Quinn Priester’s Electric MLB Debut: 5 Jaw-Dropping Stats Pirates Fans Need to See

Quinn Priester is rapidly transforming from promising prospect to cornerstone of the Milwaukee Brewers’ 2025 rotation, and Tuesday night’s 10-strikeout gem against the defending-champion Dodgers put the rest of MLB on notice. Working 5⅓ scoreless innings, the 24-year-old silenced a lineup that features Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman, fanning all three former MVPs in a statement first inning. Why the sudden breakout? Credit a brand-new 93 mph cutter. Milwaukee’s pitching lab asked Priester to junk his below-average four-seam fastball and replace it with a shorter, glove-side dart. The tweak gives him two hard offerings that now separate by more than 15 inches of horizontal break, forcing hitters to defend both edges of the plate and super-charging his trademark sinker. Since introducing the pitch on May 20, Priester owns a 2.21 ERA, 0.97 WHIP and a strikeout rate that has jumped five percentage points to 20.4 %. The results show up in the win column as well: the right-hander is 10-2 and hasn’t taken a loss since May 13. Milwaukee is 11-1 in his last 12 turns, a surge that has vaulted the club past Chicago in the NL Central and into the conversation for the league’s best rotation ERA. Digging deeper, Stuff+ grades from Baseball Savant reveal the hidden value of subtraction; Priester’s overall score has jumped from 91 to 98 after eliminating the four-seamer, even though the cutter itself grades at a modest 85. More importantly, hitters are slugging just .212 off the new pitch after torching his old heater at a .667 clip over the previous two seasons. What’s next? The schedule doesn’t get easier—upcoming road starts at Atlanta and San Diego will offer fresh tests—but Priester’s revamped arsenal is built for sustainability. If he keeps spotting the cutter above the hands and burying the sinker at the knees, the Brewers may have found their long-term No. 2 behind Freddy Peralta, and Priester could force his way into early Cy Young chatter as Milwaukee chases its first pennant since 1982.