Pat Murphy's Aggressive Reliever Usage Remains Concerning

[Jack Stern]

Image courtesy of © Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

To be clear, Pat Murphy's bullpen management is not squarely to blame for the Brewers' losses, neither on Wednesday nor throughout the season as a whole. The primary culprits remain anemic offense and shaky defense, which have placed the manager in tight spots.

But, as has sometimes been the case, when faced with a tough situation lacking ideal solutions, Murphy's aggressive maneuvering did more to make it worse than to weather it successfully. In Milwaukee's series finale against the Baltimore Orioles, he and others with decision-making input pushed the pitching staff, which had already been backed into a corner, tight against a wall.

During stretches of close games he deems winnable, Murphy has no qualms about leaning heavily on his best relievers. It's been a theme since he took over as manager last year, and while he's shown more restraint at times, the downside to his "Win Tonight" mentality reared its head this week.

For the fourth day in a row, the Brewers held a slim lead in the late innings. It was the offense's fault for not adding on early enough to give Murphy and the pitching more breathing room. But instead of taking a big-picture approach with the bullpen plans, he hit the gas pedal again, only for the car to swerve off the road before reaching the intended destination.

When the tying run reached second base for Gunnar Henderson with two outs in the fifth inning, Murphy pulled Chad Patrick for Rob Zastryzny, who struck out Henderson to end the threat. Grant Anderson relieved Zastryzny in another jam the following inning, recording the final two outs of the sixth on four pitches.

That's when Murphy pushed the envelope, asking Nick Mears to cover the seventh and eighth innings. It was the third appearance in four days for Mears, who was pitching for the 21st time in his 40 days on the active roster and hadn't recorded more than three outs in a game since April 27.

Given the suboptimal circumstances–another close game and a taxed group of high-leverage relievers–any decision could have backfired. But by stretching Mears–whose strikeout rate has plummeted in his last 10 games–for two frames, Murphy risked a double whammy: lose the game in front of him, and extend his fireman's unavailability over the weekend in Pittsburgh.

That's precisely how it played out. After a spotless seventh, Mears surrendered a run while recording only two outs, and Joel Payamps let an inherited runner score to give Baltimore the lead. Caleb Durbin tied it in the ninth to force extra innings, prompting Murphy to empty his bullpen of available arms. It culminated in a fourth appearance in six days for swingman Tyler Alexander, who threw 33 pitches the night before. The Orioles scored four unanswered runs to win it.

While Mears had been busy of late, Anderson had not pitched since Saturday, and the Brewers selected Easton McGee's contract on Sunday to supply a fresh arm for the week. Instead of leaning on those rested relievers for coverage, Murphy used Anderson for two batters and did not throw McGee until the Brewers were trailing in the ninth.

"We could have," Murphy said when asked if navigating the game with just one inning from Mears was possible. "But we knew where we were at. Here's McGee making his first appearance in the big leagues in how long, so you don't know what you're going to get."

It was an understandable reason to prefer avoiding McGee, who had not pitched in the majors since April 2023 due to Tommy John surgery. Furthermore, the abundance of quality left-handed hitters in Baltimore's lineup created suboptimal matchups for Anderson, whose delivery and stuff profile best against righties.

However, there are times to let it ride without the best matchups, and Wednesday was one of them. The Brewers already won the series, and properly pacing relievers should still be an emphasis in late May.

Murphy acknowledged that "of course" he must sometimes rely on the 'B' bullpen in high-leverage situations when the 'A' guys are overworked, even if it puts the Brewers in a suboptimal position in that moment.

"You've got guys going on fumes," he said earlier in his postgame media session. "You have to have all eight guys in the 'pen helping you. You just do in these situations."

Still, his focus remained mainly on the short term, as he reiterated his belief that they could get six outs from Mears, win in regulation without using McGee and Alexander, and determine the weekend pitching situation later.

"I felt like we were not going to go (11) innings, and we're going to be okay," he said. "I didn't think we'd go 11 innings. You never plan on that."

They did, though, and the damage spilled into Pittsburgh. Carlos Rodriguez was reportedly supposed to start on Thursday, but the sudden need for more innings forced the club to scratch Aaron Civale from his scheduled Wednesday night rehab start and activate him prematurely. 

The casualties were McGee and Joel Payamps. While the latter was likely to lose his roster spot at some point, the necessity of more rested arms forced the Brewers to cut bait even sooner amid their efforts to get him back on track.

Civale did not look the sharpest in his first big-league outing since March 30 but gutted through four innings, and Rodriguez delivered an impressive rain-interrupted long relief outing. Meanwhile, Anderson did not pitch, and Murphy turned to Megill for the fourth time in five days to put out a ninth-inning fire and secure a win. Rob Zastryzny also pitched for a third time in four days before Rodriguez entered. Even amid the ongoing availability crisis, "Win Tonight" won out yet again in the decision-making process.

Murphy said throughout the week that a manager must trust every arm in his bullpen to record outs in big spots if the situation comes to that, yet his actions convey that he doesn't. At some point, he must draw a more consistent line for keeping hard-worked relievers off-limits, regardless of the immediate situation in a regular-season game. It's catching up to the Brewers in real time, and if it doesn't change, the consequences could be more severe later in the season.

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[JohnBriggs12]

The correct move in that game was to take your chances with Patrick against Henderson with 2 outs in the 5th.  As long as Patrick keeps the ball in the yard, the worst that can happen is the game is tied in the top of the 5th with two outs.  If you don't like the matchup, walk him intentionally.  I'd have given Patrick at least 2 more hitters to get through the 5th and then send him out there for the 6th.  At that point in the game, the Brewers had 5 more innings to score, and a tie or a one run deficit is nothing.  A starter's job is to keep you in the game preferably for 6 innings.  He needed 4 more outs at that point.   The problem isn't a lack of trust in the bullpen, it's a lack of trust in the starter being able to minimize damage in close games.  

[Brian]

 "Your Milwaukee Brewers First OCD Manager." Maybe the team Dr. should prescribe him Prozac.