Jack Stern

When the Brewers activated Christian Yelich from the injured list on Tuesday, it was not surprising that they optioned Tyler Black back to Triple-A Nashville as the corresponding move. If anything, it was expected. Black was effectively the Yelich replacement: a left-handed-hitting DH and occasional left fielder. He was going to lose most of his at-bats with the former NL MVP back in the fold. Furthermore, despite his productive .333/.357/.481 slash line, Black was not actually having quality plate appearances or putting good swings on the ball. His .369 wOBA was nearly double his .192 xwOBA, which was so low because he struck out 25% of the time and had just a 15% hard-hit rate. Baseball Prospectus evaluated his performance less harshly but still credited him with just an 86 DRC+, meaning he deserved to perform 14% worse than the average hitter based on the process of his plate appearances and the quality of pitching he faced. Black did, however, show a change that could make him a more viable hitter down the line. He's changed his bat path this year, decreasing his swing tilt from 37 degrees in 2024 and 39 degrees in 2025 to 35 degrees this year. Pat Murphy teased that modified swing when Black was recalled, saying he and the Brewers had worked on making his bat path less choppy to help him make more consistent contact. "He had that small margin for error this way in his swing," Murphy said last month, referring to Black's inability to get his barrel to pitches at different heights in the strike zone. "We're helping him try to [get] a little more on plane a little bit. Because it's hard to hit that other way, with that 'V,' you know? A lot of guys did, but you're going to mishit a lot of balls." With a swing tilt nearing 40 degrees, Black had one of the steeper, more vertical swings in baseball. Such a swing travels downward more before working its way back up as it makes contact with the pitch. Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Brandon Marsh has a similar 37-degree swing tilt this year as a left-handed hitter. Notice how his swing path forms a "U" shape as it travels through the hitting zone. marsh.mp4 There's no one right swing path for success – every hitter is different, and there's more to a swing than just its tilt – but a naturally steeper path can often put hitters in a better position to make the best kind of contact with different pitches, provided there's some adaptability to the swing based on pitch height. Murphy himself considers more vertical swings to be the most productive. Black's bat path didn't have that "U" shape, though. Instead of traveling in an arc, his bat often came straight down and then straight up. He makes contact very deep in the hitting zone – about 21 inches toward the pitcher from his center of mass, according to Statcast. With such a steep swing, you would expect his bat to still be coming down when he makes that deep contact, producing a negative attack angle. Instead, his attack angle last season was 9 degrees, meaning his bat was already coming back up by that time. That's the choppy "V" shape Murphy is referencing. If all of that sounds like a mouthful, here's what it looked like in real life back in 2024. You can see Black chop at a fastball down the middle, with his bat quickly traveling straight down and then straight up. It was a very hittable pitch, yet he was late on it and underneath it, producing a 77.6-mph bloop single to left-center. It was a hit, but it wasn't the kind of contact any hitter would hope to make with such a fastball. black 2024.mp4 In addition to lowering his swing tilt, Black's attack angle also decreased to 5 degrees in his brief time with the Brewers this year. His swing path is still pretty steep, but it's far less choppy. You can see how it's a more normal-looking path in one of Black's few hard-hit balls this year, a fastball he pulled off the right-field wall for a double against the Arizona Diamondbacks. black 2026.mp4 It's worth noting that those two swings occurred in different situations. One was a middle fastball, and the other was closer to the outside corner. The first was also a defensive two-strike swing, while the second came in a 1-1 count, where a hitter will usually look to do more damage with an in-zone pitch. Still, those two cuts illustrate the problem with Black's previous swing and how he and the Brewers are trying to correct it. The payoff hasn't come yet, though, with Black still looking overmatched by big-league pitching. His timing was still too late during his latest stint, and he chased too much and rarely made solid contact. Those mishit balls would have eventually found more gloves. Black is best off in Nashville for now, where he'll continue getting at-bats to grow more comfortable with that revamped swing. "Tyler knows that he's good enough to play in the big leagues," Murphy said. "He knows that he's wanted, and his time will come again."

After his struggles reached their apex in a blown save on April 14, Trevor Megill’s results have flipped for the better. Megill has allowed just one earned run in his last nine outings, picking up four holds and an extra-innings save while settling in as a productive setup man ahead of Abner Uribe. It hasn’t been a run of favorable luck, either. Megill has been legitimately dominant during this stretch, missing barrels and posting excellent strikeout and walk rates. Most of his major ERA estimators since April 16 are below 2.50. {C}%3C!%2D%2Dtd%20%7Bborder%3A%201px%20solid%20%23cccccc%3B%7Dbr%20%7Bmso-data-placement%3Asame-cell%3B%7D%2D%2D%3E--> Date BF ERA xERA FIP SIERA Hard Hit K% BB% K-BB% Through 4/14 29 14.40 7.90 4.12 5.00 52.6% 17.2% 13.8% 3.4% Since 4/16 33 1.00 1.75 1.34 2.21 35.0% 33.3% 6.1% 27.3% The turnaround has not come from Megill rediscovering the lost fastball velocity that plagued him in his first several outings. In fact, his velocity has continued to decrease ever so slightly, even at the time of year when he starts rounding into form. His heater averaged 99 mph last May, but it’s at just 96.9 mph this month. Sitting 96-to-98 now looks even more like his new normal than an early-season blip on the radar. At that velocity, Megill’s fastball remains a magnet for loud contact instead of the overpowering pitch it was when it regularly touched triple digits. It’s performed more reliably during this stretch, though, largely because Megill has used it more strategically. {C}%3C!%2D%2Dtd%20%7Bborder%3A%201px%20solid%20%23cccccc%3B%7Dbr%20%7Bmso-data-placement%3Asame-cell%3B%7D%2D%2D%3E--> Date FB MPH FB Exit Velo FB Hard Hit FB wOBA FB xwOBA FB Whiff% Through 4/14 97.5 98.7 77.8% .520 .595 16.7% Since 4/16 97.2 91.0 57.1% .299 .402 22.9% For starters, Megill has made his pitch mix far less predictable. Here’s how he attacked hitters through that blown save: Since that outing, Megill has not only decreased his overall fastball usage and thrown more curveballs, but also mixed those pitches more evenly in most count situations. It’s become harder for hitters to pick up on patterns and sit on a certain pitch. As a fireballing late-inning reliever, Megill has never needed to be a command pitcher. His breakout with the Brewers stemmed mostly from throwing more pitches in the strike zone, not locating them in perfect spots. With reduced velocity, his old approach of trying to throw every pitch down the middle—knowing his fastball would stay true through the zone, while his curveball would drop below the knees—is no longer viable. Instead, Megill appears to be targeting more specific locations when playing his fastball and curve (which is essentially a short, tight gyrospin slider at this point) off one another. In those early weeks of the season, his command was sporadic, but the middle of the zone still looked like his focal point. Lately, his location has looked more deliberate. Megill is keeping his fastball around the top of the zone to righties, allowing him to land more in-zone curveballs out of the same tunnel for takes and weak contact. Against lefties, he’s setting up chases on back-foot breaking balls with low fastballs shaded inside. In addition to throwing more high fastballs, Megill is also backspinning them a bit more, and his release height is slightly higher. Those changes have increased the carry on his heater, improving its induced vertical break from 19.1 inches to 20 inches during this stretch. Small improvements like that can be the difference between a barreled ball and a swing slightly underneath his fastball. Without its best velocity, Megill needed new strategies to keep hitters from timing it up. He’s made some impressive progress on the fly in response to his struggles, allowing him to remain a key piece in the Brewers’ bullpen—for now.

After taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning against the Washington Nationals last week before a cramp ended his night early, Jacob Misiorowski's follow-up start was arguably more dominant. The right-hander held the New York Yankees -- who entered Friday as the third-best offense in baseball, by measure of wRC+ -- to two hits and two walks over six scoreless innings, striking out 11. Throughout the night, he shattered records on the radar gun. In the first inning, Misiorowski threw the five fastest pitches thrown by a starting pitcher in the pitch-tracking era (which began in 2008), hitting at least 103 mph seven times. He fell one strike short of opening his outing with an immaculate inning when his ninth pitch was a ball just below the zone to Aaron Judge. "I had no clue," Misiorowski said postgame. "I got told in the dugout. I went back and looked and thought it was close, but yeah." Misiorowski didn't sit 103 the entire night, but he held triple-digit velocity throughout, averaging north of 100 mph in every inning but the fourth. In the sixth, his final fastball of the night and 94th pitch overall was 102.7 mph. "Never seen that," said Shane Drohan, who picked up his first big-league save with three innings of relief behind Misiorowski. "That was a first." "I've had games in the past where you get that sudden burst of adrenaline in the fifth or sixth somewhere, and you find it back," Misiorowski said. "But this was a first for the big leagues." Misiorowski leaned heavily on that signature fastball, throwing it 60% of the time and recording seven of his strikeouts with it. Sitting at 101.1 mph, it was the highest recorded average fastball velocity (four-seamers and two-seamers) in any outing of at least 90 pitches. It was actually the third time he's set that record in his last four starts. Misiorowski's start against the Pittsburgh Pirates on April 25 (100.5 mph) ranks second on that list, and his start before that on April 19 (99.7 mph) is third. As the weather has warmed up, so has Misiorowski's velocity. More impressively, he's maintaining it deeper into games, a product of the lanky 24-year-old adding strength and learning to better use his body since debuting in the big leagues last summer. "If you look at his legs and you look at his body, he's working," Pat Murphy said. "He's got guys like [Brandon Woodruff], our strength staff, they're showing him, 'Look, man, this is how you've got to maintain. You want to be a major-league pitcher, you've got to work in between those five days.' And he's in there working." In his current form, Misiorowski could establish himself as the hardest-throwing starting pitcher that baseball has ever reliably documented. His average fastball velocity of 99.7 mph would be the highest of any qualified starting pitcher season in the pitch-tracking era, a full tick above Jacob deGrom's 98.6-mph average in 2020 and Paul Skenes's 98.2-mph mark last year. A pitcher's best velocity and command usually go hand in hand. When his body is moving most effectively, he's putting himself in the best position to generate energy at release and throw the ball accurately. That's been the case for Misiorowski. His fastball averaged 98.5 mph through his first four starts, and he threw just 45.2% of them in the zone. In his last four, his fastball has averaged 100.5 mph with a 56.1% in-zone rate. In those outings, he's cut his walk rate to 8.9% while striking out 41.6% of batters faced. "It's not just velo," Murphy said. "There's a lot more to it." That has included Misiorowski's poise on the mound and his handling of physical and mental adversity. Some of his outings as a rookie (and a couple last month) were derailed by one rough inning or fatigue near the end of starts. On Friday, he remained sharp through a long break during a four-run second inning for the Brewers' offense and an injury delay in the fourth for Brandon Lockridge, who suffered a right knee laceration in a collision with the left-field wall. Misiorowski still looked strong as he neared 100 pitches in the sixth. "You saw it in Boston, his legs got really tired," Murphy said. "His legs were tired today, and he said that. He said, 'Hey, I'm not done, but my legs are getting tired.' So with that, he maintained his composure and didn't walk people, or whatever. He got right back on the horse." Misiorowski is breaking out. His stuff is better than ever. His control is better than ever. His mound presence is improving. He leads baseball in strikeouts. Misiorowski quickly put himself on baseball's radar last season, but his two latest outings checked every box of a pitcher who has arrived as one of the game's elite starters. "I think he's learning day in and day out what it takes to be a big-time guy," Murphy said.

Results alone made it clear that the Brewers were missing Jackson Chourio and Andrew Vaughn. Through May 3, Milwaukee’s offense posted a collective 96 wRC+, which ranked 18th in baseball. Their .354 slugging percentage ranked 28th. Both hitters quickly helped in that regard upon returning from the injured list in St. Louis on Monday. In two games, Chourio has gone 6-for-9 with three doubles, while Vaughn launched his first home run of the season on Wednesday afternoon. Beyond their individual results lies the pair’s larger impact on the Brewers’ offensive identity. With Chourio and Vaughn sidelined, their lineup made do with an even more extreme version of the scrappy small-ball approach that has defined them during the Pat Murphy era. According to Baseball Savant, last season’s Brewers had baseball’s fourth-highest ground ball rate and laid down the second-most bunts. Without Chourio and Vaughn (who was only active for four plate appearances on Opening Day), they were the only team with a ground ball rate over 50%, the league’s highest by nearly four percentage points. They also bunted four more times than any other team. Through a combination of fortunate sequencing and timely, well-executed small ball, the Brewers have gotten more mileage from that approach than many might expect. Despite that below-average wRC+, they were eighth in runs scored without Chourio and Vaughn. It would always be challenging to successfully ride that style of play through a 162-game season, though, so regaining those two hitters and their more powerful batted-ball profiles was a welcome change. Chourio’s career ground-ball rate is 45.1%, and Vaughn’s is 43.1%. In addition to supplying more line drives and fly balls, the two bring something else the lineup was lacking more generally: hard-hit balls. Without them, the Brewers were 24th in hard-hit rate. While Chourio and Vaughn’s contact quality is closer to good than great, their respective hard-hit rates ranked in the 62nd and 84th percentiles of hitters last season. The aggressive Chourio also brings a damage-hunting approach to a lineup that once again has baseball’s lowest swing rate. Blake Perkins, Luis Matos, Greg Jones, and Tyler Black filled most of the playing time while Chourio and Vaughn were on the shelf. In 118 combined plate appearances, they combined to hit eight balls with an exit velocity of at least 100 mph. In 19 plate appearances, Chourio and Vaughn have hit nine. With two of their heavier hitters in tow, the Brewers’ lineup now comes together more cohesively. Their presence takes pressure off Brice Turang as one of the few remaining power bats in the order. Black, Jake Bauers, Sal Frelick, and Garrett Mitchell need not hit in as many unfavorable left-on-left matchups and can return to roles better suited to their skill sets. Murphy won’t be forced to sacrifice flexibility with late-game substitutions by starting backup catcher Gary Sánchez as the DH. As encouraging as the early results were, the bigger-picture impact makes Chourio and Vaughn’s returns most promising.

As is true of most teams, Brewers catchers have been far more successful in using baseball’s new ABS challenge system than their hitters have been. According to Statcast, catchers across the league (plus a small handful of pitchers) have won 59% of challenges, while hitters have won just 46%. That’s not surprising; catchers have a much better view of the strike zone from behind the plate than hitters do in the batter’s box. “People were saying back in spring training, like, it's going to take a while for the hitters, because they have, all of a sudden, the new strike zone,” said Pat Murphy, referring to the the system not using the rulebook 3D strike zone, but a 2D zone above the middle of the plate, determined based on percentages of the batter’s measured height. “Catchers do, too, but they've obviously got the view [behind the plate] that no one has.” What has been surprising, though, is just how poorly the Brewers have utilized their challenges on offense. Their catchers have combined to win a nearly average 57% of challenges, but their hitters have won just 33%, which ranks 28th among 30 teams. Overturn rate alone does not supply context for those challenges, nor does it measure whether the Brewers have a sound strategy that they’re executing well enough. More than anything, the club evaluates challenge decisions on the situation, wanting hitters and catchers to use it in the most impactful moments. “I think you could say leverage or non-leverage,” Murphy said last week of challenge situations. “If it’s a pitch that alters the at-bat—so strike three, ball four, something like that—look at those things. Guys in scoring position make it a bigger situation.” Statcast uses a pitch’s location and run probability to determine which are reasonable challenge opportunities. Using data on the types of pitches and situations in which most players across the league challenge, it also estimates how many runs a team has gained from its challenges, compared to expected runs gained. On average, 66% of challenges initiated by hitters have qualified as reasonable challenges. Milwaukee hitters are slightly above that mark at 67%, yet they’ve gained 0.5 fewer expected runs from overturns than expected, which ranks 23rd in the league. The Brewers have made some noticeably poor challenges lately. Greg Jones exhausted their final challenge in the fourth inning last week on a called strike almost entirely in the zone, and Garrett Mitchell lost it in the second inning over the weekend on a pitch on the outside corner. The real issue, though, is that they have not challenged enough at opportune times; their 15% challenge rate on reasonable opportunities ranks 27th. “It’s when you don’t challenge on a ball that’s clearly incorrect in an opportune time or a leverage time,” Murphy said. “We call them ‘fives.’ When you get a five, if you don’t challenge, you’re hurting your club. Even if it’s this much off.” The Brewers have such a low success rate because they decline to challenge more pitches that would be overturned. They’ve taken 90 called strikes outside the zone this year, the sixth-most in baseball. That hesitancy has been a theme throughout their lineup. With the exception of Gary Sanchez, who has been one of baseball’s most aggressive challengers, the team doesn't have anyone on the active roster who is proactive in suing for their rights at the edges of the zone. Whether it’s a fear of losing a challenge or a lack of discernment on pitches around the edges, it’s been a surprising weakness for a lineup that prides itself on knowing the strike zone. The Brewers have become known for winning on the margins, but they’re currently losing on this one. Murphy noted that there could be some understandable growing pains for hitters who have not used the challenge system before, but they must improve over time. “As long as our catchers are trending in the right direction, I think that’s equally as important,” Murphy said. “The hitters now [have] to get a little more comfortable with it.”

Pat Murphy has not been one to quickly trust unproven relievers. That made it notable when Shane Drohan, with two big-league appearances with mixed results to his name, warmed up for the sixth inning with the Brewers leading 3-2 on Tuesday night. Milwaukee added a few more runs to give him some breathing room, but Drohan was still tasked with protecting a three-run lead in the middle innings in his third MLB appearance. He worked a perfect inning, striking out one and generating three whiffs out of his 10 pitches. “I really like him, man,” Murphy said. “He was locked in. I don’t know how many pitches he threw in that inning, but it was 1-2-3, and it was crisp.” Drohan’s second stint with the team this month has been more successful than the first, but that doesn’t mean much in two small sample sizes. What matters is that the 27-year-old left-hander, who already learned plenty about himself throughout the past couple of seasons, has continued tinkering and polishing his game. That work has shown up in improved stuff and execution his past two times out. When Drohan debuted in Boston on April 8, he was using the full wind-up he reintroduced last season, which he felt improved the tempo and explosiveness of his delivery. drohan1.mp4 After that outing, Drohan reverted to a hybrid wind-up. In his last two outings, he’s been starting with his back leg parallel to and against the rubber, eliminating the extra movement of stepping back and repositioning his body as he begins his delivery. drohan2.mp4 “I just kind of went back to that preset back leg,” Drohan said. “It just felt like it synced everything up a lot better.” Because it’s closer to pitching fully out of the stretch with runners on, a reduced wind-up would always be best for Drohan to repeat his delivery consistently. Now that he feels it’s his best starting position, it should serve him well. The early results have been encouraging: more strikes and improved velocity, with his four-seamer averaging nearly 96 mph in that shortened outing on Tuesday. {C}%3C!%2D%2Dtd%20%7Bborder%3A%201px%20solid%20%23cccccc%3B%7Dbr%20%7Bmso-data-placement%3Asame-cell%3B%7D%2D%2D%3E--> Game Date Pitches 4FB Velo Zone% 4/8 63 93.4 46.0% 4/24 71 94.6 46.5% 4/28 10 95.9 60.0% “It just allows me to really step on the gas at the right time in my delivery,” he said. “Sometimes, it can be a little early, so I feel like that preset foot just allows me to get into the back leg and go down the mound and then really finish the throw at the right time.” With a six-pitch arsenal that includes two great breaking balls and a solid changeup, Drohan has the tools to start. That’s been his role in Triple-A, and the Brewers figure to keep him stretched out as depth for as long as possible. He could be optioned back down in the coming days for a fresher long relief arm. “We’re always trying to get as many starters as we can,” Murphy said. “I think there’s a length role there for him, for sure. He’s built up already.” However, Drohan flashed his upside as a reliever on Tuesday by letting his two best pitches – his four-seamer and slider – play at a higher speed in a shortened stint. That might be his more immediate path to impacting the big-league club in 2026. “It’s a cool, nice adrenaline rush when the phone rings and they say your name,” Drohan said of pitching in relief. “But other than that, it’s not much different. Just get guys out, whether it’s the beginning of the game or whenever they call you.” Whatever role he fills, the Brewers acquired him to contribute at times throughout the season. He hasn’t gotten the same opportunities as Kyle Harrison, whom they acquired alongside him from the Boston Red Sox a few months ago, but Drohan is showing glimpses of how effective he can be. “I think he can help us,” Murphy said.

At times, pitchers have appeared aware of the hole in Garrett Mitchell's swing. Knowing his struggles against high fastballs and his excellence against breaking pitches around the bottom of the zone, they've consistently thrown him more hard pitches and fewer spinning ones than the average hitter. Right-handers have tried to beat him with the north-south game, pairing high fastballs with changeups below the zone. For the most part, though, opponents have yet to match the extreme nature of Mitchell's swing with a commensurate extremity of approach. In fact, many pitchers this year have dialed things back to a more standard mix. It's part of the reason why Mitchell has posted a career 116 wRC+ despite a 34.5% strikeout rate, including a 126 wRC+ (with a 37.9% strikeout rate) to begin the 2026 season. He still gets enough low fastballs and mistake breaking balls, which he obliterates thanks to his elite strength and bat speed. Mitchell has been pitched more like a normal hitter this year, but he's anything but that. Normal hitters have weaknesses, and many of them have one at the top of the zone, but Mitchell's bat is nearly guaranteed to miss anything elevated. For his career, he has put the ball in play on just 9.5% of swings against fastballs in or above the upper third of the zone (the league average during that span is 27.3%, nearly three times higher). He's whiffed on 54% of those swings and managed just four hits in 76 at-bats, a .053 batting average. With such a low success rate, there's an argument for throwing traditional pitch sequencing out the window, and that there's no need to show Mitchell anything but high fastballs until he proves he can touch them. Repeatedly executing that pitch is easier said than done, though, especially with the knowledge that the moment a pitcher misses below the letters, Mitchell will make them pay. That, along with disjointed playing time throughout his injury-riddled career, may be why no team had attempted such an approach. As Matt Trueblood laid out last week, a lower top line of the strike zone has also made it harder for pitchers to put the ball in places that force Mitchell to lean into his own weaknesses. Throwing it where he can't handle it often means throwing it where he can afford to lay off it and get ahead in the count, under the new, ABS-tailored zone. That changed over the weekend, when the Pittsburgh Pirates came to Milwaukee and peppered Mitchell with an onslaught of high fastballs. In three games, 37 of the 44 pitches he saw were fastballs, and 24—a whopping 54.5% of all pitches and nearly two-thirds of the heaters—were high. The approach worked. Mitchell pieced up a couple of mistake pitches, hitting a 108-mph lineout and a 100-mph double on fastballs around his belt line, but he went just 1-for-10 in the series, with three strikeouts. If there was a silver lining, it's that two of those strikeouts came against Paul Skenes in the series opener. As the weekend progressed, Mitchell began fouling off most of those high fastballs, instead of missing them entirely. That's an expected improvement after seeing the same pitch so many times, but Mitchell still looked thoroughly overmatched, swinging late and underneath those balls to softly clip them foul. Even knowing with near certainty that those high fastballs were coming, he still put those pitches in play on just two of 14 swings (14.3%) and whiffed on 35.7% of them. Here are all of those swings compiled on video: Mitchell high FBs.mp4 While most teams may not execute elevated fastballs as consistently as the Pirates did, their success could embolden more pitchers to take that extreme approach against Mitchell. Earlier in the week, the Detroit Tigers threw him high heaters 34.8% of the time. He tripled off one of those pitches but whiffed on 71.4% of swings against them, going 2-for-9 in the series. By being selective and capitalizing on pitches in his hot zones, Mitchell has produced despite having one of the sport's most extreme cold zones. To his credit, he has also spent significant time trying to close that hole in his swing path. None of that work has yielded improvement, though, and teams could start targeting that weakness more aggressively. In his fifth season, Mitchell may finally be staring down the ultimate test of whether his swing path will work against big-league pitching.

You could see the seeds of an eventual Brewers comeback early on, even as Tarik Skubal put up zeros for most of his start. After Skubal cruised through their lineup the first time through on just 26 pitches, Milwaukee made him throw 28 in the fourth inning. The Brewers were playing their game, working long at-bats and forcing the opposing starter to exert himself, even if they weren't hitting much. "Kind of make him uncomfortable and be annoying," Blake Perkins said. "That's kind of our game, sometimes." It's been an even bigger part of their game recently. Down Jackson Chourio, Andrew Vaughn, and Christian Yelich, the offense is in survival mode. With four starters in the lineup on most days with OPS marks well below .650, the Brewers aren't generating much offense by driving the baseball. That's left them scrapping even harder, relying on walks, infield singles, bunts, and steals—all ways to advance runners without the ball leaving the infield—to scratch across runs. They were back at it against Skubal on Thursday afternoon, even mixing in a few timely line drives. After a Gary Sánchez bloop single and a Luis Matos ground ball through the hole into right field to open the seventh, Perkins worked a seven-pitch at-bat, forcing Skubal into the heart of the strike zone with a fastball that he lined for a game-tying double. "He's coming after you, so I think we had to be ready to swing early," Perkins said. "But I think, at least for me in general, trying to bring him closer [to the middle], because he tries to throw that changeup off the outside part of the plate." Joey Ortiz hit a hard line drive up the middle to move Perkins to third, and David Hamilton snuck a ground ball into left to score him. The Brewers had an improbable lead, a hard-earned prize from an afternoon of gritty at-bats. "Skubal, he's really, really good," Pat Murphy said. "We had some things go our way and laid down some great bunts, put pressure on him. I'm proud of our club that we battled this way when things are going against us." That close lead would be short-lived. Ángel Zerpa allowed a game-tying solo home run to Jahmai Jones in the eighth, and Abner Uribe allowed a walk-off shot to Spencer Torkelson in the ninth, continuing a turbulent start to the season for the Milwaukee bullpen. "They did what they needed to do," Murphy said. "They hit homers off leverage relievers." The contrast was striking. According to Statcast, the Brewers managed just a 30% hard-hit rate on the afternoon with zero barreled balls, but they squeezed four runs out of minimal solid contact, giving it everything they had through meticulous approaches and small ball. On the other side, the Tigers flipped the game multiple times with one swing, scoring four of their five runs on home runs. Both lineups had competitive at-bats, but scoring seemed easier for the side that slugged. "They didn't attempt to steal, or they didn't attempt to bunt," Murphy said. "They could swing the bat. They were poised, and they deserved to win." While the Tigers got their big hits, the Brewers couldn't break the game open, even as they kept pecking away. "They kept their composure and turned those double plays and made quality pitches at quality times," Murphy said. "We didn't put the nail in and hit. We didn't get the big hit when we could." At a larger level, that's what's missing from the Brewers' current lineup. The healthy version is not built around slugging, but without their trio of currently injured hitters, it's forced to rely too heavily on the slow assemblage of single runs. Milwaukee is 25th in baseball in home runs and has the highest ground-ball rate, by a long shot. Small ball can be a separator between two good offenses, but it won't get you the big hit. Chourio is getting closer to a rehab assignment, while Vaughn and Yelich are further off—perhaps another four weeks from returning to action. For now, the Brewers don't have much choice but to keep grinding out at-bats. They'll continue to do that no matter the situation, but their lineup needs more true production.

Ángel Zerpa's tenure with the Brewers has gotten off to a rocky start. The hard-throwing left-hander has picked up two holds and two saves in 10 appearances, but he's also blown two saves and struggled to a 5.73 ERA, 6.45 xERA, and 4.78 FIP, with as many walks (five) as strikeouts. That's not what the Brewers envisioned when they acquired Zerpa from the Kansas City Royals over the offseason in exchange for Isaac Collins and Nick Mears. They believed—and still do—that he can be a dominant high-leverage reliever near the back of their bullpen. Zerpa's results in Kansas City never quite followed his great stuff, which is headlined by a power sinker that averages just 3.2 inches of induced vertical break with 17.3 inches of arm-side run. "I think it's frustrating from our standpoint, because I think he's so much better than what he's shown so far," said pitching coordinator Jim Henderson, who specializes in working with the team's relievers. "I think that there's just so much more in there." Because he left Brewers camp to pitch for Team Venezuela in the World Baseball Classic, Zerpa didn't get the amount of work with Henderson, Chris Hook, and the rest of the team's pitching coaches that they would have preferred. That's left them working things out on the fly in regular-season games. The Brewers deployed Zerpa across multiple innings in three of his first seven outings, the last of which saw him surrender four runs when he returned for a second frame. His last three outings have each been one-inning engagements, as the team has reevaluated whether he's suited to handle multiple ups in an appearance. They also want to make his delivery simpler and more consistent. As the rare reliever who pitches out of the windup with the bases empty, Zerpa has more movement than usual in his delivery. Those tweaks are much easier to make in a preseason setting. "I think we would have done those things in spring training, we just kind of missed those opportunities with the Classic," Henderson said. "So now we're just trying to attack those things, the simplified things, and get it more consistent for him." While the Brewers have not gotten as far as they would have liked by now in facilitating a breakout, one of the adjustments they have made has Zerpa on the right track. At the time of the trade, it looked like they could unlock his upside by turning his slurve-like breaking ball into a harder and shorter slider that appeared more like a fastball out of his hand. They did exactly that. "He's kind of a power guy," Henderson said, "so what can you do that can power this breaking ball in front? So we kind of settled on just wanting to throw it harder, maybe even just a little bit shorter, on the tip of the plate, and just match what he does intensity-wise [with the sinker] with a good breaking ball." Because he doesn't have long fingers, all of Zerpa's pitches have lower-than-average spin rates. By trying to throw a bigger breaking ball, he was working against his capabilities. "With guys trying to make bigger sweepers, if you don't have the fingers long enough, it kind of slips out on you, and I think that's kind of what was happening to him," Henderson said. "When he tried to make it big, he wasn't able to work in front of it or work around it as much as if somebody with a little longer fingers were." Because he's no longer trying too hard to spin the ball for bigger movement, Zerpa is now throwing the slider from a lower arm angle, much closer to his sinker. His release points are now similar enough that hitters shouldn't see that slider pop out of his hand earlier than his heater, which seemed to be the case at times earlier in his career. "It's not a big focus for us, but you can definitely tell that there's a little something there that's recognizable for the hitter when you see the slot change," Henderson said. "Just trying to have these two pitches funneled together is important." Starting the sinker and slider from the same tunnel should lead to more swings and misses and chases outside the zone, two significant missing pieces that have kept Zerpa from putting everything together. Instead, his 17.3% whiff rate is nearly identical to last year, and his chase rate has decreased from 26.6% to 19.2%. That's because poor command has left those pitches in the middle of the zone, instead of where they play best at the bottom. Even with too many pitches around the belt, Zerpa is still inducing ground balls at an elite 62.2% rate. The Brewers have tailored his side work toward getting the ball down more consistently. Zerpa no longer throws flat-ground pen sessions with a standing catch partner, which creates a higher target; all of his work is with catchers on a knee or in a squat, replicating where he needs to locate in games. "It's a good sinker," Henderson said. "The results are actually still fine, even when it's elevated. Can't imagine what it's going to be when we get it to the lower third." The ingredients in Zerpa's left arm are still there. In some ways, he's closer to that breakout than he was at the end of last year. For now, though, there's still work left to get everything into place. "He pitched fantastic in the Classic," Henderson said. "I think that's always tough. You come off this high and this intensity, and then you come back down a little bit, even though it's in the big leagues, and then we ask him to go multiple [innings]. It's a lot to handle, and I just don't think we've got to the crispest version of him yet. So I'm looking forward to getting him in a consistent kind of role here and getting him going."

The Brewers leaned heavily on their top relievers last season, but in a bullpen that covered the fourth-most regular-season innings in baseball, Grant Anderson was one of the hardest workers. The sidewinding right-hander logged 69 2/3 innings in relief, trailing only Abner Uribe. Once again, Anderson has quietly been an unsung workhorse. His 12 appearances thus far in 2026 tie him with Aaron Ashby for the club lead. In 13 1/3 innings, he’s posted a 2.70 ERA and 2.98 FIP. Anderson’s strikeout rate has decreased from last year, but he has paired a decent 10.5% swinging strike rate with an excellent 57.6% ground ball rate. “He’s been sharp,” Pat Murphy said. “He had the hiccup there in extra innings [against the Toronto Blue Jays on April 14], and then he’s been really good ever since.” Anderson has quickly become a Swiss Army knife for Murphy in the early weeks of the season, particularly as other relievers like Trevor Megill and Ángel Zerpa have struggled. He’s appeared in every inning from the third through the 10th. He’s kept the Brewers in games when trailing, protected close leads, and even entered jams as a fireman, collecting four holds along the way. He entered a fire on Tuesday evening in Detroit, before the Brewers’ offense broke through late in a 12-4 blowout win over the Tigers. Anderson inherited a bases-loaded, no-out situation from Kyle Harrison, who lost his fastball command in the fourth inning when the lead was still just 3-0. He promptly induced a double-play grounder from Javier Báez and struck out Kerry Carpenter to escape trouble with just one run scoring. “That was awesome,” Harrison said of Anderson’s effort. Anderson then returned to throw a scoreless fifth, giving the Brewers six crucial outs of middle relief before the momentum swung their way. “It was huge today for him to come in when he did,” Murphy said. “Bases loaded, no outs, get the ground ball, get a number of ground balls in the game. That was huge.” Anderson’s 20.4% strikeout rate is a touch below the league average, but the whiffs he had last year could soon return. His stuff is arguably better in his second season in Milwaukee. By slightly raising his arm slot (for a second straight season) from 4° to 8°, Anderson has added an extra inch of induced vertical break to his four-seamer, meaning what was already his top swing-and-miss pitch a year ago now has even more carry at the top of the strike zone. Stuff models grade it as an even better pitch than it was in 2025, even without its best velocity. {C}%3C!%2D%2Dtd%20%7Bborder%3A%201px%20solid%20%23cccccc%3B%7Dbr%20%7Bmso-data-placement%3Asame-cell%3B%7D%2D%2D%3E--> Season 4FB Velocity 4FB IVB 4FB Stuff+ 4FB StuffPro 2025 93.5 12.2 114 -0.2 2026 92.8 13.2 118 -0.5 He’ll need those strikeouts moving forward, particularly because he’s always been prone to walks and occasional home runs. But for now, Anderson is once again playing a pivotal role in the Brewers’ relief corps, even if he’s neither the flashiest nor the most conventionally effective member.

In the Brewers' first two games without an injured Christian Yelich, Pat Murphy has hit Sal Frelick in the leadoff spot. The change was partially due to a lineup shakeup in Yelich's absence—Brice Turang has moved from leadoff to the 3-hole—but it was also to spark a pressing Frelick's offense. The 25-year-old is hitting just .179/.303/.268 in 67 plate appearances to start the season. "I think what happens is a kid like him that wants it so badly, he gets going, and he's going to try and make it happen right now," Murphy said. "He doesn't look to have a perspective, in a way, of what's going on. That's why I put him leadoff [Tuesday night]." Frelick is much closer to last year's form than his results indicate. After overperforming his peripherals in his breakout season, it's been the opposite to begin his follow-up campaign. His expected production is essentially identical, mainly because he's chasing less and drawing more walks to begin 2026. {C}%3C!%2D%2Dtd%20%7Bborder%3A%201px%20solid%20%23cccccc%3B%7Dbr%20%7Bmso-data-placement%3Asame-cell%3B%7D%2D%2D%3E--> Season wRC+ DRC+ wOBA xwOBA Chase% xwOBAcon 2025 114 101 .332 .299 26.3% .305 2026 71 103 .276 .307 20.9% .290 His abnormally low batting average on balls in play (.209, down from .308 for his career before this) is destined to improve, especially for a hitter like Frelick, who hits plenty of grounders and line drives and can leg out infield hits with his speed. He did see some luck swing his way on Wednesday night as part of the Brewers' comeback win to snap their six-game losing streak. In the eighth inning, Frelick bounced a soft ground ball in front of the plate, where it landed on the dampened dirt from heavy rainfall leaking through American Family Field's roof. He reached when Toronto Blue Jays catcher Brandon Valenzuela could not pick up the ball cleanly, ultimately coming around to score the winning run. "He's had some unlucky things go wrong when he's hitting the ball well," starter Chad Patrick said after the game. "Sometimes the baseball gods give you rewards." It hasn't all been bad luck, though. Frelick isn't quite himself right now, in a small but meaningful way. His expected wOBA on contact is down 15 points, which means he's hitting fewer balls in ways that typically produce hits. Murphy believes "wanting it so badly" is the cause. "I think he's the first to try to do too much," Murphy said. "He cares so much. He's so passionate about competing and winning. One of the best I've been around. When it's not going your way, it's hard to be relaxed about it for a kid like him, and he's got to learn to just kind of do a little less, be a little more precise." The biggest difference has been that the baseball is getting on Frelick quicker than when he's been at his best. He's consistently late on the ball. On average, he's making contact about three inches deeper into his hitting zone (the purple dot in the graphic below) than last year (the white dot). Because he's late, Frelick is catching more balls as his bat head is still coming down through the zone, producing more ground balls. Compared to last year, his average attack angle (the vertical angle of the bat relative to the ground at point of contact) has decreased from 9° to 5°, and his ground ball rate has increased from 45.4% to 50.1%. It's not necessarily that Frelick is picking up the ball late, Murphy said, but that his load, which begins with a leg kick, has become exaggerated from trying to do too much. That makes it harder for his swing to be on time. "Think about it. The bigger the move, the bigger the get-ready, the less time you have," Murphy said. "So you have to usually time that up way earlier, if you're going to have a bigger move or a bigger get-ready. He's got some things he has to work through." The good news is that, metrically, Frelick's swing path is effectively the same as last year. As is typically the case for most hitters, the wide chasm between success and failure comes down to milliseconds of timing. "The swings don't change that much," Murphy said. "Even [Joey Ortiz], if he gets straightened out, the swing's going to look similar. It's the decision, and it's the timing of it all—because hitting is so much timing—that's going to change. You'll see that, like, 'Wow, he's on it. Wow, he's on time. Wow, he looks like a different hitter.' But when you break down the swing, it won't be that different. There might be a little angular shift, or there might be a little bit of grip difference. There might be a little bit of freedom in the swing that you don't see." He moved Frelick to the top of the order in part to bring him back to his roots. A leadoff man's job is not to produce power or drive in runners, but to get on base. "That little reminder, that's how he works," Murphy said. "When he's batting seventh sometimes, it's kind of, 'Do they want me to get on base?' It's kind of like, what does it call for? For him to know, you have to tell him." Because his quality of contact did not fully support his results last season, it's probably safer to expect Frelick to be closer to a league-average hitter than the well-above-average bat he was a year ago. Coupled with his speed and defense, that's still a very productive player. Murphy expects him to round into form. "One of the greatest attributes of this guy is he's a winning player," he said, "and winning players know what's needed."

Trevor Megill’s struggles continued on Tuesday night. Tasked with protecting a one-run lead against the Toronto Blue Jays, Megill allowed the first three hitters to reach, ultimately allowing three runs in his inning of work as the Brewers eventually fell in extra innings for their sixth straight loss. In six appearances, he now has two losses and a blown save, while allowing eight runs in five innings. “I’m definitely way better than that,” Megill said. “Pitches can be a lot better. Pitch execution could be a lot better. A lot of things can be better.” Megill’s fastball is the primary culprit. So far this year, it’s averaging 97.4 mph. That’s about where it sat last April before averaging nearly triple digits over the summer, but he’s noticeably failed to reach that high-end velocity since suffering a flexor strain late in the year. “Everybody can hit velo up here,” Megill said. “Throwing 97, 98 is kind of the same velos [for him] from last season at this time. Just not executing and not getting it done right now.” That velocity matters, though. Because he throws a straight four-seamer that does not enter the zone from a deceptive angle, Megill needs that outlier heat to get whiffs or swings underneath the ball. At 97, it’s very hittable. Opponents tagged it for a .459 xwOBA at that speed last April, and they’ve managed a .418 xwOBA and 66.7% hard-hit rate against it so far this year. The only difference was that more of that loud contact was hit at defenders last year, so Megill was able to skate by for a month with an actual wOBA of .371 against his fastball. This year, the results are matching the loud contact. “The fastball didn’t have the same properties to it, for sure,” Pat Murphy said. Murphy affirmed his belief in Megill’s ability after the game, even expressing frustration with fans who booed him during his blown save. However, he also acknowledged that the Brewers must decide whether to keep him in the ninth inning. “We’ll see,” he said. “I don’t know for sure. I like to talk to other people about it. Obviously, you can’t have a guy go out there six times and three times not do the job. I mean, the way he’s throwing the ball now, he doesn’t deserve it, but he can earn it back.” Other pitchers at the back end of the bullpen have also struggled, though, and Murphy noted that the Brewers would have to feel better about a different option to make a closer change. “What are we going to do?” he said. “Who’s throwing the ball good back there that deserves it more? So we’ll figure that out. We won’t make those decisions after a heart-wrenching loss like this.” At this moment, it’s a short list. Should the Brewers make a change, matchups on a given night could determine roles. Right now, these are the leading candidates for saves. Abner Uribe As Megill’s setup man, Uribe would be the most obvious choice to slide into the ninth inning. He’s done it before. Uribe closed last September when Megill was injured and remained in that role into the postseason after he returned. However, Uribe has dealt with his own loss of velocity and movement after shouldering a heavy workload last year. As a result, his whiff and ground ball rates have plummeted in a small sample. He did look more like himself on Sunday, averaging 98.7 mph with his sinker and inducing three whiffs. “He pounded the zone today, and he had his velocity there,” Murphy said. Ángel Zerpa Murphy has shown plenty of trust in Zerpa early, pitching him eight times so far this season, particularly against pockets of left-handed hitters. He also recorded a save in Boston when Megill and Uribe were unavailable. However, as a left-hander, most of Zerpa’s ninth-inning opportunities would likely come based on matchups. A groundball pitcher, his low strikeout rate would make him an unusual fit as a full-time closer, but he could unlock more swing-and-miss by sequencing his slider and four-seamer differently off his power sinker. Grant Anderson Anderson would be a dark-horse choice to close. Unlike Megill, Uribe, and Zerpa, his velocity is below average for a late-inning reliever. He’s also been more prone to walks than one might prefer for a true high-leverage pitcher. However, Anderson’s arsenal makes him a well-rounded reliever, which could serve him well as a closer. His sinker gets ground balls against right-handed hitters, his sweeper induces weak contact, and his upshoot four-seamer produces an elite whiff rate at the top of the zone. Those three pitches have made him rather platoon-neutral since joining the Brewers, and depending on the situation, he can choose between pitching for strikeouts or ground balls, instead of being locked into one or the other. It might be an understatement to say that the best-case scenario for the Brewers involves Megill regaining his form. That possibility feels cruelly remote right now, but it also feels non-negotiable. With Jared Koenig gone from the bullpen picture and the offense diminished, it's simple, even though it's not easy: the Brewers need their erstwhile flamethrower to rediscover his best heat.

Working long plate appearances, taking extra bases, and playing tight defense have all been attributes of Pat Murphy's successful Brewers teams, but so has relying on the back end of their bullpen. In both 2024 and 2025, Milwaukee relievers logged the fourth-most innings of any bullpen in baseball. In that span, their 18.1 RA9-WAR ranks second to only the Cleveland Guardians' bullpen, at 18.2. Because WAR is not precise enough for a tenth of a win to be a reliable difference, it's reasonable to say Murphy's bullpens have been the most valuable in the sport. It's been a different story to start this season. Through 15 games, Brewers relievers have had results near the middle of the pack, ranking 17th with a 96 ERA- (an ERA 4% lower than the league average, after accounting for the ballparks where they've pitched). The group is coming off an especially tough week, too. Since last Saturday's doubleheader in Kansas City, Milwaukee relievers have allowed the third-most runs in baseball. That's far too small a sample to push the panic button. Trevor Megill, Abner Uribe, and Ángel Zerpa having a combined 7.27 ERA on April 14 is nothing to worry about, on its own. There have been warning signs in their stuff, though. All three have lost velocity on their upper-90s fastballs, lowering the quality of those pitches. Megill and Uribe, in particular, have both lost at least 1.5 mph from last season. The Stuff+ model at FanGraphs, which graded Megill's heater among the best in baseball and Uribe's as above-average, now sees both as underwhelming pitches. {C}%3C!%2D%2Dtd%20%7Bborder%3A%201px%20solid%20%23cccccc%3B%7Dbr%20%7Bmso-data-placement%3Asame-cell%3B%7D%2D%2D%3E--> Pitcher Season Primary FB Velo Primary FB Stuff+ Breaking Stuff+ Overall Stuff+ Trevor Megill 2025 99.2 116 141 125 Trevor Megill 2026 97.4 97 114 103 Abner Uribe 2025 98.7 102 120 115 Abner Uribe 2026 97.3 96 130 106 Angel Zerpa 2025 96.6 128 110 112 Angel Zerpa 2026 95.7 107 116 106 Stuff-wise, Zerpa is the least concerning. His sinker still has excellent depth and is getting ground balls, and he now has a tighter slider that tunnels better off that pitch. Better days could be ahead for him. Sitting around 97 mph isn't unprecedented for Megill, either. He averaged 97.8 mph last April before averaging nearly 100 until a flexor strain sidelined him down the stretch. Upon returning from that injury, though, Megill sat 97.5 in his regular-season return and 98.5 in the postseason. Since those elbow problems cropped up, his triple-digit velocity hasn't been there. Even at 97, Megill's heater is still much firmer than the league average for right-handed pitchers. However, he needs plus velocity to keep that fastball from finding barrels. Megill backspins his fastball from a high slot, so it averages 19.0 inches of induced vertical break and just 4.4 inches of arm-side movement. That's a very straight fastball, so Megill's goal is for hitters to swing late or underneath it. Without touching triple digits, it becomes easier for hitters to time up that fastball and get on top of it, instead of getting underneath well-struck fly balls that fall near the warning track for flyouts. That already became apparent in Megill's second outing of the season against the Tampa Bay Rays, when Nick Fortes drove a high fastball into the right-center gap for what was ultimately a game-winning double. SzRCVmVfWGw0TUFRPT1fRGxRRVhWeFdVbGNBRGxjSFVBQUhBMU5lQUFNQUFGa0FVMXdIVkZJRVVsQUhVUWRS.mp4 At 99-plus, a swing against that fastball is almost certainly a whiff or a flyout popped high into the air. At 96.4 mph, Fortes didn't perfectly barrel it, but he got on top of it enough to hit a high line drive with a 20-degree launch angle that split the gap. If his best fastball doesn't return, Megill faces a tougher path to being an effective late-inning reliever. He may have to lean more on his breaking ball, which he's continued to spin progressively more like a slider each year. So far this year, it's down to just -3.2 inches of induced vertical break, but has the same velocity as last year. Uribe may be the reliever to watch most closely, given his diminished stuff and the circumstances leading up to it. Unlike Megill and Zerpa, his breaking ball has also lost velocity. Whereas Megill has a history of taking time to warm up, Uribe is throwing slower than he ever has in his big-league career—something that started in the postseason last year. "If you remember last year at the end, it wasn't coming out great right at the end in the last two series [in the playoffs]," Murphy said after Uribe surrendered a lead on Sunday against the Washington Nationals. "In the last series, we pitched him at least twice [in the NLCS], maybe three, but it wasn't coming out the same. It got better, and he shows flashes, but it isn't as good." Uribe has still limited hard contact so far, but his whiff rate has cratered from 32.0% last year to 12.5% this season. That's not quite uncharted territory for him in a six-game sample, but when paired with the velocity decrease, it looks more suspicious. "Yeah, I'm sure it is," Murphy said when asked if that lower velocity is leading to fewer whiffs. "Again, you just look at that one number. You've also got to look at the movement and the patterns of it all." Uribe's stuff is moving less, too. His sinker has lost an inch of sink, going from 6.2 inches of induced vertical break last season to 7.3 this year (a lower single-digit number means more depth on pitches like sinkers, sliders, and changeups). It last had that shape in 2024 from a slightly higher arm slot. Opponents slugged .436 against it that year, and that was with Uribe averaging nearly 99 mph. The loss of velocity and movement follows a career-high workload last season. Uribe appeared in 75 regular-season games, tied for the sixth-most among relievers. Of the relievers with at least that many appearances, only Uribe averaged at least one inning per outing. He then pitched six more innings across five postseason appearances. He already looked fatigued by that point, and his stuff has not bounced back since. Uribe hasn't been Murphy's only sudden bullpen workhorse. Jared Koenig (career-high 72 appearances last year before losing velocity this spring and spraining his UCL), Bryan Hudson (60 2/3 innings through August in 2024 before losing velocity), Nick Mears (pitched in 46 of 95 team games between April and July 2025), and Aaron Ashby (50 innings in regular-season team games from July onward last year, a pace of 100 innings per season) all went prolonged stretches with extraordinary workloads during his first two seasons as manager. It's all part of the aggressive "win tonight" approach inspired by Murphy's days as a college head coach. Baseball at that level is chaotic. The season is shorter, and runs score in bunches due to the lower quality of pitching and defense. Having experienced that environment for more than 20 years, whenever Murphy sniffs a win, he puts the pedal down to secure it. That includes leaning on his best relievers. Murphy hasn't just used them to protect tight leads, but also with four- or five-run leads, and sometimes to keep the Brewers in close games when they're trailing. Using those pitchers in those situations isn't always necessary, though. Multi-run comebacks are not actually that common, meaning lower-leverage relievers can usually eat innings that are not save situations without meaningfully altering the outcome of the game. Pitching Jake Woodford in a five-run game, for example, is unlikely to change which team wins, and it keeps the high-leverage guys fresh to be at their best for protecting close leads. To his credit, Murphy never puts relievers at risk of injury with any single appearance. The Brewers' pitching coaches and high-performance team help him determine who is and isn't available every night based on pitch counts, number of appearances that week, and biomechanical data. Still, he's been reluctant to trust pitchers who are less proven or with whom he's less familiar. He'll use his best arms on days they're cleared to pitch, but in situations where they don't have to pitch. "We've been pretty good about limiting pitch counts and limiting days in a row, days per week, altering the early work, altering different things," Murphy said. "We have to be mindful of it. But, I mean, what are the options? Just say, 'Okay, here, kid in Triple-A. Come on up, close tonight.' It's probably not going to lead to a lot of success." As such, while he wants to mitigate health concerns, he often remains as aggressive as those guidelines allow. "How do you protect yourself from it without hurting your team?" he said earlier last weekend about preventing injuries to relievers. "Because you can't afford to just throw other guys in there. So how do you do that?" It's unfair to definitively blame Murphy's aggressive management for the Brewers' current bullpen troubles. At times, it has even facilitated comeback wins. However, from an outside perspective, diminished stuff from overuse—and, as a result, losses like the one they endured on Sunday—always looked like a potential future consequence. At the very least, the club should look back to determine how pitchers like Uribe, Koenig, and Megill ended up in their current states. It's an especially relevant question amid Ashby's current workload. Murphy said before Opening Day that he intended to pitch him at a similar rate to that 100-inning pace from the second half of last year. He's made good on those plans so far, throwing the left-hander a league-leading nine times in 14 games for 12 2/3 innings. That has put Ashby on pace to throw 92 2/3 innings over a full season. Some of those innings have been avoidable. On April 4 in Kansas City, Murphy used Ashby in the sixth and seventh innings with a five-run lead in the first game of that doubleheader. Woodford, acquired by the Brewers as a low-leverage long reliever, had not pitched in five days and ultimately went eight days between appearances. While game situations may force a manager to use some relievers more often than others in a given week, that lack of workload balance is striking. By all accounts, Ashby's body has handled his innings well so far. One of the reasons Murphy feels comfortable using him so often is that he wants to pitch as frequently as possible. The Brewers should monitor him closely, though, with an eye on how that usage might impact his effectiveness in the future. Milwaukee has enough talented arms to have a strong bullpen again this season. Regardless of how they got here, though, the reality is that Murphy's preferred relievers do not look like themselves. As the dust settles in the coming weeks, roles could look much different than they did on Opening Day. Along the way, the Brewers must also ensure that what has happened to Uribe and others is less likely to happen to Ashby and whoever else climbs Murphy's trust tree. Maybe that means setting stricter guidelines for when a reliever is available. If that's not the problem, it could mean a different change. Either way, if these velocity drops are not just a blip on the radar, they must lead to action.