MILWAUKEE — There’s a certain amount of gamesmanship that comes with what information managers will share ahead of a postseason contest. Case in point: the Brewers will start lefty reliever Aaron Ashby for Monday’s Game 2 of their National League Division Series against the Cubs, but who follows is anybody’s guess,
“Now you want to know who’s pitching and who’s coming in the game after that?” Brewers manager Pat Murphy asked. “Do you want to know who’s substituting in the fifth inning?”
There’s no guarantee of who will follow Ashby, and whether the Brewers will use the plethora of off-days in the series to make it a true bullpen game and save their few available starters for later or follow Ashby with a starter as a “bulk” arm. Right-hander Chad Patrick and left-hander Robert Gasser each offer plenty of length if it’s the former, but if it’s the latter, then Quinn Priester is a distinct possibility. He had an opener in five outings this year, and the Brewers went 4-1 in those games.
That one loss was against the Cubs on May 2. It was his fifth appearance as a Brewer and his worst, allowing a season-high seven runs in 4 1/3 innings to bloat his ERA to 5.79. It was also another chapter in what had been a trying 12 months.
Priester, a 2019 first-round pick and a former top 100 prospect, said he felt pressure to perform whenever the Pirates called him up in July 2023. His tenure was marked with struggles, butting heads about mechanics and trips between the Majors and the Minors.
“I’ve always believed I was fit to pitch in the Major Leagues,” Priester said. “I just needed to figure out how I needed to do that. … I was really tense from all the failure in Pittsburgh. What we were trying wasn’t really working.”
The Pirates opted to trade Priester to the Red Sox ahead of the 2024 Trade Deadline. After failing to make the Red Sox’s Opening Day roster, he was again traded to the Brewers on April 7. Both moves came as a surprise to him, and a rough outing for his third team in about nine months hit hard.
It turned out to be the start he needed.
“The next day, it’s like, ‘Hey, really good things. There are good things we can build on,’” Priester recalled. “I’m like, ‘What are you talking about? I just got my ass kicked.’
“They had confidence in me when maybe mine wasn’t at the highest.”
One of the things to build on was how Priester was handling the struggles. He wanted the ball and to keep pitching that day against the Cubs, and he ended his outing with three scoreless frames.
“That was the change. That the Cubs blistered this guy, and he wanted to continue pitching and his competitive nature came out,” Murphy said. “… I think that failure, if you will, for him launched him into open ears. ‘OK, how do I figure this out?’ And we got the best version of him because of his competitive nature. We got the best version of him going forward, and it’s been miraculous. He’s been sensational for us.”
“Former first-round pick, a lot of intangibles, passes the eye test, is a pro. I think it was a ticking time bomb waiting for a year like this to happen for him,” Sal Frelick said.
The turnaround may have been an explosion, but the buildup was incremental. Priester ditched his four-seam fastball for a cutter when he went to the Red Sox, and he and the Brewers built on the pitch this year. The discussions with coaches were more about pitch execution than mechanics, allowing him to be more free, both physically and mentally.
He also learned the style of ball the Brewers play and the expectations the clubhouse has for each other. Fortunately for Priester, a lot of that is defense- and team-oriented.
“I don’t have the numbers I do if Brice [Turang] and Joey [Ortiz] aren’t making plays up the middle and Jackson [Chourio] isn’t diving and Perk [Blake Perkins] isn’t robbing homers and all this stuff,” Priester said. “I’m not going out there punching 10 a game. I’m getting my ground balls and I’m using the amazing players we have here.
“It hasn’t been because I’ve been incredible. It’s been because we’ve been incredible.”
Time will tell if he will get a chance at redemption against the Cubs in Game 2 or remain in reserve for Game 3 on Wednesday in Chicago, which would be a story itself since Priester grew up in northern Illinois and even attended a 2016 World Series game at Wrigley Field. But at the very least, he’s positioned himself to help the Brewers not only during this playoff run, but in 2026 and beyond.
“All this stuff doesn’t happen without the failures,” Priester said. “All this stuff doesn’t happen without going through those things. I truly believe that sucks, but guess what, that’s the price we’ve gotta pay to have success. I kind of welcome it in smaller doses.”
