Will Brewers Reassess Workload Management After Hitting a Wall in October?

[Jack Stern]

Image courtesy of © Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

A week after their season ended with the Dodgers unceremoniously sweeping them out of the NLCS, Pat Murphy and the Brewers are in the reflection stage.

“There's definitely things to take note of,” Murphy said at a season-ending press conference on Thursday. “The day that we lost in Los Angeles, that was my first day of notes—‘postseason recommendations,’ like, ‘what are things that are apparent here?’”

Most apparent was that Milwaukee didn’t just lose the series, but rarely looked competitive throughout those four games. Even though Dodgers starting pitchers would have been tough on any offense, the Brewers could have averaged more than one run per game. Instead, they bore little resemblance to the scrappy group that clawed its way to October’s top seed with the best regular season in franchise history. They looked overmatched, but what’s more, they looked worn out.

“We didn't put our best foot forward,” Murphy said. “But there's all sorts of things to learn from it about, how do we get them playing consistent?”

One of those potential lessons—and a topic the Brewers must at least discuss over the winter—is enforcing stricter workload management.

There were signs that the group was wearing down in the regular season’s final weeks, mainly on the positional side, but also in the bullpen. Several Milwaukee hitters saw their average bat speed decrease in September. Abner Uribe, who was one of eight relievers to pitch in at least 75 games this year, lost a couple of ticks of velocity.

Timely home runs and big pitching performances by Jacob Misiorowski and Chad Patrick carried the Brewers through the NLDS in five games, but Murphy acknowledged before the series finale that his players were “pretty drained,” both physically and mentally. While no team is playing at 100% nearly 170 games into the year, he said on Thursday that it continued into the next round.

“I think the Cubs series just emotionally took so much out of them, and then to have to come back the next day and play was difficult on the guys,” Murphy said. “But that’s another learning situation for us, so here we go.”

While he made more attempts to ease workloads leading into the playoffs, Murphy has been unafraid to push the envelope to win the game in front of him each night, including early in the season. When William Contreras and Sal Frelick fought to remain in the lineup each night while battling hand and knee injuries, he typically obliged. The same was true of Uribe, Nick Mears, and later Aaron Ashby, even as they racked up appearances and innings at unsustainable rates.

“Do we know for sure that if Contreras caught 10 [fewer] games, we would have been better [in the playoffs]?” Murphy asked rhetorically. “No. But it speaks to the fact of how big of a grind it is, especially when you play like we play.”

To his point, it’s impossible to say how much those earlier workloads affected the Brewers come October. The reality, though, was that the well ran dry nearly two weeks before the World Series, the endgame of the franchise’s competitive aspirations. The way they play and how much they play throughout the regular season seemed to be contributing factors.

“We have a bunch of guys that are, for lack of a better term, overachievers, guys that play above their physical talent,” Murphy said. “Is there something about that that crushes them after a while? They play so hard. A [Caleb Durbin], a [Brice Turang], a Sal—is there something to that, that we need to protect them, that they're a little bit fragile while they're young? Do we need to schedule the off days differently?”

Murphy’s answer to that question suggested that he remains wary of toning down the aggressive approach that led the Brewers to division titles in each of his first two seasons at the helm.

“I hate to lose that 'win tonight' mentality, or show them any signs of not trying to win tonight,” he said. “I think that hurts your team more, and you could end up sitting at home because you're going to rest guys when they've got a lot of fuel left in the tank.”

There must be enough fuel left in October, though. It's a challenging balance to strike, but part of the job nonetheless. Whether the adjustments are physical, mental, emotional, or all of the above, the Brewers must leave their players better equipped to play deep into the fall next year.

View full article

[JohnBriggs12]

Let's be real here.  The Brewers ran into a Dodgers team that gamed the system.  Dodgers went into the season with what 10-11 quality starters, then preserved their best for October by abusing the IL.  You going to tell me Snell couldn't pitch until August?  Really?  Or that Glasnow was only healthy enough to log 90 innings?   They didn't have to use the IL for Ohtani of course, but they accomplished the same thing. 

They had one starter that was in their rotation for the entire season.  That was Yamamoto.

The Dodgers are so far ahead of the rest of baseball financially, they can do this and I haven't even mentioned Sasaki. 

Could the Brewers have done the same thing with their limited payroll?  Absolutely not.  The Brewers can rotate optionable arms back and forth,  But guys like Henderson and Gasser were actually injured.  The Brewers sold out to get a bye in the wild card round.  Dodgers don't have to.

 

[WAN2]

Seems like days off years ago were few and far between.  E.g., Cal Ripken.   Also, the theme seems to be to lose 10 more games each season so all are well rested come October?

[MattK]

Is the length and grind of the season, including playoffs, just something all these young guys just need to learn to manage? Sal came into spring training stronger than in 2024, which seemed to help him for 5 months. Does that mean he (as an example) needs to work even harder this off-season to be prepared for 6 1/2 months? Is it somewhat prep & understanding what is coming for these young guys? 

[Brian]

3 hours ago, WAN2 said:

Seems like days off years ago were few and far between.  E.g., Cal Ripken.   Also, the theme seems to be to lose 10 more games each season so all are well rested come October?

Well, Cal Ripkin played like 7+ years in a row without missing a game which is insane but understand your point.  My hindsight thinks: 

The days off aspect for rest days should have been managed a lot better.  The Brewers went balls to the wall, or all gas no breaks until we clinched then desided to rest the last week or so of the season, plus the days off getting the bye.  That to me, defeats the whole purpose of momentum in all pro sports.  Its hard to restart a freight train after it has been stopped for 10 days. 

[Brian]

On 10/24/2025 at 7:58 AM, MattK said:

Is the length and grind of the season, including playoffs, just something all these young guys just need to learn to manage? Sal came into spring training stronger than in 2024, which seemed to help him for 5 months. Does that mean he (as an example) needs to work even harder this off-season to be prepared for 6 1/2 months? Is it somewhat prep & understanding what is coming for these young guys? 

Very few players can go a straight 6 1/2 months of a MLB season with out any rest, very very few indeed.  Also,  Sal was stronger and more muscular which did not address the endurance end of playing everyday, in fact its a detriment if you play everyday. 

In fact Pat Murphy was on Spectrum with Matt Arnold today talking about scheduling more off days to protect everyday players more. 

[BarremlensTSSC]

I honestly don't think workload matters all that much outside of the bullpen and catching positions.  Contreras has shown signs of wearing down late in the year before and bullpen fatigue is so common it's basically a cliche at this point.  But if guys like Turang and Frelick wore down, for example. while playing the same number of games in 2025 that they did in 2024 (Frelick actually played 3 fewer regular season games) that wasn't easy to predict and frankly is on them more than Murphy.

Only other place I can see some room for judgment along these lines is Yelich due to his age and back, but it's a tough set of choices there too because Yelich is prone to stretches of ineffectiveness that don't appear related to fatigue.

[BrewerFan]

12 hours ago, Brian said:

Well, Cal Ripkin played like 7+ years in a row without missing a game which is insane but understand your point.  My hindsight thinks: 

17 seasons. 1982 to 1998.

[Brian]

4 minutes ago, BrewerFan said:

17 seasons. 1982 to 1998.

But Cal Ripkin he played 7+ years in a row without missing a single game. Was my point. 

[BrewerFan]

1 hour ago, Brian said:

But Cal Ripkin he played 7+ years in a row without missing a single game. Was my point. 

Well... I guess 17 years is 7+ years, but it's kinda like saying we have team control of Chourio the next 2+ season. While technically accurate, the next 8 seasons is more exact.

Again, from 1982(early that year, I think starting in May) and then did not miss a game until he took himself out late in the 1998 season when he decided shortly before the game that he would not play in the game). 

 

He had over 2600. I think it was over 2660 with playoff games... though it may have been short of that. But just go with the 2600. That's FAR more than 7 seasons. 
 

[BrewerFan]

21 hours ago, MattK said:

Is the length and grind of the season, including playoffs, just something all these young guys just need to learn to manage? Sal came into spring training stronger than in 2024, which seemed to help him for 5 months. Does that mean he (as an example) needs to work even harder this off-season to be prepared for 6 1/2 months? Is it somewhat prep & understanding what is coming for these young guys? 

I'm not buying this whole, "the team wore down." 

And using the Dodgers pitchers... the Brewers were able to do the same things. They were able to bring Woodruff along slowly and patiently to build him up for the playoffs...and we just got bad luck.

But Patrick, Misiorowski, we sent one down, put another on the DL and limited his innings. 

Peralta is really the only guy who didn't any breaks, but... we didn't ride the starters too hard and we didn't ride the bullpen any harder than the other top teams. 

The Dodgers didn't just rest pitchers for the hell of it, they had pitchers who have had injuries. 

They also have SO many young, extremely talented pitchers, it's easier for them to get by, but they were battling for the division. They weren't just sitting Snell because they felt like it. 

 

As for Brewers players, Contreras played well in the playoffs and he was the guy who should have worn down. He had ALL the excuses. But he gave you good at bats and hit the ball hard in the playoffs. 

Turang went up there with just defensive swings. 

It also felt like Turang, Yelich and Frelick faced a LOT of lefties. 

 

I don't buy that as the issue. Durbin played well, he was playing a position few thought he'd be able to handle 3B and he was grinding every day. 

Maybe it's a youth thing(though Chourio wasn't too bothered), but I think we're looking for excuses that aren't there save for maybe Yelich. 

Ohtani was their #4 starter. Snell looked human vs Toronto, but he was untouchable in the first two rounds.
Yamamoto and Glasnow were great and then... again, Ohtani. 

The part of the team you'd expect to tire, the pitching, they were all you could have asked for vs the Dodgers. Uribe and Ashby gave up runs, but they were used a LOT vs the Cubs and I think not using Tobias Myers may have been a mistake, but we held up. The Dodgers were just better and we looked like a team that was pressing. 

 

We weren't able to get guys on atop the order, get them moving, put pressure on the Dodgers who... don't have a great IF defense and we didn't really make them work. 
Turang, Frelick, Yelich. We got very little out of them. 

And we weren't able to get to the Dodgers Pen enough. MAYBE had we pulled out Gm1 we relax at the plate a bit, but we didn't. 

 

All I would do differently next year is cut Yelich and Contreras down to about 120 starts and 110 starts respectively at DH/C and I'd still give Contreras another 20 starts at DH unless a young guy forces his way in. 

[Bassball]

More than the younger guys, I think Yelich is the clearer example. Playing 150 after back surgery is incredible, he’s incredible, and an all time brewer. But he looked like toast for about 6 weeks. On the other hand, he’s still the guy that makes the brewers go.  When he started hitting, the brewers started winning. When he tailed off, so did they. Maybe he needed more rest, but maybe they don’t get to where they did without maximizing him as much as they did. Catch 22.   To come back from 2 terrible injuries is amazing- it’s a shame that shattered kneecap robbed him and us of more of his peak.  I’m still glad he’s with us for the long haul, but it would be good to find a new person to be the primary engine of the offense.  There are indications it will be Chourio, but for last year at least they had their best stretch despite him being out. 

[BrewerFan]

12 hours ago, Bassball said:

More than the younger guys, I think Yelich is the clearer example. Playing 150 after back surgery is incredible, he’s incredible, and an all time brewer. But he looked like toast for about 6 weeks. On the other hand, he’s still the guy that makes the brewers go.  When he started hitting, the brewers started winning. When he tailed off, so did they. Maybe he needed more rest, but maybe they don’t get to where they did without maximizing him as much as they did. Catch 22.   To come back from 2 terrible injuries is amazing- it’s a shame that shattered kneecap robbed him and us of more of his peak.  I’m still glad he’s with us for the long haul, but it would be good to find a new person to be the primary engine of the offense.  There are indications it will be Chourio, but for last year at least they had their best stretch despite him being out. 

Yeah... I really don't know... this surgery was supposed to be about as simple of a back surgery as you could get. It was just kinda shaving down one of the one of the bulging discs in his back that was causing the pain.

He said this would completely heal it and he'd be good to go.

So... did he really wear down? Did Turang, Frelick? Or did they just struggle facing a couple o dominant lefties and a couple REALLY good righties?

 

I also think it's... clearly Chourio who is that guy. Going on a winning streak without him doesn't change that.