Brewers Opening Day Roster Subject to Change

Expand

Photo: Milwaukee Brewers/MLB

Jackson Chourio

Jackson Chourio

The Milwaukee Brewers are down to three days to make their final roster decisions and select the 26 players that will represent the team in New York on Opening Day on Thursday. If history is any indication, however, the players who miss the roster might get a chance to play pretty quickly. A year ago the Brewers set their Opening Day roster on March 30 and kept that group of 26 for exactly one day: Luis Urías strained his hamstring in the season’s first game and was placed on the injured list before the second. By the end of April there were already 35 players who had appeared in at least one game in a Brewers uniform. 

Furthermore, being on the Brewers’ Opening Day roster last season was no guarantee that a player was going to stay in the majors, or even in the organization. Just 13 of the players from last year’s group of 26 are still with the club. Seven of them did not finish the season in Milwaukee and six others have left over the offseason.

Some of this mixing and matching was unavoidable: The Brewers certainly weren’t planning on Urías getting hurt on Opening Day or Brandon Woodruff missing a start in April or Garrett Mitchell suffering a season-ending shoulder injury after just 19 games. In other cases, however, the revolving door seemed like part of the plan. As we noted at the time, the Brewers had already churned through 53 players, the second most in any season in franchise history, by the time of last August’s trade deadline. They added several more at that point and finished with 58 (plus reliever Justin Wilson, who never appeared in a game after getting injured warming up for his debut), second only to 2021’s 61.

Short Stints, Constant Shuffle

The result was, at least in part, a lot of short stints in Milwaukee. Ten position players appeared in at least one game as a Brewer in 2023 but accumulated less than 100 plate appearances, and 16 pitchers appeared in at least one but fewer than 10 games. 

Along the way, however, that near-constant shuffle early in the season did allow the Brewers to find some contributions from players who otherwise might not have gotten an opportunity. Colin Rea didn’t open the season on the MLB roster and Julio Teheran wasn’t even in the organization, but they combined to pitch nearly 200 innings in 2023. Andruw Monasterio had logged parts of nine seasons in the minors across three organizations before making his MLB debut in May, and he ended up eighth on the team in plate appearances.

Of course, as noted above, the composition of this Brewers Opening Day roster is going to be significantly different from last season. In addition to the 13 players who have left the organization since this time last year we also know that Brandon Woodruff isn’t expected to pitch in 2024 after undergoing shoulder surgery last fall, Devin Williams has been shut down with a back issue and Wade Miley is unlikely to be ready for Opening Day after getting a late start in camp. That means at most ten players who were a part of Opening Day last season will break camp with the club this season.

It also looks like a fair number of the newcomers will be experiencing an MLB Opening Day for the first time with any team. On Saturday Brewers manager Pat Murphy told reporters that almost half of the Opening Day roster will be there for the first time. Barring a very sudden turn of events that group will include top prospect Jackson Chourio, who will become the sixth-youngest player ever to appear in a Brewers uniform. 

The players who don’t make the first roster, however, might be well served by staying ready. The Brewers’ roster tendencies mean many of them will likely get an opportunity sooner rather than later.