Brewers Hint At Decisions With Rotation Crunch Coming

The Milwaukee Brewers are in a great spot right now.

Although the Brewers lost on Monday against the Pittsburgh Pirates, they are still seven games above .500 and just 3 1/2 games behind the Chicago Cubs for the top spot in the division. It's tough to lose any game, obviously, but the Brewers are within striking distance of Chicago and should get even more reinforcements back in the not-so-distant future. For example, Brandon Woodruff is still working his way back and is seemingly close to a return.

When Woodruff ultimately returns, there will be some sort of tough decision that needs to be made. The Brewers are fortunate to have a surplus of solid starting pitching. The rotation right now features Freddy Peralta, Chad Patrick, Quinn Priester, Jose Quintana, and Jacob Misiorowski. That doesn't even include the fact that Tobias Myers and Logan Henderson are both down in the minors right now.

At some point, the Brewers are going to have to make some decision and manager Pat Murphy was specifically asked about Patrick on Monday after he allowed four earned runs across five innings pitched.

"This is his first major league season, how many starts has he made...He's made 16 starts in his rookie season. That's a lot on a guy. It really is," Murphy said. "To answer your questions, we'll have those discussions, but we believe Chad is a major league pitcher."

At some point, the rotation will get tight, but that sounds like a vote of confidence from the Brewers manager.