How long is the leash for Zerpa?

[JohnBriggs12]

Do you hold on to him until Koenig returns?  Do you replace him with Hall and move Drohan into Hall's middle inning role?  Or do you roll the dice with Brian Fitzpatrick?

Bottom line is Zerpa is not doing the job

[pitchleague]

For as good as Zerpa looked this spring--especially in the WBC--I thought we really had transformed another blah pitcher into something special.  Turns out, he's returned to being a blah pitcher.  It's been disappointing and, yes, I think he needs to get out of some high leverage innings for a little while, unless they need his left-handedness for a couple of lefty-on-lefty matchups.

 

 

[Thurston Fluff]

He should not be in any high leverage role for sure. I wouldn't be opposed to optioning him now. I still think he could end up being a good pitcher for us but we can't be blowing games late because he might turn it around.

[endaround]

He has over three years of service time so he would have to agree to be optioned right?

[wiguy94]

I think he should be in AAA right now. He can’t get RHH out. Move Hall to middle relief and Drohan stays in long relief.

[wiguy94]

1 minute ago, endaround said:

He has over three years of service time so he would have to agree to be optioned right?

No you need 5 years of service time to reject an option. At 3 years you can reject an outright assignment to the minors but Zerpa has an option year left so he wouldn’t qualify for that.

[Samurai Bucky]

All if favor if cloning Ashby, signify by saying 'Aye!'  😉

[brewmann04]

if  you keep him only mop up role

[Jopal78]

Zerpa has been about a replacement level pitcher for his career, so it looks like the mythical Brewers magic hasn’t worked because he’s still that guy. 
 

Being a hard throwing lefty on a bargain basement contract, if he was DFA’d he would likely be claimed. Likewise if there were other pitchers on the 40 man roster they liked more they’d likely be up already.

So to answer the question the leash appears to be lengthy for several reasons .

[Outlander]

He is still pretty dominant against lefties so if used correctly can still be effective. However can't assign a role like 8th inning guy, needs to be more situational. If they are ever up a bunch or down a bunch that would be a good opportunity to give him more shots at right handed batters. 

[Turning2]

A rare pitching lab project acquisition that hasn't panned out so far and may not.  Didn't like to see Mears and Collins go, but gave them the benefit of the doubt that this was a good trade. Yes, I'm aware Collins isn't exactly tearing it up, but Baddoo and Matos offered less. And I'd rather have Mears than Zerpa. 

[Brian]

22 hours ago, JohnBriggs12 said:

Bottom line is Zerpa is not doing the job

He is better than Andrew Chafin was and we gave him 20 games to pitch in. 

[Underachiever]

If Zerpa got traded in December, and was at the WBC in March, when was he even in the pitching lab? When he was traded, did he report to AZ immediately to work on his stuff?  

[Brewin]

This thread feels like a massive overreaction to me. They gave up two pieces of minimal value IMO, Collins, likely coming off a career year, and Mears, who is "just a guy" they cycle in and out annually, for a guy who could be a well above average bullpen arm. I know early returns aren't great, but I think it's very unlikely he's going any where soon. 

[Roderick]

I"m not against Zerpa remaining on the team (if that is where he will get more coaching), but he shouldn't be pitching in any leverage situations.  He and Woodford should be end of the totem pole.  If Zerpa needs to work on pitch(es) send him to the minors and have him work on that with less pressure.

If Murphy can't manage without a Koening lefty in the last three innings, then Ashby needs to be moved to strictly that role and not pitched before the 7th.  Hall and Drohan (until he proves he can't) will have to pick up more of the load.

 

[jay87shot]

50 minutes ago, Brewin said:

This thread feels like a massive overreaction to me. They gave up two pieces of minimal value IMO, Collins, likely coming off a career year, and Mears, who is "just a guy" they cycle in and out annually, for a guy who could be a well above average bullpen arm. I know early returns aren't great, but I think it's very unlikely he's going any where soon. 

I get that Collins was better last year than he likely is but the trade value is just way off. Collins was 4th in ROY last year and Mears and Zerpa were extremely similar relievers last year. So we essentially gave up the 5 cheap years of control of a very good at minimum 4th OF for 1 extra year of control of a 6th/7th inning lefty reliever of which we had like 4 or 5 lefty bullpen options at the time. 

It just was a very un-Brewers-like trade selling extremely low on a arbitration eligible productive player like Collins.

[sveumrules]

5 minutes ago, jay87shot said:

So we essentially gave up the 5 cheap years of control of a very good at minimum 4th OF

Collins has a 33.3 K% and -3 DRS | -4 FRV playing LF in the early going with KCR. Throw in -1.3 BsR (which is 297th of 303 players with at least 50 PA so far) and he's at -0.3 WAR.

Most 4th OF have to be at least passable in CF, so I think before last year most had Isaac pegged as more of an up/down 13th man LF/2B utility type of guy.

For his first 119 PA of 2025 he was exactly that with an 82 wRC+. But then he went on an insane heater with a 175 wRC+ over his next 202 PA (check that .413 BABIP under the hood though) before closing the season with another 120 PA of 73 wRC+ back in line with prior expectations. So far this year he has 81 more PA that line up with that original eval.

[umphrey]

It's still early and it's easy right now to just drop him down the depth chart and see how things go. Woodford and Drohan are still on the roster and as long as they are here then Zerpa's roster spot is likely safe. 

[Roderick]

1 hour ago, umphrey said:

It's still early and it's easy right now to just drop him down the depth chart and see how things go. Woodford and Drohan are still on the roster and as long as they are here then Zerpa's roster spot is likely safe. 

Don't agree with that logic.  I can see Zerpa going down while those two stay up.

Zerpa can be sent down.  Zerpa hasn't pitched two innings in a game yet, so isn't stretched out for Woodford duty (even though they mentioned early on that he potentially could be a starter).  Drohan is a also a lefty. 

Woodford is set up to pitch multiple innings, and is a righty the opposite of Zerpa/Drohan in case he has to pitch more important innings..

Drohan is still a question mark on his potential, whereas Zerpa has been working toward proving that last year is what he is.