Tuesday, September 22

PHILADELPHIA -- Chris Hook is often the voice of calm on all matters related to Brewers pitching.

Where you may see question marks, he sees a staff in a stronger position than it was heading into the postseason last year.

“Last year, it was Freddy [Peralta] and then ‘we’ll figure it out,’” Milwaukee’s pitching coach said before the Brewers set a franchise record with their 98th victory on Sunday night in Baltimore. “I think we have a little better sense of who it will be this year. And I think our guys have been battle-tested.”

If you think back to last year, the Brewers had Peralta leading the staff and Quinn Priester coming off a regular season in which the team couldn’t seem to lose when Priester was on the mound -- the Brewers won 19 in a row from mid-May until his final start. But what Hook knew better than most going into the playoffs last year was that Priester was hurting. It was diagnosed as a wrist injury at the time, but now we know it as the early signs of thoracic outlet syndrome, which cost Priester the entire 2026 season.

So, the Brewers won Game 1 behind Peralta, then went with a bullpen game to win Game 2, with Jacob Misiorowski delivering three electric innings of relief after slumping to the end of the regular season so badly that he lost his spot in the rotation. They started Priester in Game 3 at Wrigley Field and lost, then lost Game 4 at Wrigley behind a rattled Peralta.

After that, the Brewers had to employ another bullpen game in Game 5, started by Trevor Megill, to clinch the series and move on to the NLCS, where an even bigger challenge awaited with a best-of-seven series (not to mention the loaded Dodgers). 

Anyway, the Brewers were scrambling in the starting-pitching department at the time. This time, they rank second in baseball with a 3.54 ERA overall and, driven by Misiorowski, fifth with a 3.64 starters’ ERA. Misiorowski and Logan Henderson are heading into the postseason strong, Dustin May has a plan, Robert Gasser is on a roll, and Shane Drohan has stepped up since the Brewers shifted him to relief to control his innings.

Hook is feeling better about the team’s choices as October approaches. 

“I think we’re in a good spot,” he said. “We’ve seen consistency. We’ve seen them in tougher games. It’s been a good run for them.”

Misiorowski is in a wholly different spot today than he was last year. He’s got Game 1. Henderson was just coming back from an arm injury at this time last year and was left off the rosters for the NLDS and NLCS because he was only built up to about 30 pitches. Now he’s a lock to start either NLDS Game 2 or 3.

The Brewers’ other NLDS starter, unless something changes, will probably be May. The Brewers gave up two premium prospects to get May and lefty reliever JoJo Romero from the Cardinals at the Trade Deadline with October in mind, and while May has been inconsistent since getting smoked by a comebacker on his first pitch Aug. 26 in New York against the Mets, the Brewers value his postseason experience. That’s one of the reasons May was a top target after they didn’t land Tarik Skubal. 

“I think for experienced guys that have been in that moment, I throw all the regular season away,” Hook said. “That’s a different moment [in October], if you’ve been there before and you’re able to handle it. I think he’ll be fine.”

After a long meeting in manager Pat Murphy’s office on Saturday to discuss pitching plans, the Brewers bumped Henderson to Wednesday in Philadelphia so May could start Tuesday and get two chances to pitch before the end of the regular season. That puts him ahead of Henderson in the order, though that’s all subject to change during the layoff between the end of the regular season and the start of the NLDS six days later. 

While Brewers relievers went through their throwing program on Saturday afternoon, May stood with Hook for a long discussion on the field. 

“I just told him that I think it gets really overlooked when you get a guy midseason and he has to come in and perform,” Hook said. “We’re trying to feel him out. That’s usually what Spring Training is for. That’s why you have six weeks of Spring Training.”

Hook pointed out that it’s not just young pitchers Misiorowski, Henderson, Gasser and Drohan who are beyond their career highs for innings. It’s also May, who, because of past injury issues, is also at a career high with 140 2/3 innings.

For his part, May believes that his poor results are more related to pitch selection than his raw stuff. He’s one of the few pitchers in baseball who wears a PitchCom device to call his own pitches when he chooses to, which perhaps he’ll put into play in his final two starts to see if he can conjure some better results. 

“His work has been great,” Hook said. “I told him, ‘What you’re doing in-between starts and how you look, I’m just looking for positive moments because I know they’re going to come.’ We trust what’s inside him.”

With Triple-A Nashville’s season in the books, the Brewers will keep a group of their players active over the next week at what the club calls its “stay ready” camp in Nashville or Arizona. 

They will be in a pool of players who might not be on the roster for the NLDS, but can be called upon either because the roster configuration changes -- outfielder Brandon Lockridge, for example, could make the roster as a baserunner and defender -- or if any last-minute needs arise. If there is a late injury, for example, teams don’t want to have to call a player in from the golf course. 

Nothing was finalized as of Sunday, but there is a chance that group will include a couple of top prospects from Double-A Biloxi, once that club has completed the Southern League Championship Series (they lost Game 1 on Sunday). Among the players with a chance to join the “stay ready” group are third baseman Andrew Fischer, Milwaukee's No. 5 prospect coming off a 48-homer regular season, and first baseman Blake Burke (No. 12), who on Monday was named Southern League MVP.

The odds of them playing in the postseason are slim. But it would be a nice reward for their remarkable seasons.

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