By regular season numbers alone, Jorge Lopez did not have a favorable 2016 — at least until now.
If it wasn’t enough that he started the season pitching in one of the toughest ballparks in the minors, he also had a full load of expectations riding on his shoulders. He entered the year a midrange top 100 prospect and the Milwaukee Brewers No. 14 prospect overall, with only a handful of other pitchers in the system ahead of him.
But by the middle of July, Lopez had been roughed up so badly that his 6.81 earned run average and 1.966 walks plus hits per inning earned him a demotion back down to Double-A. What’s worse, is that he had given up nearly as many walks (55) as he’d logged strikeouts (66), and given up 12 home runs – one short of his career high over a full season — in only 79 1/3 innings. Within a couple of weeks, there were two more top prospects ahead of him, acquired at the non-waiver trade deadline.
His first four starts back in Double-A didn’t seem to look much better, as he gave up 13 earned runs in only 20 innings, good for a 5.85 ERA, and he pitched no deeper than five innings in each start.
But whatever clicked for Lopez starting Aug. 20 turned what was initially the worst season of his career in nearly every way, into one of the strongest stretches of work he’s put together since joining the minor league ranks back in 2011. In his last four starts with the Biloxi Shuckers, he pitched to a 2.49 ERA, striking out 24 batters and walking only five in 2 1/3 innings.
And the progress didn’t stop there. Since being assigned to the Indios de Mayaguez of the Liga de Beisbol Profesional Roberto Clemente (Puerto Rican Winter League), Lopez has been on one of the best tears of his career. Over seven starts, he collected a 0.98 ERA and 0.72 WHIP with 25 strikeouts and eight walks in 27 2/3 innings. In that span, he’s given up a grand total of 12 hits, three runs (all earned) and no home runs. Even more impressive, is that in his last nine innings, he’s struck out 10, given up five hits and walked none.
The performance ranked him second in the league by one point in both ERA and WHIP behind Adalberto Flores (0.97) and Andres Santiago (0.71), respectively.
As a current member of the 40-man roster, Lopez will already be joining the team for Spring Training. Considering he will be competing against a sizable number of other, more tenured and experienced starters, his chances of breaking camp with the team will be slim. However, general manager David Stearns has been vocal about continuing to deal players from an area of strength in the off-season, which is currently starting pitching.
Chase Anderson, Zach Davies, Matt Garza, Junior Guerra, Tommy Milone, Jimmy Nelson and Wily Peralta are all worthy of consideration for the starting rotation and others like Brent Suter and Taylor Jungmann still remain fringe options, despite their current designation as relievers. The Brewers have already been fielding interest in Guerra, Garza has only one guaranteed year left on his contract, and Peralta is currently in his second year of arbitration, making them all possible options to move before things kick off in March – any of which could make way for Lopez’s possible return.
Jonathan Powell is the Managing Editor of Outside Pitch MLB and the Milwaukee Brewers writer. Follow him on Twitter @jonathannashhh.
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