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The Milwaukee Brewers have been rotating through fifth starters all year long, as their scheduled off-days in the early going have allowed them to go with only four regular starters for longer stretches of time while still keeping everyone on schedule and occasionally mixing in a spot starter. But the Brewers will need a fifth starter again on this coming Tuesday and for the foreseeable future, as they begin a stretch of 30 games in 31 days starting tonight against Philadelphia. It appears as though prospect Freddy Peralta will get the first crack at things:
Freddy Peralta pitched only three innings last night for the @skysox by design, I’m told. So, pretty clear he’s the call-up on/before Tuesday in Pittsburgh, when the Brewers next need a fifth starter.
— Adam McCalvy (@AdamMcCalvy) June 15, 2018
Also, Brad Miller made his Brewers org. debut. Manned shortstop and went 1x4.
Peralta made his historic big league debut earlier this season, whiffing 13 batters during 5.2 scoreless innings against Colorado on May 13th. The recently-turned 22 year old is ranked as Milwaukee’s 9th-best prospect according to MLB Pipeline and he owns a 2.75 ERA and (a nice) 69 DRA- across 59.0 innings with the AAA Colorado Springs Sky Sox this season. He’s striking out nearly 13 batters per nine innings, but is also issuing an average of 4.12 BB/9. He’s held his minor league competition to a sterling .206 batting average against while dealing with a .331 BABIP, which is no easy feat. In two starts at the MLB level this year Peralta has allowed four hits and four runs in 9.2 innings with eight walks and 18 punchouts.
The club has yet to officially name Peralta as the starter, but after tossing three innings on three days rest last night for the Sky Sox, he is lined up to start on regular rest on Tuesday. It’s unclear at this time how long he’ll remain in that fifth starter role, and other options to make starts for the Brewers in the next month could include Brandon Woodruff, Aaron Wilkerson, or Alec Asher on the 40 man roster, top prospect Corbin Burnes (who isn’t on the 40 man), and eventually Zach Davies, who won’t be ready to return from the disabled list for another couple of weeks.
Statistics courtesy of Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus