The Brewers may have lost Freddy Peralta in the kind of deal that can leave a rotation scrambling, but the early returns on Brandon Sproat are starting to look a lot more interesting.
Milwaukee brought in Sproat in the blockbuster that sent Peralta to the New York Mets, then added Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan in a separate trade with the Boston Red Sox. That left the Brewers with a young, inexperienced group on the mound.
Instead of sinking under that pressure, the rotation has surged. As of July 2, Milwaukee starters own the lowest ERA in the majors.
Jacob Misiorowski and Kyle Harrison have been the headliners in terms of starts and overall production, but Sproat’s June stood out as the clearest sign that the Brewers may have landed something real. The rookie right-hander followed a rough start to the season - a 4.94 ERA in April and 5.64 in May - by putting together a sharp month: a 3.46 ERA over five starts and 26.0 innings. He paired that with a 0.96 WHIP, a 28.3% strikeout rate, a 7.1% walk rate, and a .198 opposing batting average.
He also made a little franchise history along the way, becoming the only rookie in Brewers history to throw a 10-strikeout game with no walks and one or fewer hits allowed.
Peralta, meanwhile, has been headed the other direction in New York. In June, he posted a 6.39 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, 17.4% strikeout rate, 6.1% walk rate, and a .295 opposing batting average.
That month included a brutal start against the Philadelphia Phillies, when he was charged with 10 earned runs in 2.2 innings, and another against the St. Louis Cardinals in which he allowed six earned runs over six innings.
The struggles carried into July 1, when Peralta gave up five earned runs in four innings against the Toronto Blue Jays. That pushed his season ERA to 4.81.
Sproat, by comparison, has worked his ERA down to 5.28. Through three months of the 2026 season, the gap between them is just 0.47 runs.
There’s also the matter of control. Peralta appears headed toward trade-deadline speculation, while the Brewers have Sproat under team control for the next five seasons after 2026.
More than the numbers, though, June gave Milwaukee a look at what Sproat can be when everything clicks. His ceiling is obvious - six innings of one-hit ball with 10 strikeouts one night, then a five-earned-run outing against the Houston Astros in his last start of May the next. The next challenge is turning that kind of peak into something far more repeatable.
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Ken Rosenthal stepped into that gap by naming four Brewers he believes belong on the All-Star roster: Jacob Misiorowski, Kyle Harrison, William Contreras and Brice Turang. He also flagged Jake Bauers, Jackson Chourio and Trevor Megill as players who could still merit consideration, with Chourios delayed start after a fractured hand serving as one obvious reason his case has been harder to build in the public eye. [Read more 🡒]
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Now Woodford is using the opt-out in that deal, which leaves the Brewers with a choice to make on a pitcher they already know well. If they decide not to add him back to the big league roster, the situation could quickly shift again, and Milwaukee would have to decide whether there is any value in keeping the door open or moving on entirely. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Prospect Just Made A Return Few Fans Saw Coming
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The outing was not spotless, as he allowed a run in his first inning, but the larger story was simply getting him back into professional baseball at all. Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said the journey had been scary and expressed gratitude for seeing him back on the mound, a sentiment that fit the moment more than any box score line could. [Read more 🡒]