Moving to the Bullpen Won't Fix Brandon Sproat

Brandon Sproat’s audition for a postseason bullpen role did not go well. In fact, it went so poorly that it might be a one-and-done opportunity. In Sproat's return to the big leagues after last month’s demotion to Triple-A, Pat Murphy tasked the former starter with recording the final six outs against the Cubs with a seven-run lead on Wednesday night. He only recorded four of those outs, issuing four walks and hitting a batter. Before long, Abner Uribe was facing pinch-hitter BJ Murray as the tying run, with the dangerous Pete Crow-Armstrong on deck.

Uribe struck out Murray to extinguish the fire and close out a three-game sweep. Despite a trio of statement wins against the Brewers’ top division rival, however, Murphy’s postgame presser carried a mixed tone. His offense had backed off the gas pedal after scoring six early runs against Kevin Gausman, and Sproat’s poor performance nearly made it costly.

“It’s unacceptable,” Murphy said. “You’ve got to throw the ball over the plate to be a major-league pitcher.”

That was already a recurring issue for Sproat, who walked 11.6% of batters faced before his demotion. It was even worse in Nashville, where he posted a 12.8% walk rate and threw just 42% of his pitches in the strike zone. Because of his electric stuff, Sproat struck out 34.6% of opponents and pitched to a 3.18 xERA against less disciplined hitters, but there was no improvement from a process standpoint.

It wasn’t for a lack of effort. The development staff in Nashville tried simplifying things for Sproat to get him back into the zone, leaning more on his straight four-seamer and relying less on the new cutter that had the worst run value of any pitch in his arsenal this year. In a two-inning relief appearance before his call-up, 67% of Sproat’s pitches were four-seamers or curveballs. That’s a simple, vertical sequence that he can tunnel by aiming both pitches right down the middle.

That approach often turns converted starters into successful relievers. Getting less cute with pitch usage and command can free a pitcher mentally and physically. By throwing their two or three best pitches at max effort anywhere in the strike zone, things can click into place pretty easily. The Brewers have recently seen it work for Chad Patrick and Shane Drohan.

It doesn’t address Sproat’s biggest issue: letting things get out of hand quickly after a bad sequence or plate appearance. He showed brief flashes of dominance in nearly every start, but he was prone to big innings, and when something disrupted his rhythm on the mound, he couldn’t recalibrate. That’s what did him in on Wednesday.

Sproat walked Crow-Armstrong on eight pitches to open the inning. The adage is that leadoff walks will haunt defenses, but the real turning point was when Sproat attempted to pick off Crow-Armstrong in a situation where every team would give him second base on defensive indifference. Andrew Vaughn was not holding the runner, so Sproat’s throw sailed into foul territory.

The floodgates opened from there: a wild pitch as part of a five-pitch walk, a third walk to load the bases, an Alex Bregman strikeout, then a run-scoring walk.

“I knew he was nervous,” Murphy said. “No matter what, you can’t let it snowball like that.”

“It’s a game of highs and lows,” William Contreras said. “I don’t know if he’s out there trying to do more than what he is. We all know who he is in this room. We’ve seen plenty of him this season. He’s helped us this season. But it’s a hard game whenever you’re trying to do more than maybe what you’re capable of.”

Until that part of Sproat’s game is resolved, he’ll keep running into similar issues in any role. For now, he’ll almost certainly head back to Nashville in exchange for a fresh arm. Given his upside, it’s still hard to rule him out for a postseason roster spot, but that won’t happen until Sproat proves he can stay poised and course-correct during an outing. Time is running out for that to happen in 2026.

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