On Monday night, the Milwaukee Brewers signed right-hander Jakob Junis to a one-year, 7-million-dollar contract. With the loss of 2021 Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes on Thursday, and Brewers All-Time ERA Leader Brandon Woodruff being out for the entire 2024 season, the usual astounding Milwaukee starting rotation has quickly come to a halt.

The departure of Burnes was a feeling that Brewers faithful unfortunately saw coming at some point this season. Being in a small-market, re-signing someone of Burnes' caliber is very uncommon to see. With 2024 being his last year under contract, the Brewers were looking to deal the right-hander and build towards the future. They did so in a recent trade with the Baltimore Orioles, to where in return landed the No.63 MLB prospect, shortstop Joey Ortiz, as well as Baltimore's No.6 prospect, 25-year-old left-hander DL Hall. It is likely that both players will be seeing time in the majors this season.

A stat to keep in mind when looking at young arms in baseball, is that only two Top-100 prospects have been rewarded with an 80-grade fastball, and they are both in Brewers organization. With newly acquired DL Hall and No.33 prospect Jacob Misiorowski, the starting rotation future is looking bright in Milwaukee.

Bringing it back to Junis, a key metric that stands out in his game is his increase in his velocity. Over the past three years, the 31-year-old has increased both his fastball and sinker velocity by nearly three miles per hour each. While the fastball and sinker velocities are up, the control factor is still problem waiting to be resolved. Due to the questionable control on the faster pitches, it's the slider that highlights Junis' unique pitch mix. The slider has become more prominent over his past two seasons with the Giants. In 2022, Junis threw the slider 50.5% of the time, followed up by the sinker at 31.6%. Last season, the slider usage rose to 62.5%, as the sinker usage dropped to 26.5%.

Turning it over to San Francisco's side of things, the Giants acquired former 2019 first round pick Ethan Small, who will be departing Milwaukee after an underachieving time with the Crew. Small, 26, could never get the transition from AAA to the MLB that the Brewers were hoping for. With only a total of 10.1IP in the majors, the left-hander had an 8.71 ERA and 2.613 WHIP. 

The replacement of Junis should be a sizeable upgrade for the Brewers and push them a step closer to try to stay atop the division in 2024.