Adrian Houser

Houser had his best season to date with a career high in innings pitched and a career-low 3.22 ERA. It's a little surprising he excelled. While he was able to maintain a groundball rate close to 60% (59.0 GB% last season), his K-BB% declined for the second straight season (17.3% to 9.3% to 6.8%). His K-BB% was fourth lowest among the 68 pitchers who threw at least 140 innings. Most of his struggles came after Major League Baseball started enforcing the ban on foreign substances; his curveball averaged over 1900 rpm in April and was down around 1750 in July. Houser only posted a 5.5 K/9 in the second with no late signs of a rebound. His success is predicated on the defense behind him getting to the groundballs he generates.

A strong finish to end the 2019 season earned Houser a spot in the Brewers' rotation last season, and he picked up where he left off, giving up just one run over his first two outings. However, things went south from there, as he failed to make it past the five-inning mark in eight of his final nine starts and posted a 6.70 ERA over that span. After averaging over a strikeout per inning in the previous campaign, Houser averaged just 7.1 K/9 last year, and he also had trouble keeping runners off the bases and the ball in the park. The Brewers did not address their rotation over the offseason, so Houser is a good bet to break camp with a starting spot. To hang onto it, he will need to find more zip on his fastball and slider after both dropped off a year ago.

Houser spent all but one day in the minors during the first month of last season, but he was recalled for good in early May, and was surprisingly one of the Brewers' best pitchers during the 2019 campaign, both in relief and as a starter. After two impressive months out of the bullpen Houser joined the rotation in late June. He took some lumps early, but he was stellar over his last 10 starts, posting a 3.02 ERA, 1.03 WHIP and 9.8 K/9 -- numbers that put him in prime position to open next season somewhere in the middle of the Brewers' rotation. Houser brings a mid-90s fastball and a quality curveball to the table, and he kept hitters off balance last season by mixing in a slider and changeup. Houser was once the least-heralded prospect in the deal that sent Josh Hader to the Brewers and Carlos Gomez to the Astros, but if he can repeat his late-season surge, he could really make a name for himself in 2020.

Houser was just one of the many former Astros plucked away to Milwaukee by new(ish) Brewers general manager David Stearns, who worked under Jeff Luhnow in Houston's front office. Despite a 5.25 ERA, Houser had solid peripherals in his first 13 starts of 2016 down at Double-A, thanks to an acceptable 56:22 K:BB over 70.1 innings. Unfortunately his season was ended by Tommy John surgery in July, which will keep him out for most, if not all of 2017. He turns 24 in February, so Houser will have time to get his career back on track. However, this is a very untimely development for Houser, whose performance in the 2015 Arizona Fall League had many believing he could be a part of the Brewers future plans sooner rather than later. His likely future role is a back-of-the-rotation arm or middle reliever, so given the elbow surgery, he can be ignored in almost all dynasty leagues.

The Brewers received Houser as part of the deal that sent Carlos Gomez to the Astros at the trade deadline in July. Houser struggled at Double-A in the Astros system, as hitters tagged him for six home runs in five starts. Things cleared up for him after the trade, as Houser struck out 32 batters in 37 innings for the Brewers and went on to pitch a solid 25.1 innings (3.51 ERA, 19 strikeouts) in the Arizona Fall League. He has a big fastball that reaches into the upper-90s and that gives the Brewers reason to dream on his upside, but he has yet to show the control or command of a secondary pitch that he'll need to succeed as a starter. He'll likely begin 2016 with another tour of Double-A.