Quinn Priester Has Been Worth the Cost for the Brewers

Since his blowup outing against the Cubs, Priester has a 2.64 ERA across nine outings (six as a starter) and 47.2 innings. That’s the 12th-best mark in the NL among pitchers with at least 40 IP. He’s also sporting the second-highest ground-ball rate in the NL over that stretch at 57.2%, which has been a key component of his game.

While there’s a couple different factors playing into his impressive turnaround, his drastically improved command has been essential to his success.

Across his first five outings, Priester racked up 16 walks, yielding the highest BB/9 in the NL over that stretch at 6.17. He was also sporting a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 1.06, the second-worst mark in the NL.

Since May 3, though, he’s walked just 10 hitters in over double the innings thrown, giving him a much more respectable BB/9 of 1.89. In fact, that’s the ninth-best mark in the NL since that date.

For an arm like Priester, who isn’t a strikeout pitcher but instead thrives on pitching to soft contact, it’s so important for him to stay within and around the strike zone.

Prior to May 3, Priester had a strike rate of just 59.5%. Since then, he’s bumped that number up to 65.5%. That’s quite a substantial uptick, and the results have followed suit.

A Successful Formula Fueled by a Revamped Pitch Mix

Priester had an incredibly wide arsenal when the Brewers acquired him, but he’s since refined his pitch mix. He’s really minimized the usage of his changeup and curveball and has fully leaned into his sinker-slider combination while mixing in the occasional cutter to keep hitters honest.

Simply put, he’s throwing his best pitches more often, and it’s clear he’s gaining more confidence in those offerings. However, the success of his entire arsenal all stems from his improved sinker.

Establishing the zone with his sinker has been foundational to this turnaround. Not only has he steadily thrown it for more strikes, but hitters are having a more difficult time doing damage against it as well.

The overall whiff rate on his sinker has improved significantly, going from 5.9% in April to 9.8% in May all the way to 16.1% in June. It’s a similar story with his in-zone whiff rate, which went from 4.4% in April to 6.8% in May to 12.5% in June.

Those numbers might not fly off the page, but those types of improvements make a huge difference when combined with all his other developments.

For example, his sinker is generating much more chase, too. His out-of-zone swing rate on the pitch has improved from 11.1% in April to 14.1% in May to a whopping 26.9% in June. What’s more, the overall swing rate on nearly each one of his offerings has improved month over month.

Priester is not only getting hitters to swing more often, but he’s also getting them to chase and whiff at a higher rate in the process. That’s a recipe for success for any pitcher, but it’s especially valuable for Priester.

The improved efficiency with his sinker impacts every other one of his pitches, but it’s been most notable with his slider.

On the year, opponents are hitting just .174 against his slider. That mark has slowly trended downward, coinciding with the enhancements of his fastball.

Moreover, his slider is yielding an opponent slug of .337 and wOBA of .245 to go with expected metrics that are equally as encouraging, if not more in some cases. His slider has become a legitimate weapon that he’s been able to lean upon more than his sinker in some outings, and the two pitches together have been instrumental in Priester finding a rhythm on the mound.

With the evolution of his slider, Priester’s curveball is becoming more of a taste-breaker rather than a heavily relied upon secondary offering. This alteration in pitch usage is a result of Priester’s early development with Milwaukee’s coaching staff, and the results have already been encouraging.

It might not always be smooth sailing with a contact-oriented pitcher, but fans are already getting a glimpse of the arm the Brewers were hoping Priester could be when they brought him to Milwaukee.

Priester’s Impact on the Brewers’ Pitching Staff

Heading into his outing against the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 24, Milwaukee’s bullpen was as taxed as any in baseball. In dire need of a lengthy start, Priester delivered. He went six innings for the first time in a Brewers uniform while striking out a season-high seven hitters while walking just one batter.

His encore performance was even more impressive, but he took a different path to get there.

Following DL Hall as the opener, Priester came in to start the fourth inning and ended up closing out the game for the Crew, going six innings in back-to-back appearances. He did so without walking a single batter, but he also didn’t record a strikeout, either.

Instead, of the 18 outs Priester recorded, 16 came via the ground ball, a testament to his game plan execution against a very good Phillies lineup.

That’s really where Priester started to hit his stride. He then completed six innings in two of his next three starts while allowing just a total of three runs across those 17 innings pitched. After struggling to work deep into games prior to his start against the Pirates, Priester took his efficiency to a totally new level after that.

So many factors of a pitcher’s game play off of one another, and that’s been especially true in Priester’s case.

As Priester’s strike rate has increased, so has the efficiency of his entire pitch mix. As his pitches perform better, he’s able to work deeper into ball games, which has been equally as valuable to the Brewers as his run prevention has been over the past couple of weeks.

After Early Criticism, the Quinn Priester Trade Is Looking To Be Worth the Cost

As was mentioned off the top, this trade was going to have an extra-bright spotlight on it for quite some time, especially in today’s game where fans are so quick to proclaim a winner and loser of any given trade.

But what’s transpired over the past few weeks speaks volumes to Milwaukee’s talent identification, pitching development, and Priester’s dedication and commitment to the organization’s game plan on how to maximize his success at the big-league level.

Priester is far from a finished product, and the Brewers are just starting to tap into his potential. But fans are already starting to see glimpses of the value he can provide as a middle-of-the-rotation arm who can produce grounders with extreme efficiency.

As fans have seen over the years with this team, there’s extreme value in that considering how sound the Brewers are defensively.

There’s no denying that the Brewers had to part ways with some significant assets to acquire him. But it also needs to be acknowledged that Priester has played an essential role in this team’s success over the past couple of weeks, and he deserves the praise for putting together such an impressive turnaround.