If it Seems Like the Brewers Have Had a Lot of Players Debut, It’s Because They Have

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Photo via Wisconsin Timber Rattlers - Instagram

James Meeker

James Meeker pitching with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

Much of the Milwaukee Brewers’ success in recent years has been built around their tendency to accumulate and utilize depth of talent, but in 2024 they may take it to an unprecedented level.

When James Meeker pitched out of the bullpen in his major league debut on Friday night he was the 41st player to appear in a game in a Brewers uniform this season (not counting pitcher Bradley Blalock, who also spent a few days on the active roster but was not used). That’s a lot, but in the current era that number isn’t terribly unusual: As of Saturday morning, 15 MLB teams had used at least 40 players in a game this season. Most of the leaders in this category, however, were bad teams. The A’s, Marlins and White Sox had used 46, 45 and 45 players, respectively, and were a combined 64-128 on the season.

Where the Brewers are relatively unique, however, is the fact that a lot of the players putting on a Brewers uniform for the first time are also appearing in an MLB game for the first time. Meeker was the seventh player to make his MLB debut as a Brewer this season. After Friday’s games there were eight MLB teams that had at least five players make debuts this season. The Brewers were the only team in that group with a winning record. They’re likely to have an eighth player debut on Tuesday when pitcher Carlos Rodriguez is expected to face the Blue Jays.

The list of players the Brewers have given their first shot this season includes a few that have made significant contributions: Jackson Chourio was the first on Opening Day, Oliver Dunn was a regular in the lineup for much of April and May and Robert Gasser and Tobias Myers have combined to start 12 games while each posting an ERA below league average. It makes sense for bad teams to churn through players and give opportunities to rookies. It’s much more unusual for a contending team to find contributors that way.

In known MLB history there have only been 51 seasons where a team had at least 10 players make an MLB debut and went on to reach the postseason, and even that relatively small list is littered with outliers and special cases:

• The 2020 Marlins, Cardinals, White Sox and Astros are all on this list for an abbreviated season where teams churned through players rapidly during the pandemic and 16 teams were invited to the postseason.
• The 1947 Dodgers are on this list at least in part because that was the first season where black players broke the MLB color barrier.
• The 1903 Pirates played in the first modern World Series in a season where 14 of their 32 players made MLB debuts, but the MLB player population was growing rapidly at this time with the American League’s ascension to MLB status.

Setting those seasons aside, here are some of the most successful teams in MLB history who tried out a lot of rookies:

2015 Yankees

The Yankees set a modern record by having 18 players make their MLB debut for a team that reached the postseason in 2015, a year where they went 87-75 and lost the Wild Card game to the Astros. Fans could be forgiven if they don’t remember this youth movement, however, as most of these players made nominal contributions at best and only two (first baseman Greg Bird and second baseman Rob Refsnyder) played in the postseason game.

2022 Guardians

While the 2015 Yankees had an extra player make an MLB debut, the 2022 Guardians were a more significant youth movement in almost every other way: This Guardians team had 17 players reach the majors for the first time and many of them stuck around in significant roles, including current stars Bo Naylor and Steven Kwan, now-Reds outfielder Will Benson, now-Nationals outfielder Alex Call and outfielder Nolan Jones, who got Rookie of the Year votes with the Rockies last season. This Guardians team was also more successful overall, winning the AL Central and a postseason series.

1913 Philadelphia Athletics

To find a team with more than a dozen debuts that won a World Series, however, you have to go back more than a century. This was the third of three World Series championships in a span of four years for Connie Mack’s A’s, led by future Hall of Famers Eddie Collins, Home Run Baker, Eddie Plank and Charles (until recently more commonly known as “Chief”) Bender. After the 1912 season, however, the Federal League emerged as a major league rival to the American and National Leagues and many players defected to the new league. Only four players from the 1912 A’s left for the new league, but the change in talent pool definitely impacted their depth options: 14 of the 36 players who played for the A’s during the regular season had never appeared in an MLB game before.