Analyzing potential rosters for postseason

This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy’s Brewers Beat newsletter. Jesús Cano contributed to this edition. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Will early-season bullpen ace Bryan Hudson return to play a prominent role in the postseason? How will the Brewers use the two veteran starters they picked up along the way into a short series? Will they continue to carry three catchers?

Those are some of the questions in play as Milwaukee inches closer to clinching the National League Central Division while continuing to push the Dodgers and Phillies for one of the league’s top two seeds.

Both races are worth watching closely, since the top two seeds in each league earn byes to the Division Series, and avoid the added uncertainty of a best-of-three Wild Card Series. Last year, the Brewers hosted the D-backs in that round and got swept.

But this is a new season with a lot of new players. And with less than three weeks to go, it’s not too early to start pondering the choices that face general manager Matt Arnold, manager Pat Murphy and the Brewers as October looms.

Since they’re currently positioned as the NL’s No. 3 seed, we’ll start with the presumption that the Brewers will once again go into the postseason in that position. Last year, they carried 11 pitchers and 15 position players into the NL Wild Card Series. But good luck trying to wedge this year’s personnel into that alignment.

With the caveat that much can change between now and the moment rosters are due to MLB on the morning of Game 1, here’s one way it could line up:

PITCHERS (12): Aaron Ashby, DL Hall, Bryan Hudson, Jared Koenig, Trevor Megill, Frankie Montas, Tobias Myers, Joel Payamps, Peralta, Colin Rea, Joe Ross, Devin Williams

Notably left out of this projection are Nick Mears and Bryse Wilson, who are close to returning from injuries and were in fairly prominent bullpen roles before they went down. We’re also leaving out Hoby Milner (because there are so many left-handers), Elvis Peguer (because of his struggles with inherited runners), fellow reliever Enoli Paredes and starter Aaron Civale. And that’s with an extra roster spot dedicated to a pitcher compared to last year.

Only a few roles are locks at this point, starting with Peralta, who would start a Game 1. After that, the Brewers could go any number of ways. Myers has strikeout stuff, has been the surprise of this year’s starting staff and is currently lined up right behind Peralta, for what that’s worth. He would be a credible pick to start a Game 2, despite his lack of experience. Rea and Montas have more experience, but Rea has been shaky lately and Montas has had a volatile year.

In the bullpen, Megill and Williams are a formidable 1-2 punch for the eighth and ninth innings. The seventh has often been a mix of Koenig -- a hard-throwing lefty having a breakout year -- and Payamps, a righty who has been terrific since mid-July.

Then the roles get a little fuzzy. Ashby and Hall have significantly boosted their stock since recent moves to the bullpen, and both make the cut here because they have electric stuff and can cover multiple innings. Hudson makes the cut as well, on the strength of his early-season success -- he had a 0.82 ERA in 29 games by the end of June, and he was being billed as an All-Star Game contender -- despite a recent velocity drop that precipitated a demotion to Triple-A Nashville on Sept. 3. After Hudson pitched for Nashville on Wednesday, Murphy said the early reports from the Sounds were promising.

We’re also including Ross, who has been sensational as a reliever lately -- with one earned run in 18 innings as of Saturday. That kind of production would be hard to leave out.

POSITION PLAYERS (14): Willy Adames, Jake Bauers, Jackson Chourio, Isaac Collins, William Contreras, Sal Frelick, Eric Haase, Rhys Hoskins, Garrett Mitchell, Andruw Monasterio, Joey Ortiz, Blake Perkins, Gary Sánchez, Brice Turang

Barring an injury shaking things up, the position player group is more straightforward this year. Thirteen positions are essentially set, including the catching trio of Contreras, Sánchez and Haase, leaving Tyler Black, Collins and Brewer Hicklen vying for one spot, if it’s a 14-position player alignment, or two spots if the Brewers carry 15 position players like they did in the Wild Card Series last year. All three would provide some speed, but Collins and Hicklen offer more in the way of defensive coverage in the outfield.

Since Collins is on the active roster today, he gets the nod here.