Jack Stern

Image courtesy of © Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images Pat Murphy took an aggressive gamble with his pitching staff on Wednesday night, the kind that blows up in a manager's face if his team loses but makes him look shrewd if it wins. "Every call I made was great," Murphy quipped after the Brewers defeated the Chicago White Sox 6-3. "If anybody writes that, I was joking." However, he was not joking with his willingness to deploy a rested bullpen behind a struggling Tobias Myers, who once again battled control issues in his second start since returning from the injured list. After Myers walked three and hit a batter in two innings, Murphy pulled the plug in a tie game. There was no explanation for the quick hook when he returned to the dugout, Myers said. It wasn't necessary. "Pretty self-explanatory," he said. "Just not commanding the zone, not throwing strikes, and just not giving the team a chance to win." "It was more of a message to Tobias than it was anything else," Murphy explained. "I knew we had a full bullpen, but still. This is how we're going to do it, man." It's the second instance in two series of Murphy sending a message through aggressive benchings. He pulled Sal Frelick and Caleb Durbin midgame in St. Louis on Saturday—the former for missing the cutoff man, and the latter for getting picked off first base. Wednesday was different, though. Frelick and Durbin made isolated mistakes, but Myers repeatedly failed to find the strike zone, and the Brewers stood no chance of winning if he remained in the game in that form. So Murphy went to the bullpen, using six of his eight relievers. Many of those pitching changes occurred mid-inning. Grant Anderson inherited runners from Tyler Alexander, Nick Mears from Anderson, and Abner Uribe from Jared Koenig. It worked well enough for the Brewers to hold on, after Jake Bauers's tie-breaking double in the top of the eighth. "The bullpen stood up," said Trevor Megill, who closed things out for his third save. "Couldn't be more proud of those guys. They did great." Murphy deployed an aggressive style at times last year, but the way he is steering the ship now feels like a manager working earnestly to spark a roster whose wheels have been spinning for much of the season. The pitching has been inconsistent, a typically elite defense has been unimpressive, and the left side of the infield has produced little offensively. This year's Brewers have shown flashes of the resiliency that served last season's group so well, but such moments have often been followed by a backslide. The cycle has kept Milwaukee hovering around .500 throughout the season's first month. It's been a similar story for the longest road trip of the year. With a win on Thursday, the Brewers will have gone 5-5 on the trip, but with plenty of ups and downs along the way. "Winning games," Murphy said when asked for positives from the last week-plus. "I mean, it's still been a miserable trip in so many ways, but all close games." The team made it through April in a decent spot, sitting a game over .500 and two behind the division-leading Cubs in the standings. But the sooner the Brewers can plug their holes and start playing more complete and consistent baseball, the better. "Our team grinds, and I like what we have," Megill said. "Just time to keep putting the pieces together like the last two games." View full article

A productive spring training has not carried into the regular season for the Brewers' utility infielder, who has been part of the team's struggles on the left side of the infield. His former platoon partner was already demoted. Could he be next? Image courtesy of © Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images It has already become a disconcerting theme: a left-side Brewers' infielder is off to a woeful start, sparking uncomfortable conversations about that area of the roster in late April. Joey Ortiz's 35 wRC+ is the worst among qualified shortstops. Oliver Dunn fared even worse, prompting the Brewers to replace him with Caleb Durbin last week. Dunn's former platoon partner is not as pressing a concern now that Durbin's arrival has relegated him to a strict bench role, but a conversation about his future has also become necessary. Vinny Capra is riding a 0-for-26 streak. With just three hits this year, the utility infielder currently sits on a -17 wRC+. Capra said early in spring training that he focused on bat speed training over the offseason, but the specific regimen he divulged after making the Opening Day roster – building explosive rotational movement through mixed martial arts training – was more focused on his overall strength and mobility in the box. His goal was to hit the ball harder, but he didn't directly train bat speed. That made the topic worth revisiting shortly into the regular season, when public swing tracking data from Statcast became available. Now, the results are in: Capra is not swinging harder. In fact, a couple of his five competitive big-league swings last year were faster than any he's taken in 2025. The 28-year-old has not helped his cause in the field. It's far too small a sample to trust any defensive metrics, but Capra has looked shaky at times by the eye test. He's struggled to convert moderately difficult but expected plays at third base. On Thursday, he forwent a double-play opportunity to look the tying runner back at third, leaving the go-ahead runner on second to eventually score in a 6-5 loss. TkE5Mk9fVjBZQUhRPT1fQndVREIxRUZWUU1BWGxGWEFnQUhCZ0FEQUZnQlcxVUFCbHdNVmdvQVUxVUhBQWNE.mp4 Capra has just 44 plate appearances and occupies a limited role, but the Brewers have quickly moved on from unproductive out-of-options players in the past. They designated reliever Javy Guerra for assignment at this time two years ago, and Luke Voit only lasted 74 plate appearances with a 53 wRC+ the year prior. With Andrew Monasterio heating up in Triple-A, a move could be approaching. View full article

The Brewers could keep their airbending relief prospect in Triple-A Nashville through the first few weeks of the season because they didn't need him. Now they do. Image courtesy of © Benny Sieu-Imagn Images Craig Yoho’s stuff has been big league-ready for some time. Yet, it was no surprise when the Brewers reassigned him to minor-league camp near the end of spring training. Yes, service time considerations are an unfortunate part of prospect promotion timelines, but Yoho remained in Triple A as the deadline for reaching a full year of service came and went. The main reason is that the Brewers have a full 40-man roster and entered the season with a strong bullpen. There was no need to expunge depth to create space for Yoho. “We’re excited about his future,” Pat Murphy said the day of Yoho’s reassignment. “Right now, we think it’s best with the way our whole thing is constructed. Depth is a real big, important thing.” For the first few weeks of the season, that argument held up. It no longer does. The struggles of Joel Payamps and Bryan Hudson have Murphy and the Brewers effectively operating with a six-man bullpen. There’s an obvious need, and Yoho is the best candidate to fill it. Payamps, whose 13 earned runs allowed have him two-thirds of the way to last year’s total in a tenth of the workload, has become the most upfront liability. After he initiated the bullpen’s collapse in Arizona on April 12, the righty didn't pitch for a week. On Saturday, Murphy bluntly explained that he’s been reassigned to a role that “is not one of leverage.” That night, recent workloads throughout the rest of the bullpen forced him to use Payamps with the Brewers trailing 2-1. He allowed a leadoff home run to Shea Langeliers on a 2-0 fastball. “He gave up a big hit again, and that’s concerning,” Murphy said. “The track record has been pretty darn good, and he’s pitched well, even this year. In spring training, he was lights-out. Not that spring is our evaluation tool, but we just felt good about him coming [into the] season. It just hasn’t happened for him.” A hesitancy to remove Payamps from the roster is somewhat understandable. Since he can't be optioned to the minors, the only way to get him off the roster without offering him to the rest of the league would be to place him on the injured list. Murphy correctly noted that his stuff remains the same as last year, when he pitched to a 3.05 ERA and 3.73 FIP and finished the year strong. His average fastball velocity of 94.6 mph is nearly identical to his 2024 mark, as is his Stuff+ across his entire arsenal. Payamps has spent his downtime working with the Brewers' pitching coaches on smaller tweaks, and they may feel he is close to a return to his effective self. Season Stf+ 4FB Stf+ 2FB Stf+ SL Stf+ CH Stuff+ 2024 111 91 106 80 102 2025 105 91 108 85 103 That leaves Hudson, who has a minor-league option remaining, as the other demotion candidate. After receding stuff prompted a late-season assignment to Triple A last year, the southpaw has returned with inconsistent velocity and little control. In nine appearances, Hudson has issued walks at a 21.6% clip against an 18.9% strikeout rate. Tasked with closing out a four-run lead on Friday, Hudson issued two walks and allowed an RBI double while recording just one out, forcing Trevor Megill into the game. The following day, Murphy implied his roster spot is not secure. “Guys that don’t throw good and don’t have a long history of success are always going to be in that situation,” he said. “Hudson’s not throwing the ball good, so heads up. You never know.” The unreliability of Payamps and Hudson has boxed Murphy into necessary overuse of other relievers. Grant Anderson has pitched five times in the last eight days, often in situations once reserved for an effective Payamps. Anderson and Jared Koenig had to pitch with the Brewers trailing on Saturday. It’s not sustainable bullpen construction. The relief corps needs help in the middle innings, and even though Yoho has been more good than great so far in Triple-A—he’s posted a 3.17 FIP, with a diminished 23.7% strikeout rate in 9 ⅔ innings—he remains the best internal candidate to provide it. The Brewers have avenues for adding him to the 40-man roster. They could designate Payamps for assignment, or they could option Hudson and transfer Aaron Ashby to the 60-day injured list. Which route is best is debatable, but the Brewers cannot continue carrying both struggling relievers. The time to promote Yoho has arrived. View full article

After the shortcomings that plagued his rookie season persisted, it seems Oliver Dunn’s runway as the Brewers’ primary third baseman has run out. Now, Caleb Durbin gets his shot. Image courtesy of © Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images The Brewers are shaking up their infield mix. The club announced on Thursday morning that it had optioned third baseman Oliver Dunn to Triple-A Nashville, and MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy reported that Caleb Durbin will be promoted for his big-league debut this weekend. It’s still early, but Milwaukee has experienced dreadful offense at the hot corner. Through 20 games, Brewers third basemen have combined for a 12 wRC+ that ranks 29th out of 30 teams. Most of the playing time has gone to Dunn, who received the initial opportunity on the strong side of a platoon with Vinny Capra. However, an early string of left-handed opposing starters and Dunn’s low floor limited his offensive contributions. Unfortunately, the work he’s put in on his swing has not paid off, as the issues that hindered him last year have not subsided at all. Pitchers continue to attack him relentlessly in the strike zone, with the confidence that he won’t touch such pitches—and they’ve again been proven correct. Season Zone% Z-Contact% Whiff% BB% K% 2024 59.3% 78.4% 31.4% 5.8% 38.5% 2025 57.8% 72.7% 30.8% 4.9% 26.8% Dunn’s power and speed still give him a tantalizingly high floor, and Pat Murphy emphasized his potential on Wednesday. However, he’s never received an extended chance to develop in Triple A. A long-term demotion could prove beneficial. Durbin’s offense comes with its own questions (most importantly, whether he can achieve any game power in the big leagues), but the Brewers will hope he can provide a boost. The greater concern is his defense. Primarily a second baseman for most of his career, the 25-year-old’s reads and actions at third base were rough in spring training, and it’s been a mixed bag in Nashville. Nonetheless, the Brewers evidently see him as the best option there for the time being. View full article

Last season's midseason pickup has not had the same stuff he did last year. Yet, he's performing much better, thanks to some delivery tweaks. Image courtesy of © Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images After a rocky beginning to his Brewers tenure last season, Nick Mears has started his 2025 campaign strong. In five appearances, he’s thrown 4 ⅔ perfect innings with a 42.9% strikeout rate. “He’s been literally flawless,” said Pat Murphy, who has already entrusted Mears with high-leverage situations. The right-hander is having early success after modifying his delivery. Compare one of his last outings before the Brewers acquired him from the Colorado Rockies with his return to Coors Field last week. mears_deliveries.mp4 Mears now starts more closed off from the hitter, but most notably, he brings his hands up to his chest with his leg kick. He and the Brewers implemented the change to correct a mechanical flaw that prevented him from locating his fastball to both sides of the plate. “That was something we were working on right from the get-go when I came over here,” he recalled. “If you were to look at my tendencies last year, I was very glove-side oriented.” According to Statcast, Mears threw 46% of his in-zone fastballs last year to the glove-side third. Just 18% were to the arm-side third. “Without my hands moving, my timing was getting a little stuck, so my arm was lagging behind,” he said. “The only way for me to get back to square in my release point was for me to yank it a little bit, so go glove side, or in to lefties.” Predictable locations allowed hitters to lock in on Mears’s fastball, contributing to the home run woes he experienced after last year’s trade deadline. He surrendered five home runs in 13 appearances, and all but one came against a fastball over the middle or glove-side third of the plate. Raising his hands helps Mears stay through the ball with his delivery, so he no longer has to force his release point out in front by throwing to his glove side. It’s enabled him to locate better in more areas throughout the zone. “One of the things that we were hoping was that he could get to both sides and not just be more of a vanilla guy on one side of the plate,” Murphy said. “He’s opened some things up for himself.” “It was very hard for me to go inside to [right-handers] last year, just because of my mechanics and how I was moving,” Mears explained. “Whereas now, I feel like I can go in to them and also go away from them, so they’re not diving to one side of the plate. They have to acknowledge that I’m going to go in eventually, it’s just about when I’m going to. I mean, part of pitching is hoping they’re not going to be ready for it.” Mears’s new delivery has made it more difficult for hitters to be ready, by making it harder to see the ball. With a late arm, they had an earlier and wider window to see the ball once he started coming through. “I thought when he came over last year, he was late most of the time on his breaking ball, and it popped out early,” said pitching coach Chris Hook. “His hands were dead, he kind of got stuck, and he would come out of it with an early-see breaking ball.” With his arm more in sync with the rest of his body, Mears now hides the ball better, creating a later look for opponents. “I think it’s a tougher see,” Hook said. “That was part of the idea, too, just letting everything be a little bit later to add a little bit more deception to what he’s doing.” Mears experienced early results when he debuted some of the tweaks near the end of last season. He made two appearances in the Wild Card Series against the New York Mets, tossing 2 ⅓ perfect innings with three strikeouts. “The moment he had in the playoffs, that was a lot of work and a lot of courage he put in to kind of change some things to try to get him a little bit more on time,” Hook said. “For him to show up in the playoffs and do what he did was pretty spectacular.” Further improving his mechanics and throwing to more locations to keep hitters off-balance remained a focus heading into 2025. Mears said his adjustments have also helped him tunnel his fastball and breaking pitches more effectively. “This year in spring training, we were really focusing on the fastballs down and away to both sides of the plate,” he said, “just so that if I go into a 1-2 count and I try to expand outside to someone with a slider or a curveball, now I can tunnel that fastball straight through that offspeed pitch and try and get the strikeout with it.” In the past, hitters knew a pitch starting near the top of the zone would be a fastball, and a pitch near the bottom would be a breaking ball. Spotting fastballs down allows Mears to exploit incorrect guesses and force late swings. He set up Brenton Doyle with a low fastball in Colorado before getting a chase on a slider off the plate, and he froze Jake McCarthy with one in Arizona. “Sometimes you can out-stuff guys, but tunneling is a very good concept to understand as a pitcher at any level, really,” he said. “I think that the fastballs down set up my slider a lot better.” “They have to make a tough decision,” said Hook, painting a hitter’s perspective of a pitch that starts low and away. “That’s when you see those half swings and easy fly balls to center.” Mears’s stuff has actually been worse than last year. His average fastball velocity is down from 96.7 mph to 94.3, and his Stuff+ has dropped from 108 to 87. However, the added deception and unpredictability have it playing better than ever. Like last season, Mears is generating whiffs on nearly one-third of swings, and his chase rate has increased from 30.4% to 36.8%. “I think sometimes location plus a little deception, and then no popping out or no earliness to the breaking ball, can have some benefits,” Hook said. The Brewers want the velocity to return. An illness that sidelined Mears in spring training and caused him to lose nearly 10 pounds didn’t help. He started the season on the injured list due to his delayed progression. “It’s almost like another build-up,” noted Hook. “You know what I mean? You’re down, and then you’ve got to build back up, and you have a little dead arm, and you get back built back up after that.” Hook still views Mears as an unfinished product, both stuff-wise and mechanically. However, he has made strides and is on the right path. “I expect him to get back to where he normally is, but I do like where he’s at," the Crew's pitching coach said. "I think we can get a little cleaner, but I like where his start is.” View full article

It should have been the strategy for the journeyman righthander all along, but that misstep is in the past. He and the Brewers are now both in tune with the best way to use his stuff. Image courtesy of © Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images It was a silver lining in an otherwise uninspiring blowout loss—the Brewers' fourth in their first 17 games, which Pat Murphy deemed "concerning"—in multiple ways. Yes, Elvin Rodríguez spared the rest of an overworked bullpen by eating five innings in long relief on Monday night, but more important was how he did it. The 27-year-old's MLB return (after pitching in Nippon Professional Baseball last year) got off to a dreadful start. Forced to make two starts due to injuries throughout the rotation, he coughed up 11 runs—including five home runs—in nine innings. A suspect game plan underlaid those struggles. In spring training, the Brewers had Rodríguez lean heavily on his four-seamer and cutter, and the results were similarly uninspiring: a strong 7.5 strikeout-to-walk ratio, but a .370 opponent batting average and nine earned runs allowed in 10 ⅔ innings. Those numbers would be easy to shrug off, were player and team merely refining those two fastballs in a low-pressure environment before switching to a more balanced mix in the regular season. That wasn't the case. In those first two starts, 73.6% of Rodríguez's pitches were a four-seamer or cutter, following a staff-wide trend of Milwaukee starters: throwing fastballs roughly 70% of the time. The Brewers have some sound motivations behind instructing many of their arms to lean on multiple fastball variants, but that approach never made the most sense for Rodríguez. His backspin four-seamer can be an above-average pitch due to its elite carry and solid velocity, but his cutter is a poor one. By contrast, the highlight of his five-pitch arsenal is his sweeping slider, which was pivotal to his success last year. The NPB pitch modeling app (created by Twitter user @bouno05) tagged Rodríguez's sweeper with a 169 Stuff+ rating in 2024. It induced whiffs on 44% of swings and rarely allowed loud contact. His curveball yielded less impressive box score results, but posted a gaudy 68% ground ball rate. His cutter, meanwhile, graded poorly, producing neither whiffs nor favorable contact. Differences in the size and tackiness of the NPB baseball make it break more than the MLB ball, so the same pitch can move less and grade slightly worse (through no fault of a pitcher) simply by crossing to the States. Still, since Rodríguez's return, the models at FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus have given similar estimates of his arsenal. Most notably, they are bullish on the sweeper and bearish on the cutter. (For Stuff+, 100 is average and higher is better. For StuffPro, 0 is average and negative numbers are better.) Pitch Type Stuff+ StuffPro Four-Seam FB 97 -0.2 Cutter 82 0.7 Curveball 88 0.3 Sweeper 114 -1.0 Changeup 84 0.3 After two starts of throwing plenty of fastballs—including perhaps the worst pitch in his arsenal—and largely eschewing his breaking stuff, Rodríguez implied that the new mix was leaving him uncomfortable on the mound and unable to best attack hitters. "In Japan, I just pitched a little bit more free," he said through an interpreter after allowing seven runs in his second start. "What I did over there was just mixed all my pitches. I used the curveball, I used the changeup, and really, I just mixed. So I don't think I've felt completely comfortable. I don't feel like I've felt completely myself as a pitcher out there to date. Just missing the feeling of being a little bit more free out there, using all of my pitches." Last week's acquisition of Quinn Priester bumped Rodríguez to a long relief role. Before he appeared in the series finale in Colorado, he spoke to Eric Haase about his preferred method of attacking hitters. He threw 15 pitches, including five breaking balls and no cutters. He had a similar conversation with William Contreras before his outing on Monday night, and the two deployed a dramatically different game plan from his first couple of outings. Rodríguez threw two straight four-seamers to Kerry Carpenter to open his appearance, the second of which Carpenter sent over the wall in center for another home run. After that, this was the breakdown of his remaining 66 pitches: 23 four-seamers (35%) 21 sweepers (32%) 13 curveballs (20%) 7 changeups (10%) 2 cutters (3%) It was a complete reversal, from the fastball-heavy approach to one centered around Rodríguez's breaking pitches. "As soon as I got in there, it really felt like we were on the same page about what we wanted to do," he said of enacting the new strategy with Contreras. It worked. The homer was the lone run Rodríguez allowed in his five innings. He scattered two more hits and struck out seven. His sweeper generated five whiffs out of 10 swings, and several routine flyouts. "When you get knocked around a little bit in some games, you say to yourself, 'Okay, what adjustments can I make? What about this? Maybe this is a better pitch than I thought. Maybe I'll go about it a little differently,'" Murphy said. "So credit to him." "I feel like whenever you're able to mix your pitches, that's how you're able to keep hitters off-balance," Rodríguez said. "And I think that's where all pitchers find their success, is finding good sequences and mixing their pitches." Regardless of how the Brewers and Rodríguez arrived at the mix he initially used, these last few weeks should serve as a cautionary tale. Emphasizing fastball variants has worked for Colin Rea, Bryse Wilson, Tobias Myers, and others because their arsenals fit that approach. Rodríguez differs from those pitchers. Trying to fit any hurler into a mold that does not match his strengths and pitch characteristics, whether intentional or not, is a misstep. If that's what happened here, it's a surprising error by a pitching development team that has otherwise excelled by letting guys be themselves. No pitch mix will look exactly the same across every outing. Due to matchups, feel for certain pitches that day, and myriad other factors, there will be times when it makes sense for Rodríguez to throw a few more fastballs than he did on Monday. However, the starting point should always be what he's good at: spinning his breaking balls, working his riding four-seamer off of them, and sprinkling in some of his other offerings. View full article

The Brewers' enigmatic center fielder knows how poorly he's fared against elevated heaters, so much so that he's put holding his own against them at the heart of his approach. When Garrett Mitchell lined an elevated Antonio Senzetla fastball for a double on Wednesday night, it was just the second non-bunt hit on a high fastball in his big-league career. All hitters have varying weaknesses, but Mitchell's swing has so far featured a gaping hole against velocity at the top third of the strike zone or above. According to Statcast, he has hit .051 in 59 career at-bats ending on a high fastball and whiffed on 50% of his swings at such pitches. Being a near-automatic out on what has become an increasingly common pitch in modern baseball, along with a high ground-ball rate preventing him from turning his raw strength into consistent game power, has made Mitchell a challenging player to project despite his undeniable talent. He has arguably the highest ceiling in the Milwaukee outfield behind Jackson Chourio, but his weaknesses have long raised serious red flags. Mitchell is aware of those shortcomings and is working to address them. As part of his training at Driveline Baseball last winter, he focused on working behind the baseball, allowing him to pull it in the air without selling out for a contact point out in front of the plate. His primary emphasis, though, was curbing his greatest weakness of hitting high fastballs. "For the most part, it's every hitter's weakness in some regard," Mitchell said. "Just a tough pitch to get to. So a lot of my work is just trying to be able to control that, whether it's recognizing strike to ball, fouling them off on a two-strike approach, or even just making good quality contact with it." Mitchell is not looking to change his profile and start destroying high fastballs. Instead, he's trying to shrink his hole at the top of the zone enough to force pitchers to attack him in ways that better play to his strengths. Sometimes, all that takes is a good enough swing to foul that fastball straight back or enough discernment to watch it for a ball. "You don't necessarily have to crush it every single time," he said. "I'm just playing that game with (the pitcher) of, if you're going to throw it there and the swing looks good enough, you go, 'Oh, maybe I don't want to try that again.'" Attacking with high fastballs will always be part of the plan against Mitchell, even if he improves against them. However, each additional pitch he can coax into other areas of the zone is impactful. As poorly as he's fared at the top, he's found big-league success by being just as lethal against pitches at his belt and knees. Maximizing that damage is key. "I do damage on pitches down in the zone or down and in," Mitchell said. "If I can keep getting you to push to that spot, now you're playing my game." It's too early to say whether he has reached his goal, but there are preliminary signs he is on the right track. Mitchell pinpointed a plate appearance against Kansas City Royals left-hander Cole Ragans last week. He fouled off a high fastball with two strikes, then took another for ball four when Ragans climbed the ladder further. "To me," Mitchell said, "that was a perfect example of an at-bat where you have to protect because you never know, but then also having the recognition to go, 'Okay, I just saw that one above the zone and fouled it off,' but then take the next one and spit on it.'" Statistically, things are trending in the right direction. Mitchell is seeing fewer high fastballs, and while his whiff rate against them remains much higher than the league average, it's fallen considerably from previous seasons. Season High FB% High FB Whiff% 2022 26.3% 45.7% 2023 28.4% 60.0% 2024 30.8% 50.0% 2025 23.2% 35.7% Still, that's not good enough to give pitchers serious reservations about elevating against him. Pat Murphy, while encouraged that his center fielder is working to narrow that hole in his swing, said he still needs to see more progress from him offensively. He's aware of Mitchell's high ceiling if he makes those strides. "He's just a very, very small margin away from being very, very good," Murphy said. Mitchell has the right mindset. He's not eschewing his identity as a hitter in pursuit of improvement. Instead, he's working within the framework of how his body moves and trying to minimize his weaknesses to maximize his strengths. He and the Brewers will soon learn if that work will translate into results. View full article

Milwaukee's front office paid a steep price for the former first-rounder because they view him as a long-term rotation mainstay. Some fresh adjustments have him closer to that status, but he's not there yet. Image courtesy of © Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images The Brewers replenished their depleted rotation depth on Monday, acquiring right-hander Quinn Priester from the Boston Red Sox. While he slots in now as an immediate stopgap, Milwaukee could have made a smaller trade (Dallas Keuchel a year ago) or signed a cheap veteran free agent (Julio Teherán in 2023) to eat innings until reinforcements like Jose Quintana and Tobias Myers arrive. Instead, the club is trying to satisfy two needs with one move. The real key to this deal is Priester’s full six seasons of club control and the potential long-term value he could provide as a middle-of-the-rotation starter. Controllable starting pitching does not come cheap, especially in-season. The Brewers parted with outfield prospect Yophery Rodriguez, one of their competitive balance draft picks, a player to be named later, and cash. That’s a hefty package and has been perceived by some as an overpay, but it will prove a fair deal if Priester becomes what the club expects he will. Matt Arnold told MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy that Brewers scouts have been fond of the 24-year-old since high school and see him as a long-term contributor. Priester has not looked the part of a big-league starter in two brief stints, pitching to a 6.23 ERA, 5.72 FIP, and 113 DRA- in 99 ⅔ innings. However, he debuted some modifications with Boston in spring training that could mesh nicely with the approach of Chris Hook and company. The right-hander’s breaking pitches were scouted as his best and have generated plenty of swings and misses in the minor leagues. His fastballs have been problematic, though. They’ve had unremarkable movement and velocity, and Priester’s position on the rubber and traditional high-three-quarters delivery do nothing to help them play up. As such, those heaters have yielded frequent loud contact. Triple-A opponents slugged .453 against Priester’s sinker and four-seamer last year, posting a 47.7% hard-hit rate and 91.2-mph average exit velocity. Big-league hitters smacked them at similar rates. Priester has since added velocity and improved his fastball shapes. His sinker is now harder, with a couple more inches of run, and he has reworked what was a dreadfully straight four-seamer into a hard, riding cutter. He’s also throwing a firmer, shorter version of his signature curveball, which should play better with those heaters. Thomas Nestico’s pitch-grading models like both fastballs more than their previous iterations, and the Brewers presumably agree. As an organization that has increasingly encouraged its high-volume pitchers to tunnel multiple fastball variants, it would not be surprising if they intend to lean heavily into Priester’s new sinker-cutter pairing. Reasons for skepticism remain, though. Baseball Prospectus’ models still see both pitches as below average. In Priester’s first Triple-A start of the year, the sinker’s StuffPro run value was 1.2, and his cutter’s was 0.6. That cutter shape is not quite where it needs to be, either, as he has struggled thus far to generate consistent glove-side movement. Commanding its riding action in tandem with the heaviness of his sinker could also prove challenging. Because Priester is just as much a long-term project as an immediate rotation addition, it may take time to evaluate this trade. In a perfect world, he will only need to make a few starts before several injured hurlers return, then head to Triple-A Nashville to continue calibrating his modified pitch mix. Even in his current form, he fits better under the Brewers’ style of run prevention than he did with his former organizations. Time will tell whether acquiring him was the proper use of prospect and draft capital. View full article

It's been rough sailing for the Milwaukee pitching staff, but the rookie righthander has helped keep them afloat. Image courtesy of © Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images For the second time in the Brewers’ first regular-season homestand, Chad Patrick set the tone in a bounce-back victory. Last Tuesday, Patrick led the team to its first victory in his first big-league start. On Sunday, he kept the Cincinnati Reds at bay into the sixth inning as Milwaukee took the series with an 8-2 win. Patrick was optioned to minor-league camp in early March, but after a slew of injuries ravaged the starting rotation, he found himself on his first Opening Day roster and (shortly thereafter) making starts. His latest effort was especially encouraging on a day when Nestor Cortes hit the injured list, making Freddy Peralta the lone starter standing from the initial projected rotation. “He’s stepping up for us, for sure,” said Brice Turang. “Which is great. We always need guys to do that.” Most notably, the 26-year-old has looked comfortable on a big-league mound. “You wouldn’t know that he just started his major-league career,” Pat Murphy said. “Very poised. Sensible with his stuff.” “He’s very mature, and he knows what he does well,” said Eric Haase, who has caught both of Patrick’s starts after working with him in Nashville last year. “I think that’s the biggest thing.” The right-hander’s strength is a cutter and four-seam fastball combination that he rode to a Triple-A pitching Triple Crown (and recognition as the International League Pitcher of the Year) last season. Those two offerings constituted two-thirds of his pitches thrown in 2024. It’s been even more extreme in these two starts, where 83% of his pitches have been cutters or four-seamers. “Being able to go north and south with the heater, and then the cutter,” Patrick said of his game plan on Sunday. “The cutter’s always going to be there. Today, it played really well.” “It’s just establishing the top of the zone more than anything,” Haase elaborated. “He throws a couple of strikes up there, and then the eyes start looking towards the top of the zone, which opens up the cutter down, the fastballs down. It’s just kind of playing with eye levels.” Even if there was some thought of mixing eye levels, Patrick and Haase have so far lived overwhelmingly around the top of the zone. The behavior of Patrick’s cutter allows him to thrive up there. The pitch has assumed a wide range of shapes, enabling it to play to all quadrants, but most often, it cuts and rides. He can spin it so that it defies gravity and “stays up” more than hitters expect of a cutter, an effect boosted by his three-quarters release. Patrick’s cutter currently boasts the fourth-highest induced vertical break of any qualified big-league cutter this year, and its -5.2° vertical approach angle is the seventh-flattest. Name Cutter iVB Cutter HB VAA Kenley Jansen 18.2 -3.8 -5.3 Aaron Civale 14.5 -3.8 -5.9 Ryan Pepiot 14.3 -1.0 -5.2 Chad Patrick 12.7 -1.3 -5.2 Emmanuel Clase 12.3 -3.7 -5.3 Appearing on a list with Kenley Jansen and Emmanuel Clase should warrant some attention. While not an elite weapon like those cutters, Patrick’s is more versatile and unique than most. Murphy noted that the rookie has plenty of room for improvement—he won’t get too far with his current 1.43 strikeout-to-walk ratio—but Patrick’s stuff has evaded the barrels of two big-league teams so far, and those productive starts could not have come at a better time for an ailing pitching staff. “Just him gaining that confidence that he belongs and he can help us,” Murphy said. “That’s twice in this series and twice in this homestand. It’s kind of significant.” View full article

The cerebral control specialist felt Milwaukee would be an excellent fit for him, and his early experience has confirmed it. He'll get opportunities to bounce back from a career-worst season and eat innings for an injury-thinned Brewers staff. Image courtesy of © Brad Penner-Imagn Images Bouncing between roles is nothing new for Tyler Alexander, who (by now) is plenty comfortable with his niche. That’s precisely why the Brewers signed the 30-year-old swingman at the outset of spring training. “You learn along the way,” the left-hander reflected from his locker at American Family Fields of Phoenix. “You take the bad, you take the good, and you sort of figure out a routine that works best for both. And that's what I learned, is to take kind of a reliever mindset into my starts. You just kind of learn.” The Brewers, as they’ve done with past depth starters, had Alexander follow his usual routine of stretching out in Arizona. “I've kind of done the same thing for the last four years in terms of my build-up in spring training, where you build up to four, maybe five innings, and then that way I'm stretched out as a starter, or I'm ready to slide into that long relief role,” he said. “I’m just prepared to throw innings in whatever manner that is.” Alexander pitched twice in relief in New York during opening weekend, but Aaron Civale’s hamstring strain promptly kicked him back to preparing like a starter. As of this writing, the Brewers have not announced a starter for Friday night against the Cincinnati Reds, but they’ve lined up Alexander to be available as a bulk-innings pitcher. Like Colin Rea, Bryse Wilson, and others before him, the former Detroit Tiger and Tampa Bay Ray is an unassuming innings-eater who lacks velocity but understands the angles he must create to help his kitchen-sink arsenal play up the most. That means generating different looks depending on a hitter’s handedness. Righties saw plenty of cutters and four-seamers last year, while lefties saw sweeping sliders and sinkers. A glove-side mover is the linchpin to each approach, and both pitches have cycled through various forms throughout the last few seasons. Alexander’s cutter has oscillated between a true cutter and a slider-like pitch. It held the former shape for most of 2023, but after he lowered his arm slot last season, it morphed back into the latter version. “That's kind of fluctuated throughout the years,” Alexander said of the cutter’s shape. “As my arm slot and different things change, that pitch changes.” This spring, he aimed to restore that riding cutter shape from his lower slot. The early returns have been promising. In two relief appearances in New York, Alexander’s cutter had nearly three more inches of lift on average, two fewer inches of glove-side movement, and an extra tick of velocity. That shape best allows the cutter to serve its intended purpose. Along with his four-seamer, Alexander uses it predominantly to attack right-handed hitters high and inside. “If I can have everything play up and in to a righty with my four-seam, with my cutter, and then maybe a front hip two-seam, that opens up everything away,” he explained. “I can throw changeups. I can throw anything back door, sweepers or cutters. I can even stick a four-seam down there. But my game plan to righties is hard in, soft down and away.” Alexander originally introduced the sweeper while pitching for the Tigers in 2022, as a slurve-like pitch to replace his short slider. “I wanted something (as a) ball out of the hand that moved a lot, so I switched to, in my mind, a Rich Hill curveball with a Nestor Cortes sweeper grip. So I gripped the sweeper and tried to throw it more like a slider, so it ended up being a big, loopy breaking ball, which I loved.” He and the Tigers eventually concluded that the slurve did not tunnel well with the rest of his arsenal—to land it in the strike zone, Alexander needed to release it higher and further toward the left-handed batter’s box—so in 2023, they reverted to his original slider. When he joined the Rays last season, they wanted to resurrect it as an actual sweeper: a sidespinning breaking ball with minimal drop and extreme horizontal movement. “They wanted me to hold vert on it,” he recalled. “Instead of thinking of a curveball with depth, they wanted something sweepy.” The Rays helped Alexander achieve the right shape with the pitch, adding a few inches of carry and glove-side break. It became the cornerstone of his attack against same-handed opponents. Lefties managed just a .190 wOBA against the sweeper, which also set up the other shapes and locations Alexander needed to retire them. The overall left-handed wOBA against him fell from .347 in 2023 to .326 last year. “The sweeper has opened up a lot of room to lefties,” he said. “When I throw it well, when it’s effective, I can throw it down the middle and sweep it away, which gives me four-seam away, gives me two-seam in, or four-seam up and in, it gives me something down and back-door to them.” Both parties also felt the sweeper played better with the cutter than the short slider did. It allowed him to relegate the cutter, which would jam righties but break toward a lefty’s sweet spot, to more of a show-me pitch in those situations. “I’ve gotten away from throwing cutters to lefties late (in the count). I throw it a little early,” Alexander said, later elaborating how its shape plays differently based on the matchup. “To righties, I'm looking to break their bat. To lefties, it tends to run into the barrel. So I throw it early to show that I have it, and then I can play off of it.” The veteran also worked this spring to improve his two-seamer’s effectiveness and make his changeup a more prominent piece of his arsenal, including in left-on-left matchups. His experience along the way confirmed that after a year with the Rays, the Brewers were a great next stop. “They find something you're very good at, and then you lean on it,” Alexander said of Tampa Bay’s pitching gurus. “What they would do is say, ‘Hey, this pitch was at its best in this year. Let's try to get that. This pitch was best in this year.’ So they kind of pick and choose what pitch was best in what year, and then try to put together your arsenal that way.” That approach helped him, but Milwaukee’s pitching development environment suits him especially well. “I find it's a little bit more feel-based here, which I like. I'm pretty feel-based. Not that I dislike Tampa. I thought they were very good for my career, but a little bit too reliant on analytics, maybe. Here, it’s analytics combined with the eye test, which I think is best for me because I’m very feel-based.” Both sides are hoping that comfort will bear fruit. Alexander noted they each need something from one another. He wants to correct the shortcomings that produced a career-worst 5.10 ERA last year, and the injury-ravaged Brewers’ staff requires innings. After a pair of season-opening cameos, Friday night may be his first extended opportunity to show what he can contribute. View full article

It's a question with no definitive answer: What's the best way to order a lineup, and does it even matter? Here's how Pat Murphy and the Brewers approach it. Image courtesy of © Benny Sieu-Imagn Images Two evergreen sources of baseball debate are bullpen management and lineup construction. Show enough people a lineup card, and you're sure to field passionate arguments that Player X should be hitting fifth instead of third, or second instead of seventh. The sabermetric consensus is that batting order does not dramatically influence scoring over a 162-game season. In large samples, it's who is in the lineup that matters, not where they are hitting. The Brewers' skipper believes that lineup construction matters, but he tries not to overthink things. Here was how Pat Murphy lined things up when the Brewers faced a right-handed starter for the first time in the 2025 regular season: Brice Turang Jackson Chourio Christian Yelich William Contreras Sal Frelick Jake Bauers Garrett Mitchell Joey Ortiz Oliver Dunn The bottom of the order shifted a bit on Tuesday, with Hoskins back in at first base, Mitchell receiving a day off, and Contreras sliding to DH, but the first five spots remained the same. The framework was unchanged. Murphy's starting point is simple. "I think your best hitters hit the most," he said, citing the possibility of one extra plate appearance for some of those players if the batting order turns over a fifth time late in a game. "(Who) you qualify as 'best hitters' (are) guys that have the combination of being able to get on base and do damage and not leave the zone at the same time. So they're on base a lot, they can do damage, or they're extreme at one of those – extreme on base, (reaching) second base." To Murphy, the players he typically pencils atop his lineup fit those molds. Turang's career .305 on-base percentage puts him toward the bottom of Brewers hitters, but Murphy believes in his skill set and especially values his base-stealing ability. If Turang bats with the bases empty and no outs, reaches on a walk or single, and steals second base, that sequence is materially the same as hitting a double. Chourio and Yelich boast power and speed, and Contreras has the raw power of a cleanup hitter. From there, Murphy gets a bit more creative. Frelick bats ahead of Rhys Hoskins (or, on Sunday, Bauers) in the five-hole and often batted before traditional middle-of-the-order power threats last year. That's because Murphy is playing the numbers, which say the fifth spot frequently leads off an inning. "The five-hole hitter leads off more than any other position except the one-hole over a season," he explained. "Statistically, that's what they've figured out." It would be easier to opt for a traditional slugger in the five-hole, Murphy added, if the Brewers had more bona fide power bats. They don't, so he views treating it as a second leadoff spot as the best way to set up beneficial sequences for his offense. "If you don't have that typical damage guy, [the five hitter is] another good hitter, one of your five best hitters, a combination of all we talk about, but also might have to lead off a bunch and [is] not a base-clogger," Murphy said. "That's kind of what I'm thinking with this year's group." Finally, Murphy tries to stagger the handedness of his hitters to avoid reliever-friendly matchup pockets and limit unfavorable exposure for his hitters. (The left-handed trio of Frelick, Bauers, and Mitchell was an exception, because Hoskins could pinch-hit. Bauers's spot between the two outfielders was a trap laid for Yankees manager Aaron Boone, though obviously, that didn't come into play in the course of that particular game.) That practice predates his time as manager—Craig Counsell emphasized it for years—and is now a common tactic. He referred to the Brewers' current opponent, the Kansas City Royals. "They got a kid over there, for instance, [Ángel] Zerpa, that is really good against lefties. So you want to kind of not stack it so they have that advantage." There may be additional nuances to consider nightly, but adherence to those three principles builds the framework Murphy and his staff use in most games. Above all else, he wants his best hitters to receive as many opportunities as possible and allow the game to unfold in a way that matches his lineup's strengths. View full article

After starting the regular season by suffering a slew of pitching injuries and making dubious history, the Brewers find themselves in an unusually precarious position just four games in. Image courtesy of © Benny Sieu-Imagn Images “A really long way to go,” Christian Yelich said of the Brewers’ season-opening sweep by the Yankees in New York. “Even if we were 3-0 right now, it wouldn’t really mean a whole lot. You’ve just got to keep going.” Yelich was right. Performances in small samples do not elicit as many strong reactions during the middle of a season, but fall under the microscope at the start of the year. Either way, they are rarely worth fretting over. However, after a third straight non-competitive blowout dropped the Brewers to 0-4, the club is already facing challenges that last year’s team did not—ones that could sink their season quickly, without a prompt and proper response. The day began with the news that Aaron Civale will miss time due to a left hamstring strain, reducing what initially seemed like a durable and experienced rotation to just two established starters three games into the season. It ended with candid remarks by Pat Murphy on the state of his run-prevention unit, which has surrendered 43 runs in its last three games. “We’re decimated on the mound,” he said. “I’ve made it clear who was going to be on the team, who’s injured, building up, et cetera. A number of guys who don’t have that much experience [now have to pitch].” Even so, there’s no excuse for the results so far. Losing streaks and team-wide lulls are typical of a long season, even for great clubs. Repeated blowouts out of the gates are not. “Losing’s not fun,” said spot starter Elvin Rodríguez, who allowed four runs in as many innings in his regular-season debut. “Nobody is happy we’ve been losing.” A hallmark of last year’s team was its ability to respond quickly when health and performance began tipping in the wrong direction. That capability (along with some good fortune at the right moments) kept the Brewers from losing more than three games in a row at any point in 2024. This year’s group has already seen that streak end, and is facing an extreme test of its relentlessness. It’s early, but it’s not overly dramatic to say the Brewers are in precarious territory, and their response this week could dictate the trajectory of their season. There is little room, if any, to let things snowball further and bounce back to meet their initial expectations. According to Stathead, at -32 runs, Milwaukee just set a new MLB record for the worst run differential through the first four games of a season. The previous record holder, the 1978 Baltimore Orioles, finished with a 90-71 record, but only 10 of 37 teams with an initial run differential of -19 or worse finished above .500, and only three made the postseason. Players may not admit it to the cameras, but starting so dreadfully brings with it a greater mental burden than non-competitive midseason performances. While not an unconquerable hurdle, rough starts can drag down stats and records for weeks, and seeing those numbers every night on a video board does not make the job easier on the field. Moving past them to focus on the process is mandatory, but difficult. “You can point fingers and start blaming things, and it’s just not healthy,” Murphy said. “We’re all in kind of an ugly state when you don’t get the result you want. And you get so emotionally attached to that result, you get away from what you really should be attached to, which is the process. “You talk about the pitching separately from the offense… it all affects each other,” he elaborated. “When you’re down, can you steal, can you put the ball on the ground, hit and run? Can you do those types of things that made us a strong offense? It’s kind of discouraging for [hitters], so it’s really hard. And then you play lackluster defense. All sorts of things are related to each other, so we’ve got to get off to a good start. We haven’t done that.” Playing tense won’t turn things around, and it’s still too soon to press the panic button. That said, this team’s identity, good or bad, could solidify in the coming days. View full article