with injuries through most of his MLB career, McDonald’s best season was his first in Milwaukee when he made 35 starts with a 3.90 ERA and finished ninth in the American League with 5.4 wins above replacement (as measured by Baseball Reference). McDonald started off that season hot, pitching six shutout innings against the Angels and allowing one run across six more against the Athletics. This, however, was McDonald’s last full season in the majors.

Tom Candiotti, 1983

Before Candiotti became one of baseball’s most famous knuckleballers, he was a more conventional pitching prospect in the Brewers organization. He got the call to the big leagues for the first time in 1983 and logged complete games in each of his first two starts, allowing a single run against the Red Sox on August 17 and shutting out the Angels on the 25th. The rest of his Brewers tenure was largely spent trying to get back to that level, however, and he eventually transitioned to the knuckleball before becoming a full-time big leaguer with Cleveland in 1986.

Earl Stephenson, 1972

A former third round draft pick and longtime journeyman who pitched in eight organizations and for two teams in Mexico, Stephenson made just eight MLB starts in his career but the first two were strong outings as a Brewer as he worked seven shutout innings against the Red Sox in a spot start during a doubleheader on June 25 and held Cleveland to a single unearned run across 7 1/3 innings on June 29. By August of that year Stephenson had returned to the bullpen, however, and at the end of that season Stephenson started a baseball odyssey that would see him go almost five years between MLB appearances.