Sweepers Could Make a Comeback on 2026 Brewers' Pitching Staff

Before the start of the 2023 season, Statcast introduced the sweeper as a new label for certain breaking pitches, separating them from tighter, harder sliders. Since then, the term has found a strong foothold in the modern pitching vernacular.

Sweeping sliders themselves aren’t new, but the classification came about as more pitchers and coaches learned to generate the sidespin that creates more extreme lateral break than gyro sliders have, without much depth. That means more pitchers throw it now, including some who throw both sweepers and gyro-spin sliders. Once several pitchers threw both, it became especially useful to have distinct labels for the two different offerings.

But as the percentage of pitches tagged as sweepers has steadily increased over the last few seasons, the Brewers have lagged behind. In fact, they cut their sweeper usage last year.

Pitching coach Chris Hook and the rest of Milwaukee’s pitching development team have nothing against sweepers, but they generally prefer shorter pitches that spend time in the strike zone, particularly for multi-inning pitchers. They often encourage bulk pitchers to throw more cutters and sinkers, instead of a bigger breaking pitch.

Veteran starters Aaron Civale and Tyler Alexander threw fewer sweepers and more fastballs after joining the Brewers, even though those breaking pitches were previously among their most effective. Brandon Woodruff developed a sweeper while rehabbing from shoulder surgery, but he quickly realized he had a better feel for pairing a new cutter with his two existing fastballs. Prospect Coleman Crow, whose signature pitch is a big, high-spin curveball, has thrown his cutter more than any other pitch in big-league camp this year, after it was just a supporting pitch in the minor leagues last season. Sammy Peralta featured the sweeper last season; the team's first recommendation after claiming him last fall was to add a cutter.

All indications have been that the Brewers are keeping that emphasis on in-zone pitches at the heart of their pitching philosophy, but sweepers could complement that approach more than in recent seasons. Crow and DL Hall have added sweepers to their arsenal. Brandon Sproat, who could crack the Opening Day rotation, has continued throwing his sweeper 14.3% of the time in Cactus League outings since coming over via trade. Sweeper specialist Robert Gasser is also set for a fully healthy season after spending much of 2025 rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. And they did claim Peralta, after all, which shows a certain openness to acquiring guys for whom the sweeper is important and not a candidate to be scrapped or neglected.

The Brewers may apply elements of a larger philosophy to most of their pitchers, but above all else, they try to avoid putting them into a box. This year’s staff will still live mostly off fastballs, but it may be better equipped to sprinkle in more sweeping breaking balls than last year's version was. Whether that was a conscious change of course or just a product of organic efforts to improve the team one move and one player at a time, they're evolving.