How (and Why) the Brewers Might Rebuild Brandon Sproat, from the Ground Up

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

Watch Brandon Sproat on video, and it's immediately clear that he's not like most Milwaukee Brewers pitchers. In fact, he's not like many pitchers you're used to seeing, period. A product of the University of Florida, Sproat famously bet on himself by declining to sign with the Mets after his junior year, only to go one round earlier to the same team the next year. He's unafraid to go a bit against the grain, and that shows up in his mechanics and his approach to the game. By making him a co-headliner in the Freddy Peralta trade this week, the Brewers made a significant bet on their ability to bend Sproat's skills to their own purposes.

Here's a fastball Sproat threw during one of his handful of big-league appearances at the end of last season.

That's a high-effort delivery, with a bit of herk and jerk to it. The immediately unusual thing you probably noticed is that, after he breaks his hands and brings the ball down by swinging his elbow out toward full extension, he never again has his elbow bent more than 90° for the duration of his delivery. His arm action is exceptionally long, because he's not winding it up the way most modern pitchers do. Instead, he's really using his whole body to launch the ball toward the plate, and his hand merely carries it until it can't hold on any longer.

Here's something you might have missed in a quick viewing, but which is equally peculiar. He finishes his delivery of the heater with all four fingers splayed and his hand wide open. He looks like a man stretching out his hand for a book or a glass of water, left at an awkward spot just to his left.

Pause and examine the hand position of just about any pitcher after they throw their heater, and you'll see some curl to their fingers. Their third and fourth fingers probably stayed tucked into a relaxed semi-fist throughout, and the first and second usually show the signs of having pulled hard at the seams at release, trying to maximize backspin. Not Sproat. His hand gives the impression that he simply surrounded the ball and flung it on its way when the extreme torque of his sturdy body dictated that he do so.

It might not surprise you, then, to learn that Sproat has a below-average spin rate on his four-seam fastball. Indeed, for each of his pitch types, the typical righty working from his low three-quarters slot gets more spin than he does.

Let's circle back, though, to that long arm action. To underscore the extent to which this is a departure from the norm, I've captured the moment at which several pitchers' front foot touched the ground while throwing their fastballs—what pitchers call 'foot strike'. This is always a telling moment within the tornadic miniature ballet that is a pitch. Here, we see (clockwise, from the top left) Jacob Misiorowski, Sproat, Brandon Woodruff, Peralta, Chad Patrick and Quinn Priester at that moment.

Instead of a significant elbow bend and the ball near his ear, Sproat gets to that point with his hand a good two feet behind his head and his arm much closer to straight. Note, too, that his posture and stride direction are most similar to Peralta's, but that he sets up on the first-base side of the rubber, as all the hurlers here except Peralta do.

This delivery has worked for Sproat, in a sense. It's brought him this far, and it allows him to throw his fastball upwards of 96 miles per hour, on average. However, if this is all the athleticism and feel he has in him, his future is almost certainly in the bullpen. His four-seamer lives almost perfectly in the movement dead zone, based on his arm angle. His sinker is a better pitch, but it's only effective against right-handed batters, and it cannibalizes his changeup. He has three above-average breaking balls, but no way to get to them against lefties, and as a starter, he'll see a lot of left-handed batters every fifth day.

The Brewers are likely to make some major changes to Sproat's game, if he's amenable to them. A move across the rubber makes a lot of sense, at least on an experimental basis; he needs to find out whether the change in angle would do anything for his arm action or movement. The team will also explore the extent to which they can alter how he moves, though.

By and large, it's hard to change fastball shape, and it's hard to give pitchers with little feel for spin that skill. However, there are two things working for the Brewers with Sproat. First, he does show some feel for spin; it's just exclusive to his breaking balls. Relatedly, he throws one of those breaking balls—his curveball—from a higher slot than the rest of his offerings. On the left, below, is him throwing a curveball. On the right is him throwing his four-seamer, in the same game.

A move on the rubber and/or a change in his arm angle could unlock something new for Sproat. Right now, he's better off leaning on his sinker and avoiding his four-seamer, but that need not necessarily be true if he changes his delivery somewhat. The Brewers like to get a cutter working opposite the sinker in cases like this, and although Sproat's lower slot (the one he uses for most of his offerings) isn't conducive to a cutter, the higher one could be. 

If no mechanical changes will take, the Brewers still have ways to optimize Sproat. He should scrap the curve unless he can find another pitch to execute from that same arm slot; he doesn't need it with his present mix and set of looks. He should also avoid using his sinker to lefties, leaning on the four-seamer to set up the changeup. This spring will give Chris Hook, Jim Henderson and their cohort an opportunity to shine. The Brewers brought in a hurler with exceptional arm strength and a few intriguing secondary elements, but one nowhere near ready to thrive in the majors on the team's usual plan. They'll need to formulate a plan that helps him turn the corner, or else be ready to convert him rapidly into a high-leverage reliever. Sproat's feel for spin and his command are important, but starting next month, his shot at taking his career to the next level will depend on his feel for communication and his willingness to relinquish some control of his development.

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[Joseph Zarr]

[Samurai Bucky]

This is why Matthew is the GOAT!

[JimmyC]

One would think the Brewers would have done their due diligence to make sure he would be amenable to changes to his delivery. Peralta was their big trading chip.

Sproat needs to work with the Brewers magic Hook to improve on all levels. 
one would think he would to make himself more valuable and successful.

[Michael Trzinski]

41 minutes ago, Samurai Bucky said:

This is why Matthew is the GOAT!

The Brewers should hire him as a pitching guru, but he probably doesn't want to take a pay cut...💲 

[eddiemathews]

Last year Sproat was ineffective (relatively speaking) for the first half of his minor league season, but turned it around the second half. I'm wondering if the Mets were tinkering with his delivery the first half and it didn't take, so he went back to his old ways the second half. It might be interesting to compare his first half delivery with the second half.

[Ron750]

Typical. All the reporting after the trade is how it was a good trade , we got two big league ready prospects. Then little by little it will be wait,  they’re not quite ready, they will get injured and here we go again. 

[sveumrules]

7 minutes ago, Ron750 said:

here we go again. 

I hope so, the Brewers have won the Division three years running by a combined 24 games.

A lot of those wins have come from guys that Arnold acquired via trade like Contreras (15.0 WAR), Ortiz (4.5 WAR), Priester (3.6 rWAR), Megill (3.0 rWAR), Patrick (2.6 rWAR), Durbin (2.6 WAR), Vaughn (1.9 WAR), Bauers (0.9 WAR), Gasser (0.7 rWAR), and DL Hall (0.6 rWAR) that are still with the team for years to come.

Plus a slew of wins from since departed acquired via trade guys like Bryan Hudson (2.6 rWAR), Joel Payamps (2.2 rWAR), Aaron Civale (1.7 rWAR), Elvis Peguero (1.4 rWAR), Victor Caratini (1.2 WAR), Mark Canha (0.9 WAR), and Carlos Santana (0.7 WAR).

The Brewers 282 wins are second most in MLB the last three years, take out the 45 wins or so they have traded for above and they'd drop to 237 wins which would put them 21st in MLB, five wins ahead of the Cardinals.

[wallus]

4 minutes ago, sveumrules said:

I hope so, the Brewers have won the Division three years running by a combined 24 games.

A lot of those wins have come from guys that Arnold acquired via trade like Contreras (15.0 WAR), Ortiz (4.5 WAR), Priester (3.6 rWAR), Megill (3.0 rWAR), Patrick (2.6 rWAR), Durbin (2.6 WAR), Vaughn (1.9 WAR), Bauers (0.9 WAR), Gasser (0.7 rWAR), and DL Hall (0.6 rWAR) that are still with the team for years to come.

Plus a slew of wins from since departed acquired via trade guys like Bryan Hudson (2.6 rWAR), Joel Payamps (2.2 rWAR), Aaron Civale (1.7 rWAR), Elvis Peguero (1.4 rWAR), Victor Caratini (1.2 WAR), Mark Canha (0.9 WAR), and Carlos Santana (0.7 WAR).

The Brewers 282 wins are second most in MLB the last three years, take out the 45 wins or so they have traded for above and they'd drop to 237 wins which would put them 21st in MLB, five wins ahead of the Cardinals.

New/casual fans seems to forget. This is a good reminder 

[Michael Trzinski]

1 hour ago, Ron750 said:

Typical. All the reporting after the trade is how it was a good trade , we got two big league ready prospects. Then little by little it will be wait,  they’re not quite ready, they will get injured and here we go again. 

BUT, Peralta could get injured and have a wasted season. I hope not, but it could happen.

Like a famous baseball player once said, 'Youneverknow.'

[Sugarrayray]

 “depend on his feel for communication”

Trueblood just invented a new scouting term that I am going to use in every context of life.

In fact on Monday I’m going to let my boss know he doesn’t have a good “feel for communication” :)

[Team Canada]

3 hours ago, Ron750 said:

Typical. All the reporting after the trade is how it was a good trade , we got two big league ready prospects. Then little by little it will be wait,  they’re not quite ready, they will get injured and here we go again. 

Yeah just like Priester last year.

[Samurai Bucky]

16 minutes ago, Team Canada said:

Yeah just like Priester last year.

Actually, wasn't the message, "The Brewers overpaid!!!!"?

[Bashopolis]

Reading this I got a little bit of Joey Weimer flashbacks.  
Weimer was/is a guy with amazing physical skills but somehow went through the minor leagues with a batting stance and load that were going to fail him in the majors.  When he got there and failed in the majors, they found out that he wasn’t able to find success changing things either.  

 

Sproat doesn’t seem to have as much to fix, but this article leaves wondering he can change how the Brewers may want him too.  
 

 

[Terry]

Quote

A move on the rubber and/or a change in his arm angle could unlock something new for Sproat. Right now,

Interestingly, he actually positioned close to center of the rubber two years ago, as can be seen at clips below from 2024/08/02

It was near the end of 2025 season that he moved toward first base side of rubber, which I believe in part fueled his late season resurgence.

 

Even though his four seam is in dead zone territory, his velo creates some room for error. It's probably still playable pairing with his sinker. It'll be interesting to see how Brewers distribute usage between 4-seam/sinker against righties. Late season when he had performance uptick it's mostly 50/50, but after promoting to big leagues 4-seam basically got scrapped.
 

[Austin Tatious]

I had read about his improved performance the second half of last year even before we acquired him.  He wasn’t my favorite target for all the reasons Matthew said. 

But I never could find any info on whether he changed anything in mechanics and approach the second half of the year?   Or was the improvement due to something else, like better command, or just statistical variance.

To me he feels like a back end of the rotation guy because the adjustments to his approach don’t seem minor.  Those can blow up in your face just as easily as help when a guy isn’t comfortable with the changes.  The herky jerky delivery also gives me the fear of arm or shoulder injury.  

[biedergb]

21 hours ago, Samurai Bucky said:

Actually, wasn't the message, "The Brewers overpaid!!!!"?

Yes it was. And I was among that crowd pretty loudly. Not excited by this return, would have preferred Ewing or Clifford with Sproat; or Jett/Tong.  But I obviously know nothing.

Although I still have irrational love for our prospects (like Areinamo, Collins, Myers, Jorge Quintana who I still view as overpays like I felt Yophery was).  Hope I’m wrong again.

so other than Woodruff, the SPs are pretty much are now 8 deep with current pitchers and upper level prospects who are all under control through around 2030 (or later). 

[biedergb]

On 1/23/2026 at 11:54 AM, sveumrules said:

Priester (3.6 rWAR), Megill (3.0 rWAR), Patrick (2.6 rWAR)

Wow. I don’t think I realized the WAR for these 3 pitchers. Two SPs with one year in the staff, and a RP with 2-3 years, that is a lot of added value 

[CheeseheadInQC]

For what it is worth, I think Longenhagen at Fangraphs said that if Sproat can get his 2024 changeup back, he thinks he’s a better prospect than Tong. 

[narwhalattack]

11 hours ago, biedergb said:

Yes it was. And I was among that crowd pretty loudly. Not excited by this return, would have preferred Ewing or Clifford with Sproat; or Jett/Tong.  But I obviously know nothing.

Although I still have irrational love for our prospects (like Areinamo, Collins, Myers, Jorge Quintana who I still view as overpays like I felt Yophery was).  Hope I’m wrong again.

so other than Woodruff, the SPs are pretty much are now 8 deep with current pitchers and upper level prospects who are all under control through around 2030 (or later). 

IIRC, our FO brought up Tong first and was shot down immediately. I don’t think we would’ve gotten him even with Myers thrown in.