Brewers Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Month: August 2024

[Spencer Michaelis]

We continue our Minor League Player of the Month series with our top five Relief Pitchers for the month of August. 

The Brewers minor league pitching was very impressive on the starting side of things, but the relievers stole the show this month. Let's start with a couple honorable mentions:

HONORABLE MENTIONS
RHP - Jacob Misiorowski - Nashville Sounds - 8 G, 2 GS, 12.2 IP, 0-0, 2.13 ERA, 4.41 FIP, 0.63 WHIP, 2 H, 6 BB, 13 K, 1 SV

He makes the honorable mention section, because of a dominant six-game stretch out of the bullpen after playing “opener” for his first two appearances.

RHP - Kevin Herget - Nashville Sounds - 8 G, 8.2 IP, 0-0, 1.04 ERA, 1.47 FIP, 0.70 WHIP, 6 H, 0 BB, 12 K, 1 SV
Unranked by all publications

RHP - Nick Merkel - Biloxi Shuckers - 8 G, 1 GS, 18.0 IP, 1-0, 1.50 ERA, 2.65 FIP, 1.11 WHIP, 12 H, 8 BB, 21 K
Unranked by all publications

RHP - Tyler Bryant - Wisconsin Timber Rattlers - 8 G, 11.0 IP, 1-0, 1.64 ERA, 4.20 FIP, 1.19 WHIP, 7 H, 6 BB, 11 K, 3 SV
Unranked by all publications

TOP FIVE RELIEF PITCHERS FOR AUGUST
#5 RHP - Craig Yoho - Biloxi Shuckers and Nashville Sounds - 9 G, 10.1 IP, 0-0, 1.75 ERA, 2.24 FIP, 1.16 WHIP, 6 H, 6 BB, 17 K

The Brewers 8th round selection in the 2023 draft out of Indiana, Yoho is the only one of these arms that appears to already be slotted into a relief role in the future. At one time a position player in college, he transitioned to a two-way role for a couple of seasons, but after battling quite a few injuries, he finished his college career as a pitcher-only. 2023 was his first season focusing solely on pitching. So, despite his advanced age, he entered pro ball with some untapped potential. Starting in High-A, he’s already made his way to Triple-A now.

Yoho may not throw as hard as most elite relievers, only sitting in the 91-93 range with his fastball, but his pitch mix is as impressive as any pitcher in the system. He throws his fastball with nearly 20 inches of arm side run, a changeup that appears to be very similar to the Devin Williams “Airbender”, as well as a sweeping curveball and a high-80s cutter. You can read more about the pitch mix in this article from April 22nd. 

In August, Yoho actually had some struggles. At least for his standards. His whiff rate was his lowest of the season, and his walk rate was the highest. Despite this, he showed an ability to get outs in different ways. A great sign for his future that he could get by without being on his “A” game.

Yoho seems like he could be in line for a legitimate MLB opportunity this season. Perhaps a sign that the organization is starting to look at him more closely was the fact that he pitched in back to back games for the first time this season on July 27th and 28th. If he’s not , a debut in early 2025 would seem to be likely.

#4 RHP - Garrett Stallings - Nashville Sounds - 4 G, 8.0 IP, 0-1, 0.00 ERA, 2.79 FIP, 0.63 WHIP, 2 H, 3 BB, 9 K, 1 SV
Unranked by all publications

The Brewers acquired Stallings from Baltimore in exchange for Thyago Vieira and Aneuris Rodriguez in late May. A fifth round pick by the Angels in 2019, Stallings had been traded one other time before, going from the Angels to Orioles in exchange for Jose Iglesias. Since being acquired, Stallings has been pitching in Nashville, mostly in a starting role. In August, he spent the whole month in a bullpen role and the results were quite good.

A “kitchen sink” type of pitcher, Stallings throws all three variations of fastballs. His four seam and sinker are both averaging 91.3 MPH since coming to the Brewers organization. His cutter sits around 87 MPH, and has been his most oft-used offering as a Sound. He also throws a slider, curveball and changeup, all of which are around 79-81 MPH. His changeup has performed extremely well all season.

In the bullpen his four-seam fastball has been his primary pitch, and despite it not having great characteristics, it generated extremely soft contact this past month. While the four-seam didn’t generate whiffs, he picked up the slack with the other five pitches. All five of which had whiff rates of at least 37%. His overall whiff rate of 34% was far and away his highest of the season, previously topping out at 29%. His 32.1% strikeout rate topped his previous high of 21.3% as well. 

At 27 years old, his clock is certainly ticking, and Stallings is likely an organizational depth type of player, but August showed that there’s potential for a bit more as a reliever. His performance in September will be worth monitoring. He could earn an invite to MLB Spring Training with continued success.

#3 RHP - Sam Gardner - Biloxi Shuckers - 5 G, 7.0 IP, 2-0, 1.29 ERA, 1.60 FIP, 0.71 WHIP, 3 H, 2 BB, 9 K
Unranked by all publications

Gardner graduated from Murray State in 2021, and after going undrafted following his senior season he signed with the Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League. The Brewers purchased him from the Grizzlies in early June of 2023 and he had a strong finish to the season. He continued that run in the Australian Winter League this past offseason when he only allowed one earned run in 22.2 innings, while striking out 50 batters for an absurd 19.9 K/9. This earned him a Double-A assignment to start the season where he has been performing well all season.

Gardner throws a fastball that sits in the 93-94 range and can get up a bit higher at times. The fastball works well at the top of the zone. He plays off of that fastball with a curveball that sits in the high 70’s. The curve he can both land for strikes, as well as throw it out of the zone to get hitters to chase. It’s his put-away pitch, and might even be his primary pitch, as he uses it quite a bit.

In the month of August Gardner was able to continue doing what he does best; racking up strikeouts and limiting walks. His 40.9% strikeout rate placed him in the 95th percentile among Double-A pitchers with at least seven innings in August. He generated whiffs at an above average rate of 34.7%, which placed him in the 82nd percentile. He does a great job of getting soft contact early, and whiffs when he has the opportunity to put hitters away.

Gardner is unfortunately on the 60-Day IL for Biloxi, which means we will not see him again in 2024. He was able to take his extremely successful stint in the Australian Winter League and carry it over to a great 2024 and hopefully it will lead to even bigger things in 2025.

#2 RHP - Blake Holub- Nashville Sounds and Biloxi Shuckers - 10 G, 12.0 IP, 0-1, 1.50 ERA, 1.32 FIP, 1.00 WHIP, 9 H, 3 BB, 17 K, 2 SV
Unranked by all publications

Acquired in the Mark Canha trade this past offseason Holub was a two-way player at Division II St Edwards University in Texas, before the Tigers selected him in the 15th round in 2021. Holub began the year with Triple-A Nashville. Unfortunately, he has struggled at that level and has made the trip between Biloxi and Nashville on a few occasions. He spent half of August with each team.

Coming from a very high, over the top slot, Holub has a fastball that sits in the mid-90’s and has decent carry on it, along with a few inches of cut. He also adds seven feet of extension, which helps the velocity play up a bit higher. However, the carry he gets on the pitch doesn’t play up much and it can find barrels at times.

His slider sits around 85 MPH and has the characteristics of a bullet slider, a change he made in his last stint with Biloxi, going from one with a bit more movement and less velocity to the current iteration. He also has a mid-80’s splitter that he has barely used this year.

As mentioned, Holub split his month between Nashville and Biloxi. He allowed two earned runs with Nashville in 5.1 innings, and zero with Biloxi in the remaining 6.2 innings. He generated whiffs at a very strong 36.8% mark between both levels. He also continued an incredible trend of not allowing extra base hits, only allowing one double on the month. His issues have largely been related to the free pass and an inordinate amount of singles allowed. This month he was able to keep both to a reasonable number and thus finds himself on this list.

Holub’s numbers at Triple-A are not fun to look at, but there’s definitely something there. He has dominated Double-A. It could be a mental block of sorts at this point, where he could use a solid run with Nashville, simply to boost his confidence. He’s Rule 5 eligible this offseason, but likely will not be protected.

#1 RHP - Brailin Rodriguez - Carolina Mudcats and Wisconsin Timber Rattlers - 7 G, 20.1 IP, 2-0, 0.89 ERA, 3.07 FIP, 1.03 WHIP, 7 H , 8 BB, 20 K, 1 SV
Unranked by all publications

Rodriguez signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2018 and made it all the way up to Carolina in 2021, in his second professional season. Unfortunately he would miss all of 2022, before struggling in the Complex League in 2023. He began there again this year but has seen a lot more success and has now climbed up two levels this year, now pitching with the Timber Rattlers. 

Primarily a three pitch pitcher, Rodriguez usually brings a fastball in the 92-93 range, and can get up to 95 with the pitch at times. His best pitch is his slider. He can throw it for strikes, and also get chases with it against both righties and lefties. He mixes a high-80’s changeup into the mix as well, but it lags behind the other two, and he doesn’t have as much velocity separation as you would want from the fastball.

This past month, above all else, Rodriguez limited line drives well. Allowing them on 24% of batted balls for the season, he kept that number to 17.3% in August. While he wasn’t able to miss bats at a very high rate, his whiff rate of 24% was pretty average, he did miss barrels pretty consistently. He did not allow any home runs in August.

Rodriguez turned 22 in August, so he’s still got time on his side in that regard, but his organizational clock is ticking. He is Rule 5 eligible this offseason and while he isn’t likely to be at risk of being picked this year, they will likely be more aggressive with his promotions, due to that ticking clock.

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Let us know your thoughts below! Did we miss anybody?

 

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[Joseph Zarr]

I miss RHP Sam Gardner. Such an underrated arm. Merkel has predictably not been as sharp as a fill-in starter but he's shown enough over two seasons as a middle relief arm and general piggy-back inning eater to earn his status as one of the more dependable relief arms in the entire system. Hard not to be extremely impressed with the paths of both RHP Brailin Rodriguez and RHP Dikember Sanchez in 2024. It's a credit to RHP Garrett Stallings to make this list. He absolutely pitched his best ball of his entire season in August. Untold benefits continue to percolate throughout the Sounds pitching staff during the ongoing late summer/early fall 'Mitch White Effect'.