Brewers By the (Jersey) Numbers '23 - #54 Jake Cousins

So you have your cousins, and then you have your 1st cousins, and then you have your 2nd cousins...

That's not right, is it?

Regardless, as we're 54 days away from Opening Day on Saturday, February 4th, Brewers By the (Jersey) Numbers profiles a right-handed reliever from the University of Pennsylvania...

Jake Cousins.

A 20th-round draft pick in 2017 by the Washington Nationals, Jake Owen Cousins is a 6'4" righty who features a wipeout slider as his out pitch, along with a four-seam fastball, a sinker, and a (seldom-used) changeup. When healthy, Cousins has been a high-strikeout pitcher with control problems. When he's spotting his heater, his slider is explosive and generates a lot of swings and misses. Unfortunately, 2022 was not a season of much health for the now-28-year-old Cousins.

Health is what allowed the Brewers to take a flier on Cousins in the first place. Cousins was often injured as a Nationals prospect, and subsequently released. He signed with an Independent League team, and was effective enough (0.47 ERA in 15 games) over just a couple of months to catch the scouting eyes in Milwaukee. They signed him to a minor-league contract.

Cousins sped through the Brewers' system after signing, performing very well. His numbers in 2019 saw Cousins pitch in 14 games -- seven each between the Arizona Complex League and the Midwest League -- and do better at the higher level. In 2020, Cousins was not invited to the alternate site for the COVID season, but pitched in 15 games in independent ball that summer to continue his development.

After earning himself a big-league camp invite to open 2021, Cousins showed that his 2020 work paid off. He pitched to a 2.41 ERA in 14 games, striking out 30 in just 18.2 innings. He would eventually be called up to the parent club on June 21, 2021, and not look back for the rest of the year. He carried a sub-1.00 ERA into September. Perhaps he tired by the end of the campaign, as he would finish with a 2.70 season ERA.

All that was written out so that this could follow it. Cousins came to big-league camp again in 2022, but with a spot all but secured. Cousins would only pitch in two calendar months for Milwaukee in 2022, however, as he suffered a right elbow effusion and landed on the Injured List on May 1.

Cousins had a long road back to the big-league roster. He had to first get healthy, and then rediscover his control, which had proven by then to be somewhat spotty. He was reinstated from the 60-day IL on August 24, but optioned to Nashville to continue his comeback. Cousins would finally reemerge on the active roster in mid-September.

Perhaps most importantly, Cousins finished the 2022 season healthy (so far as is known publicly) and enters 2023 with more competition in the bullpen, but with an easily discernable path back to Milwaukee.

Contract status: With just over a year of MLB service time, Cousins is still pre-arbitration, and would be under team control through the 2027 season. Cousins can be optioned to the minor leagues in 2023.

2023 Outlook: As mentioned previously, Cousins has the stuff to pitch out of the Brewers bullpen when he's healthy and his control is dialed in. In April of 2022, that control seemed more questionable than it had in 2021, which was a bit concerning. That he ended up injured made sense as a reason for his problems, though. As such, I would expect Cousins to begin 2023 on manager Craig Counsell's pitching staff. Whether he remains will depend entirely on his performance. That's because General Manager Matt Arnold has increased the depth of the group this winter; there will be more arms vying for opportunities should anyone, Cousins or otherwise, falter early in the season.