Brewers, Dodgers Announce NLCS Rosters

The top two teams from the regular season face off tonight in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series in Milwaukee. The 103-win Brewers, having defeated the Padres in four games in the NLDS, will hand the ball to NL Cy Young front-runner Jacob Misiorowski. The 100-win Dodgers, having similarly dispatched the Braves in four games, will go with lefty Tarik Skubal. 

Los Angeles goes with 13 pitchers this time around, one more than they carried in the NLDS. The new addition is Justin Wrobleski. The 6’1″ lefty tossed a career-best 140 innings with a solid 3.66 ERA, 41.5% ground ball rate, and pristine 5.4% walk rate. He was named an All-Star thanks to his strong first half, though he fell off a bit as the season went on. Wrobleski had a 6.13 ERA from July 21st onward and particularly struggled with the long ball, surrendering 11 home runs in a four-start stretch from July 28th through August 15th. After spending two weeks on the IL for left forearm inflammation, Wrobleski was increasingly used out of the bullpen and seemed to settle in. That will be his role in this series, as Skubal, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, and Tyler Glasnow have the rotation more than covered.

The addition of Wrobleski makes a casualty out of bench player Hyeseong Kim. He was a somewhat surprising inclusion on the NLDS roster, and he ultimately appeared just once in the series as a defensive replacement late in Game 4. That was partly tied to Miguel Rojas not being available off the bench. Rojas made an early exit from Game 3 with a back injury and received a cortisone injection afterward. He remains on the roster for the NLCS and will primarily be used off the bench against left-handed pitching.

Meanwhile, the Brewers’ roster is unchanged from the NLDS. They used Misiorowski, Logan Henderson, Dustin May, and Robert Gasser as starters and will go with the same rotation this time around, with Henderson likely to start in Game 2. Henderson was the only one of the four to last five innings in his start. May only lasted three in Game 3, while Misiorowski and Gasser each went four innings.

The Dodgers had a bit more luck with Skubal and Yamamoto combining for 13 innings, although Snell and Glasnow combined for only 8 1/3 frames between Games 2 and 4. Both teams’ bullpens should be decently rested after three days off, so it will be interesting to see how aggressively they’re used in a seven-game series.

On offense, the Brewers will be looking for more out of second baseman Brice Turang. He went just 2-for-16 with two walks in the NLDS, his only hits being singles in Games 3 and 4. Cooper Pratt and Jackson Chourio weren’t quite as bad, going a combined 7-for-31 in that series. Chourio at least came through in the clutch, delivering a game-tying home run in Game 1, a walk-off single in Game 2, plus a go-ahead RBI single in Game 4. More consistency and clutch from those three will be key to taking down the Dodgers, who swept Milwaukee in four games in last year’s NLCS.

As for the Dodgers’ lineup, the biggest question mark is whether Shohei Ohtani can turn things around. Ohtani’s left knee has bothered him since July and kept him from pitching since then. He also spent time on the IL in September for right biceps inflammation. He went just 2-for-13 with a pair of singles in the NLDS, although he did manage to steal a base, so the hope is that he’s in a better spot health-wise for the rest of the playoffs.

Both team’s full NLCS rosters are provided below.

Brewers

Catchers: William Contreras, Gary Sanchez
Infielders: Jake Bauers, David Hamilton, Joey Ortiz, Cooper Pratt, Brice Turang, Andrew Vaughn
Outfielders: Jackson Chourio, Sal Frelick, Luis Lara, Garrett Mitchell, Christian Yelich
Left-handed pitchers: Aaron Ashby, Shane Drohan, Robert Gasser, DL Hall, Kyle Harrison, JoJo Romero
Right-handed pitchers: Logan Henderson, Dustin May, Trevor Megill, Jacob Misiorowski, Chad Patrick, Antonio Senzatela, Abner Uribe

Dodgers

Catchers: Hunter Feduccia, Will Smith
Infielders: Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, Miguel Rojas
Outfielders: Josue De Paula, Teoscar Hernandez, Andy Pages, Kyle Tucker
Utility players: Tommy Edman, Kiké Hernández
Designated hitter: Shohei Ohtani
Left-handed pitchers: Kris Bubic, Tanner Scott, Tarik Skubal, Blake Snell, Alex Vesia, Justin Wrobleski
Right-handed pitchers: Edwin Diaz, Tyler Glasnow, Edgardo Henriquez, Evan Phillips, Roki Sasaki, Brock Stewart, Yoshinobu Yamamoto