Photo by Stacy Revere - Getty Images
Freddy Peralta
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - MAY 16: Freddy Peralta #51 of the Milwaukee Brewers throws a pitch during a game against the Atlanta Braves at American Family Field on May 16, 2022 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Brewers defeated the Braves 1-0. (Photo by Stacy Revere/Getty Images)
While much work remains to finalize the Brewers’ Opening Day roster, one name has already been added in ink. On Wednesday, before the team had even wrapped up its first spring training day, manager Pat Murphy announced Freddy Peralta as his Opening Day starter.
Peralta, who also started on Opening Day in 2024, was the only Brewers starter to make every turn in the rotation last season and led the team in innings pitched and strikeouts, reaching 200 of the latter for the second consecutive season. He’s one of just four Brewers in franchise history to reach that plateau twice.
Wednesday’s news also puts Peralta in another rare group. He’ll be just the eleventh pitcher to start for the Brewers on consecutive Opening Days. Here are the others, in chronological order:
Jim Colborn, 1973-74
A bold choice to lead the way, the 27-year-old Colborn had started just 19 MLB games in his career and hadn’t even finished the 1972 season in the Brewers’ rotation but his first year as an Opening Day starter would go on to be the best of his career. Colborn pitched 314 1/3 innings in 1973, a mark no Brewer has even approached since, posted a 3.18 ERA and represented the Brewers in his only All Star Game. Colborn was back at the top of the rotation for another 224 innings in 1974.
Jim Slaton, 1975-76
Colborn was replaced in the top spot by another incredible workhorse: While Colborn logged a combined 538 1/3 innings in 1973 and 1974, Jim Slaton nearly matched him with 526 1/3 and a 3.81 ERA. Slaton matched his own franchise record by starting 38 games in 1976, and still stands as the Brewers’ all-time leader in pitching wins (117), losses (121), games started (268) and innings pitched (2025 1/3). He returned to the Opening Day job in 1980, becoming the first Brewer ever to start the first game three times.
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Don Sutton, 1983-84
A future Hall of Famer, Don Sutton had started 574 games in his career by the end of the 1982 season but just seven of them had come as a Brewer after he joined the team in a late August trade that year. Despite being 38 years old and already having logged more than 4000 MLB innings, however, Sutton had plenty in the tank for two full seasons as a Brewer where he would log 64 starts and over 430 innings. Sutton eventually pitched into his mid-40’s and retired with 324 wins, tied for the fifth most among pitchers who have debuted since the end of World War II.
Teddy Higuera, 1986-88
After a breakout season where he finished second in the 1985 American League Rookie of the Year voting, Higuera was a clear choice to get the ball on Opening Day and every available day thereafter for the Brewers for several years. Baseball Reference estimates that he was the most valuable player, pitcher or otherwise, in all of baseball in 1986 when he logged 248 1/3 innings with a 2.79 ERA and was worth 9.4 wins above replacement. Higuera averaged 7.7 WAR for his three seasons atop the Brewers rotation, becoming the first Brewer ever to start on Opening Day three consecutive seasons, before injuries prematurely derailed his career.
Bill Wegman, 1992-93
As was the case with Colborn and Slaton, behind Higuera’s workhorse season in 1987 the Brewers had another workhorse: Bill Wegman pitched 225 innings that year with a 4.24 ERA, meaning almost a third of the Crew’s innings that season came from two pitchers. By the time he got the ball on Opening Day for the first time, however, Wegman had weathered injuries on the field and survived the 1986 natural gas explosion at Brewers spring training. Wegman’s first season as an Opening Day starter was the best of his career, as he posted a 3.20 ERA across 261 2/3 innings for a 1992 team that won 92 games. It was also his last year, however, as a full-time starting pitcher.
Ricky Bones, 1995-96
One of the key pieces in the 1992 trade that sent Gary Sheffield to the Padres, Bones was a dependable starter for the Brewers for several years, was an All Star in 1994 and might have logged 200 innings in three consecutive seasons if a strike hadn’t wiped out the end of that season. Bones’ numbers were tempered by a high-offense era, but his 4.63 ERA across 200 innings in 1995 in his first season as an Opening Day starter was better than the league average. He repeated the honor in 1996 but struggled to repeat that success.
Ben Sheets, 2002-05 and 2007-08
A first-round pick in the 1999 draft, a gold medal winner in the Sydney Olympics and Baseball America’s #5 prospect in all of baseball before the 2001 season, Ben Sheets was a household name for Brewers fans long before making his MLB debut and largely living up to the hype. While the role of a starting pitcher had already started to change by that point, Sheets continued to rack up big innings totals with significant success in early seasons and had already thrown 825 at the MLB level by the end of his age 25 year in 2004. Sheets was a four-time All Star and started the game for the NL in 2008 and retired as the Brewers’ all-time leader in strikeouts (1206).
Yovani Gallardo, 2010-14
Like Sheets, Gallardo was a top prospect (Baseball America’s #17 before the 2007 season) but, perhaps due to the long shadow cast by Sheets and Brewers aces before him, spent much of his career appearing poised to take a next step that never came. Gallardo made 30 or more starts in six consecutive seasons as a Brewer, broke Sheets’ career strikeout record with 1226 and posted a 3.69 ERA during a high offense era but was an All Star just one time.
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Brandon Woodruff, 2020-21
The Brewers had five different one-and-done Opening Day pitchers between Gallardo and Brandon Woodruff, who was an All Star in his first year as a full-time starter in 2019. He earned the honor of his first Opening Day start in 2020. Woodruff was one of the best pitchers in baseball during the abbreviated 2020 season and followed it with an even better full season in 2021, when he was an All Star for the second time and posted a 2.56 ERA across 30 starts. His 3.10 ERA is the best in franchise history among pitchers who have logged at least 500 innings.
Corbin Burnes, 2022-23
A National League Cy Young Award winner who led his league in ERA and strikeouts per nine innings in 2021, Corbin Burnes was the natural choice to get the ball first in 2022 and carried the honor again in 2023. He combined to make 65 starts across his two seasons as an Opening Day starter, posted a 3.16 ERA across those outings and received Cy Young votes both years. He and Teddy Higuera are the only Brewers pitchers to be worth three or more wins above replacement (per Baseball Reference) in three consecutive seasons.
