Inner Half

“To not necessarily strike everybody out, but just get the ball on the ground has simplified the game for me…” – Quinn Priester

At 89-55, the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers hold a commanding 7.5 game lead on the 81-62 Chicago Cubs. The Brewers have leaned on some known names, such as Christian Yelich or William Contreras, but it’s the underdog stories coming from this team that have really taken the league by storm. Who would’ve thought a 33 year old Brewers franchise record would be broken in 2025 by a guy who began the year with the Worcester Red Sox, the Boston Red Sox Triple-A affiliate? Enter Quinn Priester.

Priester currently sits at a 12-2 record with a 3.25 ERA and 1.23 WHIP in 141.1 innings and 26 games (21 starts). He just broke a Brewers’ record, winning his 11th consecutive decision this past Friday in Pittsburgh against the team that drafted him in the 1st round of the 2019 MLB Draft. Where did this guy come from, and what kind of pitcher are we looking at?

Who is this guy?

Priester, the Pirates’ 18th overall draft selection in 2019, debuted for Pittsburgh in the 2023 season. He started 8 games for them, and it wasn’t pretty. He posted a 7.74 ERA, 6.74 FIP and was walking 11.5% of hitters he faced. Granted, he was just 22 years old.

The following year, 2024, saw Priester begin in Triple-A; however, he was called up to Pittsburgh in April. He wasn’t able to make much of his time that season either. Over 10 games (6 starts), he threw 44.2 innings for a 5.04 ERA and 4.82 FIP, while only striking out 15.4% of hitters.

Back in 2023, MLB Pipeline wrote that Priester is “super athletic on the mound and at times has shown he can be a very efficient strike-thrower, something that will only improve with more reps at the upper levels.” After brief stints across two seasons, the Pirates dealt Priester to the Boston Red Sox in July 2024.

Following the trade to the Red Sox, Boston optioned Priester to Triple-A Worcester. He remained there to start the 2025 season until an injury-ridden Milwaukee rotation needed arms, and the Brewers traded for him in April.

Priester wasn’t cheap for Milwaukee by any stretch. The Brewers gave up 2 prospects, 19 year old outfielder Yophery Rodriguez and 22 year old pitcher John Holobetz, and the 33rd overall pick in the 2025 draft, which turned into college pitcher Marcus Phillips. It remains to be seen who will be deemed the winner of this deal in the long term. For now, let’s analyze Priester’s impressive 2025 thus far.

Quinn Priester’s 2025

26 G (21 GS), 12-2 W-L, 141.1 IP, 3.25 ERA, 4.19 FIP, 19.3 K%, 7.8 BB%, 1.08 HR/9, 1.23 WHIP

At 6’3”, 210, Priester’s an intimidating, linebacker-esque figure standing 60 feet away from batters. His Baseball Savant page tells you he throws 5 pitches, although the changeup only appears about 2% of the time, strictly to lefty hitters so that it falls away from them. He primarily throws his sinker (a fastball with “sinking” action), complemented by a slider, cutter and curveball. 

Taken from Baseball Savant

He won’t wow you with his stuff, but his curveball has seen some tremendous results. As seen above, it yielded just a .159 AVG, a .386 SLG, and .233 wOBA. He’s also gotten whiffs 40.7% of the time hitters have swung at his curveball, good for 18th among pitchers who’ve thrown one at least 200 times this season. Despite mediocre stuff, Priester has still managed a positive run value on three of his pitches: his sinker, slider, curve. Positive run values you can think simply as meaning a pitcher has succeeded in run prevention. 

Back to Priester’s main stat line, the first thing I want to bring to your attention is the number of innings. In today’s MLB, 5-6 innings out of a starter is solid. He’s been able to go at least 6 innings eleven times this season outside of a few starts where he just hasn’t had a good outing. It’s worth emphasizing how important an innings-eater can be for a team that has already dealt with pitching injuries earlier in the season and for a team like the Brewers that will rely heavily upon its bullpen as it continues toward the playoffs.

Among pitchers with at least 140 IP, his 3.25 ERA ranks 20th and his 4.19 FIP 40th. If you remember back to my post on evaluating pitchers, FIP focuses on the three outcomes said to be most in a pitcher’s control: strikeouts, walks and home runs. Well, his 19.3 K% ranks 45th of 60 pitchers, his 7.8 BB% is 33rd and his 1.08 home runs allowed per nine (HR/9) is 26th. So how can a pitcher with a strikeout-to-walk ratio (K/BB) of 2.46 (only bettering 13 other pitchers with 140 IP) be having such a great season overall?

One number caught my eye: Priester’s groundball rate. 

His 58.3 GB% ranks 4th in the MLB among pitchers with 140 IP. Pitchers that can keep the ball on the ground tend to have more success at suppressing runs–their number one objective. The more ground balls you produce, the less line drives and fly balls you produce. The less line drives and fly balls you produce, the less hits you produce. Sure enough, Priester is tied for 1st in line drive percentage (LD%) at 15.1% and sits at 7th in fly ball percentage (FB%) at 26.6%!

Priester’s .274 BABIP sits 15 points under the league average .289 BABIP, not suggesting any extreme regression in his future. The Brewers as a team do rank 3rd in Statcast’s fielding run value metric that encompasses many individual metrics into one number; however, we should not undervalue a pitcher’s ability to induce soft contact and create opportunities for talented fielders.

My evaluation

My honest evaluation of Priester, given the numbers and the context, is that it remains to be seen what exactly he is. 

If we take a step back, we see a former first round pick, still just 24, that had yet to put up okay numbers in the big leagues until this season. He happens to be playing for perhaps the best overall team in the MLB, and one of the strongest defensively. Would he see this level of success in another uniform? He hadn’t proved it.

I think we’re seeing a pitcher greatly benefitting from instilled confidence from a coaching staff that has been exceptional in young player development. We have to consider what a fantastic opportunity Priester has gotten there.

At the end of the day, a pitcher either allows runs or he doesn’t. Priester’s done a really good job of preventing runs–he has been a really good pitcher. However, if we want to get into the sustainability of this specific pitcher, I hesitate to commit to any strong labeling of Priester as a guy that can be relied upon for years to come. 

In a league dominated by pitchers leaning on velocity, Priester relies on deception and movement. There’s a reason he racks up ground balls at an elite rate: the way his pitches move. Hitters see a Priester sinker and swing above it, creating a downward launch angle, otherwise known as a grounder. Sliders generally have some down-breaking movement and curveballs fall out of the air, promoting more ground balls. It’s simple, right? That’s where I give Priester huge credit, he realizes that his stuff is not up there with Paul Skenes or Tarik Skubal, and so he plays to his strengths and plays to run prevention however he can get it. In his case, it’s with weakly hit ground balls and reliance on his defense.

It’s worth noting that in his previous years, 2023 and 2024, he had similar rates of batted ball results, but he’s improved his strikeout rate significantly, as well as lowered his hard hit rate. So, is he playing to his true abilities and getting the results he should have been getting all this time or is he benefitting more than other pitchers of other teams and situations? After 2024, he made alterations to his pitch arsenal: he stopped throwing his 4-seam fastball, significantly decreased his changeup usage and significantly increased his cutter usage. It’s unclear how much we can attribute to those changes, but for now, I think it paid off greatly. 

Whether these trends can continue into next season and beyond, only time will tell. What’s known is that Quinn Priester has been a great story for baseball and etched his name in the Milwaukee Brewers’ history books.

Please leave your thoughts below – I’m curious to hear other opinions!