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Milwaukee Brewers Bring Back Ace Pitcher For 2025 as Rotation Questions Swirl

The Brewers have ample questions in their starting rotation, but they no longer have one at the top.

Brady Farkas

Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Freddy Peralta (51) pitches in the first inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at American Family Field on Sept 18.
Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Freddy Peralta (51) pitches in the first inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at American Family Field on Sept 18. / Benny Sieu-Imagn Images
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The Milwaukee Brewers exercised their club option on ace right-hander Freddy Peralta on Saturday, locking in one of the biggest keys to their roster for the 2025 season.

Per Jon Heyman of the New York Post:

Brewers will be picking up Freddy Peralta $8M option

The 28-year-old went 11-9 this past season with a 3.68 ERA as the Brewers won the National League Central. Milwaukee ultimately lost to the New York Mets in the wild card round.

Peralta has spent seven years in the big leagues, all with the Brewers, going 53-36 lifetime. He has a 3.79 ERA and features great strikeout stuff. He fanned exactly 200 batters in 173.2 innings for Milwaukee in 2024.

Bringing him back also helps mitigate some of the questions in the Brewers rotation moving forward. Milwaukee declined their team option on left-hander Wade Miley, who is rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. Furthermore, they also placed Colin Rea on waivers in a surprise move on Saturday. Top prospect Robert Gasser will also miss most or all of next season after undergoing his own Tommy John surgery.

Brandon Woodruff, one of the team's aces previously, will be back in the fold in 2025, but after missing the entire 2024 season with injury, there are questions about where he will be at.

In addition to the pitching staff, the Brewers have other questions as well. Superstar shortstop Willy Adames is a free agent and is projected to leave the organization, and Christian Yelich is coming back from surgery that ended his season early.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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