Pat Murphy's Bullpen Management Needs More Direction

[Jack Stern]

Pat Murphy's use of relievers has lacked necessary guiding principles, an issue that reared its head when the Brewers blew a save on Friday night. His bullpen management must become more coordinated to avoid adverse long-term effects.

Image courtesy of © Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Pat Murphy talked in spring training about the value of flexible bullpen usage. With the starting rotation likely to cover fewer innings and Devin Williams hitting the shelf with stress fractures in his back, relievers needed to be ready to pitch in various situations to help the Brewers string together 27 outs each night.

Murphy has delivered on his promise of an all-hands-on-deck approach through the first three weeks of the season, but his usage tendencies for specific relievers have been loose to a fault. There is a difference between flexibility and a chaotic lack of direction, and Murphy’s bullpen management veers toward the latter.

In fairness to Murphy, he has been dealt an unfavorable hand. Short starts and injuries to Williams, Trevor Megill, Taylor Clarke, Wade Miley, and Jakob Junis have compromised the staff and forced relievers to absorb a heavy workload early in the season.

How Murphy distributes that workload, however, could be improved, and it starts with developing some ground rules for usage.

The Brewers have leaned on creative and aggressive bullpen usage in the past, but that approach still came with a few stipulations designed to maximize the group’s output over a 162-game season. High-leverage arms rarely pitched when the team was losing unless they needed work. Concentrated workloads were limited, particularly early in the season. As part of the Johnny Wholestaff approach, less-proven pitchers needed to cover innings.

Those guard rails were absent throughout the past several days. It started on Tuesday night when Joel Payamps, Abner Uribe, Elvis Peguero, and Hoby Milner all pitched with the Brewers down a handful of runs. Payamps, Uribe, and Peguero returned the following afternoon as part of a bullpen game, and Milner was warming up at one point.

That level of usage is pushing it this early in the season. Uribe threw 31 pitches on Tuesday and 14 more on Wednesday. Milner entered Wednesday having thrown 64 pitches in the previous four days and nearly threw more.

Murphy used high-leverage arms in a low-leverage game to preserve long reliever Bryse Wilson as his starter for Wednesday’s bullpen game. Tobias Myers, whom the Brewers promoted to provide length in that game, did not pitch. The club demoted him the following day.

On Friday, Murphy tried to alleviate the recent strain on his bullpen by asking Trevor Megill to convert a two-inning save in his return from the injured list. Megill’s 11-pitch eighth inning and the state of the other relievers made this a reasonable decision, but Murphy abruptly changed course once Megill issued a two-out walk. Joel Payamps started throwing, and Murphy brought him into the game after Megill allowed a base hit to Alec Burleson two pitches later.

Payamps’ first eight pitches demonstrated that he wasn’t ready to go. He hit Ivan Herrera with a slider to load the bases and issued a game-tying walk to Brendan Donovan before inducing a Paul Goldschmidt groundout to end the threat.

Murphy’s lack of commitment to either reliever in the inning created a messy situation. For Payamps to be ready at the first sign of trouble, he needed to be warming up at the start of the inning. While warmup pitches lack the intensity of in-game ones, they’re still part of a reliever’s workload.

There were two plausible directions for the ninth inning: ride or die with Megill or let Payamps start a clean inning. Instead of choosing a direction, Murphy played it in the middle. He revealed after the game that Megill was on a 30-pitch limit; if that was the case, giving the ninth to Payamps was probably the best route.

Murphy was unnecessarily aggressive with his bullpen usage yet again on Saturday, calling on Uribe for 30 pitches in a multi-inning outing with the Brewers leading by six runs. That brought Uribe’s pitch count to 88 in seven days.

The awkward workload delegation stems partially from the rotation averaging an MLB-worst 4 ⅔ innings per start, but Murphy’s hesitancy to trust his lesser relievers is also a catalyst.

Myers, who has pitched as a starter in Nashville, was on hand Wednesday to fortify the staff with length. Instead, his presence rendered the group shorthanded for two days when Murphy preferred Wilson as his starter and avoided using Myers. It helped the Brewers in the short term, as the high-leverage unit combined to shut out the Padres. However, similar decisions in future games will negatively affect the bullpen’s long-term health and effectiveness.

Murphy has also relegated Thyago Vieira to a stretched-out garbage time role. Vieira has thrown 50 and 45 pitches in two of his five appearances, respectively. That’s more than he’s accustomed to as a high-leverage pitcher in the minor leagues and overseas. It also thins the bullpen for a few days while he recovers. The workload balance in the bullpen would be better if Vieira pitched more frequently in medium-leverage situations.

Managing a big-league pitching staff isn’t easy, especially one with as many moving parts as the Brewers have. Still, Murphy must better apportion innings moving forward. That starts with setting boundaries and trusting the back half of the bullpen.

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[Brian]

If I remember right the Brewers were shorthanded in relievers and Trevor Megill had food poisoning 2 days prior and everyone left in the pen has a 4.00 ERA or higher. Also, Devin Williams has 2 bone fractures in his back from pitching which is a very odd injury. That is like saying pay your bills on time if your bank account reads zero. 

[Frisbee Slider]

Murphy does seem to only trust certain relievers. I’m overall fine with how the bullpen has been used, though. Until we start losing games 🙂

[Playing Catch]

38 minutes ago, Frisbee Slider said:

Murphy does seem to only trust certain relievers. I’m overall fine with how the bullpen has been used, though. Until we start losing games 🙂

Yeah, I think many of us believe the current usage is unsustainable, but they're winning. Winning some tight, low-scoring bullpen games, too. So I'm not sure there is evidence of "a chaotic lack of direction." Perhaps even though the roles change game to game, there has been a plan for each game, and that the players know what to expect.

To alleviate the IP pressure, I would simply prefer to have more guys that can go 2 or 3 innings. Call them piggy-back, long relief, low leverage, whatever. If they're getting outs they are valuable

[igor67]

Perhaps he has been taking advantage of the rather relaxed schedule so far helping to more naturally space out the usage?

[ctmyers]

Yeah, I'm going to trust the guy with 40 years of managing experience.  13-6 and we're parsing bullpen usage - with this group of starters, no less.  

[duewizard]

I see a lot of "we're 13-6 Ima trust Murphy". I think that is short sighted. Yes it is getting results now, but the workloads will collapse the bullpen. With no Uribe, Payamps, Megill or Peguero by June we have no chance at close games. That may be an exaggeration, but not out of the realm of possibility with current usage. I love Koenig, Zastrizny and Herget as much as anyone but they are not MLB high-leverage guys. 

[Brian]

22 minutes ago, duewizard said:

I see a lot of "we're 13-6 Ima trust Murphy". I think that is short sighted. Yes it is getting results now, but the workloads will collapse the bullpen. With no Uribe, Payamps, Megill or Peguero by June we have no chance at close games. That may be an exaggeration, but not out of the realm of possibility with current usage. I love Koenig, Zastrizny and Herget as much as anyone but they are not MLB high-leverage guys. 

I agree, I'm surprised we didn't call someone up from AAA just to have an extra. Not sure exactly what the rules are for callups. 

[Joseph Zarr]

Quote

In fairness to Murphy, he has been dealt an unfavorable hand. Short starts and injuries to Williams, Trevor Megill, Taylor Clarke, Wade Miley, and Jakob Junis have compromised the staff and forced relievers to absorb a heavy workload early in the season.

Zero mention of muh guy RHP J.B. Bukauskas and his 6 G, 6 IP, 0.143 BAA and 6:1 K:BB?

I'm aghast. It's no wonder Murphy's usage began to discombobulate. He lost his four-leaf clover! PTSD.😁

[liveforoctober]

1 hour ago, duewizard said:

I see a lot of "we're 13-6 Ima trust Murphy". I think that is short sighted. Yes it is getting results now, but the workloads will collapse the bullpen. With no Uribe, Payamps, Megill or Peguero by June we have no chance at close games. That may be an exaggeration, but not out of the realm of possibility with current usage. I love Koenig, Zastrizny and Herget as much as anyone but they are not MLB high-leverage guys. 

You are arguing against yourself a bit. You are saying Murphy is overusing parts of the bullpen and then saying you don't trust the other pieces at his disposal. So what would you like him to do? Leave our starters in for 120 pitches re: of outcome? Use position players?

[duewizard]

12 minutes ago, liveforoctober said:

You are arguing against yourself a bit. You are saying Murphy is overusing parts of the bullpen and then saying you don't trust the other pieces at his disposal. So what would you like him to do? Leave our starters in for 120 pitches re: of outcome? Use position players?

I'm saying actually use Herget or Myers when you call them up. Don't give Uribe 80 pitches in a single week. I'd much rather have 6 really good guys and 1-2 Koenig-esque guys to eat innings that don't matter rather than having our bullpen be Martin, Koenig, Herget Zastryzny, Paredes two months from now because we misused our guys.

[liveforoctober]

1 hour ago, duewizard said:

I'm saying actually use Herget or Myers when you call them up. Don't give Uribe 80 pitches in a single week. I'd much rather have 6 really good guys and 1-2 Koenig-esque guys to eat innings that don't matter rather than having our bullpen be Martin, Koenig, Herget Zastryzny, Paredes two months from now because we misused our guys.

Ahh I understand. I misinterpreted. I'm with you!

[SomewhereInTime]

Oof, Now I remember why I never click on the articles on this site.

[wallus]

Putting in Payamps yesterday when he clearly wasn't ready yesterday is the only really bad head scratcher I've seen from Murph when it comes to the bullpen.

[Brian]

5 hours ago, Joseph Zarr said:

In fairness to Murphy, he has been dealt an unfavorable hand. Short starts and injuries to Williams, Trevor Megill, Taylor Clarke, Wade Miley, and Jakob Junis have compromised the staff and forced relievers to absorb a heavy workload early in the season.

Also this is like a 13 game stretch we are in right now, That's terrible. 

[GasserFace]

Jack, I love your thoughts and analysis but I think you are wrong here. Murphy is winning in a no win situation

There have been key bullpen and SP injuries, inefficient/short starts from Hall, Miley and Ross. How would you have managed things differently?  The 9th on Friday was a bit sketchy but I probably would’ve sent Megill back out there as well

Thank goodness for Bryan Hudson. He has been the Brewers BP MVP so far

Thankfully the low leverage innings have been mostly on the positive side so far. Viera is perfect for those innings

The Brewers need more stability from the SP’s.  It doesn’t matter who is managing the pen if they are going to average 4 IP per night 

[Samurai Bucky]

I didn't have time to research this yesterday, but I wanted to see if I was on the right path today.

Like @GasserFace mentioned -- Murphy is winning in a no-win situation.  Last year's total quality start percentage was 41.97% (2023 ESPN Pitching Statistics - Quality Starts).  This year, out of 20 games, there have been only 5 quality starts (25%) -- three of which are from Freddy.

It is much easier to manage the bullpen when the starters are doing a great job.  The Brewers lost two of the top pitchers in baseball and it is taking time to fill that void.

While I agree that Murphy has left some guys in a little longer than feels comfortable, I'm not sure he has a choice.

[Brian]

Now Miley on the 15 day injured with elbow discomfort. He could have been throwing different after he got hit in the knee on that comebacker.