The Milwaukee Brewers have made no secret out of their non-traditional pitching strategies in recent seasons. Club officials often talk about “blurring the lines” between starting and relief roles, referring to their pitchers as “out-getters” who piece together a 27-out puzzle during the course of a ballgame. Those operating procedures figure to be even more prominent in 2021 as teams experience the jump from a disjointed 60-game schedule back to a 162-game regular season, and lead executive David Stearns has already said as much:
“I would be surprised if we have someone who is making your traditional 30-32 starts, we’re not going to say never, but it would take someone feeling really good throughout the entirety of the season.