Tobias Myers, Nick Mears Injuries Change the Math for Brewers' Opening Day Pitching Staff

The Brewers have an embarrassment of riches in the bullpen, but they'll utilize all of it throughout a long regular season. Pat Murphy made sure to note as much on Saturday morning.

"This group," he said, referring to all of the remaining pitchers in big-league spring training, "they're all going to pitch. They're all going to pitch in the big leagues. We used 36 or something last year."

Only eight can break camp in the bullpen, though. Until recently, most of that group already appeared locked in. Trevor Megill and Jared Koenig are the top high-leverage arms. Joel Payamps and Nick Mears cannot be optioned to the minor leagues. Neither can southpaw swingmen Tyler Alexander and Connor Thomas, who seemed ticketed for relief roles after the addition of Jose Quintana.

"It's about health, who we're playing, who has options, you know?" Murphy said.

The health disclaimer proved prescient, as hours later, Tobias Myers left his start in Tempe with left oblique discomfort. Myers downplayed his removal as precautionary and the injury as minor, but Murphy reminded reporters of the fickle nature of oblique ailments.

"Whenever you're talking about an oblique, whether it's mild or whatever it is, he had to come out of the game. It's concerning."

As Myers undergoes imaging, Murphy listed Logan Henderson and Chad Patrick as candidates to start in his absence. Alexander, Thomas, or Elvin Rodriguez could also receive spot starts. Henderson and Rodriguez are scheduled to start the Brewers' next two Cactus League games.

Mears also appears to be headed for the injured list, after losing nearly 10 pounds due to illness last week. He appeared in three games beforehand, but Murphy said Mears is effectively starting from scratch as he builds back up.

"He was down a long time, you know? He has to build back up, hasn't had a back-to-back," the skipper said. "I mean, he's not going to be able to throw a pen for four or five days. So now it's like, kid loses that much weight, that much strength, that could be a possible injury situation. So more and more opportunities are opened up."

While an unfortunate break for Mears, it could be good news for Rodriguez and Abner Uribe. It opens a more flexible bullpen spot and an opportunity to get Uribe's four-game suspension from last year out of the way to open the season.

With Mears on the shelf, the Brewers could roster a suspended Uribe, carry Rodriguez as added length to cover some of those innings (if he doesn't start for Myers), and still have space for at least one of Bryan Hudson or Elvis Peguero. The extra optionable bullpen spot would also allow them to rotate through more arms over the season's first two weeks, giving Murphy more room to enact his aggressive "win tonight" management style without taxing his relief corps out of the gates.

"That's the exact thinking," he said, adding that the potential of only needing to cover eight innings in some of the season-opening road games is another potential reason for rostering Uribe. However, the Brewers may need their multi-inning relievers to cover Myers's innings, which could make a dead bullpen spot more detrimental. Another option, Murphy said, is waiting until road games in St. Louis and Chicago at the end of April, when there is a day off between series to help the active relievers recuperate.

A few days ago, there was no apparent black-and-white bullpen alignment for Opening Day. Now, the Brewers have even more roster math to think about.

"We have a bunch of pitchers that are going to pitch for us," Murphy said, "and it's kind of how we reconnoiter it."

[Ed. note: No, that's not what 'reconnoiter' means. That's one of Murphy's pet words this spring, a remembered bit of verbiage from card games with his father as a kid. As they said in Animal House: Forget it. He's rolling.]