The Chicago Cubs have made one noticeable adjustment to their NLDS roster against the Milwaukee Brewers as manager Craig Counsell has replaced veteran left-handed reliever Taylor Rogers with second-year pitcher Ben Brown.
Rogers, who the Cubs acquired at the trade deadline from the Pittsburgh Pirates, pitched one scoreless inning in the Wild Card series against the San Diego Padres. The lefty ended the regular season with an overall 3.38 ERA in 50.2 innings, but had a handful of bad appearances with the Cubs. Rogers pitched in 17 games for the Cubs in the final two months of the regular season and recorded a 5.09 ERA in 17.2 innings.
As for Brown, the 26-year-old had a mixed 2025 season. He began the year as the team's No. 5 starter, had mixed results in April and then suffered some awful outings that led to his eventual demotion to Triple-A. Brown was never able to fully recapture the trust from Counsell to stay in the rotation and ended the season with a 5.92 ERA, striking out 121 batters in 106.1 innings.
However, Brown has pitched incredibly well against the Brewers in his short career and that includes two good starts against Milwaukee this year. In 11 combined innings, Brown gave up a total of two runs on 10 hits, while striking out nine and walking two.
Overall against the Brewers, Brown has a 1.00 ERA in 18 innings with 19 strikeouts and four walks.
Counsell also added the following on Brown's addition.
Via Sahadev Sharma.
Counsell said back end guys may not get used much anyway, but the idea was if they need a strike out, Brown would be a better option.
Here's a breakdown of Milwaukee's mediocre numbers against fastballs that we know Brown features and has used in his success against Brewers' hitters.
Matthew Boyd is starting Game 1 for the Cubs. The rest of the roster remains the same from the Wild Card series.
After exhausting the bullpen against the Padres the Cubs may be getting a break with the NLDS schedule. The first three games will be Saturday, Monday and Wednesday, giving Counsell a day off between each game to rest his top relievers.
