He may not be on the top prospects list or even on most Milwaukee Brewers fans’ radars but Stephen Kohlscheen may have the chance to make his mark soon.
Signed to a minor league contract as a free agent earlier this year, Kohlscheen spent the entire season with the Double-A Biloxi Shuckers. At 27-years-old, he’s not a young prospect anymore by baseball standards but he does have the type of experience that could give him a leg up if he is able to make it to the Major League.
In fact, he’s already been in the minors for seven years, hopping around the farm systems of the Seattle Mariners and the San Diego Padres before finally landing with the Brewers.
He’s found varying degrees of success in the minors, largely showing earned run averages under 4.00 at every level – outside of a 6.08 over 22 2/3 innings last year with Triple-A El Paso – and a strikeout rate that’s only once dipped under 7.0 per nine innings in his career (also last year, with Double-A San Antonio).
On average, he’s produced a quality line since joining the rookie ball ranks in 2010, compiling a minor-league career 3.17 ERA and 1.31 walks plus hits per inning pitched to go with a 9.8 K/9 rate and 3.2 walks-per-nine.
He has shown consistent struggles in Triple-A (3.94 ERA, 1.27 WHIP) but considering he’s only seen 61 1/3 innings of total work at that level, and never with more than 25 innings for any one team, he’s also had very limited time to adjust.
This may have been what the Brewers saw when they took a chance on the minor-league veteran in March. Since the acquisition, he’s shown it was a chance worth taking.
Outside of posting a very clean 2.54 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP this season, Kohlscheen has largely improved his strikeout numbers, notching 67 in only 49 2/3 innings while giving up 17 walks (12.1 K/9, 3.1 BB/9).
He spent a majority of his time as the team’s closer, a position he relished by posting 23 saves while never giving up more than a pair of runs – an event that occurred only three times – and giving up zero in 39 of his 50 appearances.
The true test, however, will be seeing how he is able to fare in the mountain air of Colorado Springs. He gave up only three home runs this season but he’s also no groundball pitcher, so his future success with the team will largely hinge on whether or not he’s able to keep fly balls and line drives within the walls of Security Service Field.
With any luck, that should be a chance he’ll be getting come the 2017 season.
Jonathan Powell is the Managing Editor of Outside Pitch MLB and the Milwaukee Brewers writer. Follow him on Twitter @jonathannashhh.
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