Efficient, Versatile Abner Uribe Emerging as Relief Ace Brewers Once Envisioned

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

On Sunday, Abner Uribe appeared in his majors-leading 29th game, logging his 15th hold and his fourth straight scoreless inning. He also lowered his seasonal ERA to 1.59. Sixty games into the Brewers' season, Uribe is running an 84 DRA-, according to Baseball Prospectus. (When it comes to DRA-, 100 is average and lower is better.) He's striking out 32.2% of opposing batters, but his extreme level of availability has been the result of ruthless efficiency. He needed just seven pitches to dispatch the Phillies this time.

The funny thing about Uribe's season is that he continues to lean into a two-pitch mix typically tilted toward platoon vulnerability—a right-handed hurler, he throws almost exclusively sinkers and sliders—but has actually been impressively lefty-proof. Righties are hitting an unimpressive .271/.338/.322, but lefties have scuffled even worse: .154/.313/.231. He's actually struck out a slightly higher share of the lefties he's seen this year (33.3%) than of the righties he's faced (31.3%). Uribe, the sinker-slider guy, overpowers even opposite-handed batters, and it's not solely (or even primarily) because of his velocity.

Against right-handed batters, Uribe uses a pretty standard set of locations: sinker running across the plate, setting up sliders down and away.

Righty batters face the traditional problem against righty hurlers, especially those who pair sinkers and sliders well: it's nigh impossible to distinguish the two offerings from one another.

Reacting to these two pitches, with their divergent patterns of movement, is just as hard to as telling them apart in the first place. It's no mystery why a guy like Uribe baffles righty hitters. Against lefties, though, he's had to learn how to pitch a bit, and to put them on the defensive. To do so, he's approached them extremely differently. He's worked that sinker across the plate, hitting the glove-side edge. It's what the old heads call a 'front-hip' sinker, because that's what a lefty thinks the pitch will hit, before it runs back over the inside corner for a strike. Meanwhile, he's backdoored the slider more, landing it on the bottom rail of the zone after starting it off the outside corner to those batters.

It's much easier for a lefty hitter to tell which pitch is coming, of course. The way Uribe releases the two and the direction each must go to get anywhere near the zone forces an early separation. Because the patterns of initial trajectory and ultimate location Uribe is pursuing with each pitch are so unusual, though, they have a hard time reacting fast and getting the head out on his stuff.

Put another way, there aren't many places where a hitter can sit on either offering from Uribe, even though it's theoretically easy to see which one is which out of his hand. In locations where hitters are used to getting one of the two almost exclusively, from a righty, Uribe gives them an uneasily even share of each.

In fact, Uribe throws a higher percentage of his sinkers to the glove side than all but three other right-handed pitchers in the league: Logan Webb, Shawn Armstrong and Reese Olson. That's one very valuable skill he's demonstrated, making it possible to bully lefty batters by inducing ground balls and weak contact.

But the biggest change for Uribe this season isn't pitch mix or sequencing or deception. It's relentlessness. He's not wasting pitches—literally. In 2023 and 2024, when ahead in the count, Uribe threw an average of 15.7% of his pitches in what Statcast calls the waste zones, far beyond the strike zone and where hitters rarely even chase. This year, that number is 9.7%. He's no longer playing with his food. Uribe has matured in more ways than just dealing with frustration or conflict better. He's blossomed into a better all-around pitcher, more efficient, more versatile and (therefore) more available. Maybe Trevor Megill will hold onto his closer's role for another year or two, or maybe Craig Yoho will claim it. If nothing else, though, Uribe has renewed his own claim to a job at the back end of the Milwaukee bullpen, and he currently boasts the best balance of skills, experience, and team control.

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[mudcat_mike]

I knew watching Uribe pitch with the Mudcats that he was going to be something special. Maturing has helped The Flamethrower a lot.

[Samurai Bucky]

Both he and Koenig lead the majors in appearances.  Uribe also missed some time due to suspension.  I hope his arm doesn't fall off (i.e. he gets hurt from overuse).

[GantnerRules]

When you mention "glove side", is that in reference to the pitcher or the catcher? 

[Team Canada]

Pitcher.

[Matthew Trueblood]

2 hours ago, GantnerRules said:

When you mention "glove side", is that in reference to the pitcher or the catcher? 

Good question. Pitcher. "Glove-side" is movement or location closer to the pitcher's glove hand as they stand facing home plate. "Arm-side" is the same to the pitcher's bare/pitching hand. Arm-side stuff moves toward a same-handed batter; arm-side location is inside on said batter, or away from an opposite-handed one. And vice-versa for glove-side.