Jack Stern

No pitching staff wants to face the Yankees' lineup, but they're an especially rough matchup for a group that relies on mixing fastballs with unremarkable velocity. For the Brewers, it was all downhill from that unfavorable starting point. Image courtesy of © Brad Penner-Imagn Images It was an opening weekend to forget for the Brewers, who have started the regular season 0-3 for the first time since 2015 after the Yankees bludgeoned them in New York. Milwaukee's run-prevention unit did anything but, coughing up 36 runs (powered by 15 homers) in the series. That was the same total number of tallies the Bronx Bombers posted in a three-game set at American Family Field last April, and they profiled as a similarly challenging draw nearly a year later. The Yankees hit everything. In 2024, their formidable offense trailed only the Los Angeles Dodgers in wRC+, and they then added multiple power bats to replace Juan Soto and upgrade from underperforming veterans Anthony Rizzo and Alex Verdugo. However, they're especially potent against the kind of pitches most Brewers' hurlers throw frequently. Last season, the Yankees slugged .522 against fastballs (four-seamers, sinkers, and cutters) between 85 and 93 mph, the fourth-best mark in baseball. The hitters in this year's New York lineup slugged .524 against them. The Brewers threw 85-to-93-mph fastballs 30.5% of the time in 2024, which was also the sport's fourth-highest rate. In the final two games of this series, half of their pitches—50.6%, to be exact—were in that bucket. The Yankees scored 32 of their 36 runs in those games. Overall, they recorded 18 of their 34 hits and slugged 11 of their 15 home runs against those fastballs. For a decent chunk of that time, the Brewers were somewhat limited by the arsenals of their pitchers. Nestor Cortes has always leaned heavily on his four-seamer and cutter at the top of the strike zone and features just one breaking ball in his arsenal. He also worked behind in the count for much of his unsuccessful season debut, which made experimenting on the fly with a breaker-heavy approach less practical. However, the Brewers had an opportunity to adjust, with Aaron Civale (who threw three distinct breaking pitches down the stretch last year) on the mound in the series finale. Instead, 76% of Civale's pitches on Sunday were fastballs, a greater proportion than his usual mix. He allowed three home runs. In an era where pitch tracking and modeling make game planning more exhaustive and precise than ever before, sticking to the plan as tightly as possible is often a sage strategy. However, reading swings remains a key component of pitch calling. Chris Hook has previously acknowledged that he and the club's other pitching strategists have scrapped the original blueprint when opponents do damage early. The question is when to switch things up, and that line is rarely bright and crisply drawn. Evidently, the Brewers did not feel they had reached that point in New York, but it's worth questioning if they should have used Civale's deep arsenal as an opportunity to alter what was a remarkably unsuccessful approach. That's not to say a different mix would have solved the puzzle. There were plenty of other factors fueling the Yankees' weekend-long outburst, including the historic greatness of Aaron Judge, pitching from behind in the count, catching too much plate with specific pitches, the short right-field porch of Yankee Stadium, and hitter-friendly weather on Saturday. It was a perfect storm that created one ghastly pitching performance after another. Run prevention has been the Brewers' strength for years, and one series does not change that. The club has plenty of time to turn things around, starting with its first homestand of the year, which begins on Monday. View full article

The Brewers' Opening Day starter has worked through multiple soft evolutions in recent seasons. His first outing of 2025 featured a preview of the next adjustment he may have to make. Image courtesy of © Brad Penner-Imagn Images On the surface, Freddy Peralta's second career Opening Day start was a standard Peralta outing. The right-hander was not particularly efficient, requiring 93 pitches to complete five innings, but he held the New York Yankees to just a pair of runs while striking out eight. On a deeper level, Peralta navigated those five innings differently from his usual mode of operation. The afternoon was a reminder that he is not getting guys out the same way he once did and a preview of how he might alter his standard approach as the season progresses. Peralta has not been "Fastball Freddy" since the turn of the decade. After throwing his signature heater nearly 80% of the time in his first two seasons, he's kept its usage around 50% in each of the last four seasons while mixing in more breaking balls and changeups. The cambio took a step forward in 2024. Peralta added just over an inch of arm-side fade to it, on average, and threw it a career-high 17.5% of the time. The pitch held opponents to a .277 wOBA, induced whiffs on 36.9% of swings, and posted a +4 pitching run value, the best of any offering in Peralta's arsenal. On Thursday, 25.8% of Peralta's pitches were changeups, his third-highest career usage rate within a start. He even threw it 21.9% of the time to right-handed batters. The changeup (which was firmer than usual, averaging 90 mph) carried Peralta through his start by compensating for a fastball that was hit hard. Peralta ramped up his changeup usage as the outing went along, after throwing only two in the first inning, which suggests he and William Contreras tweaked the original game plan on the fly in response to his feel for it and the early swings against his fastball. Pitchers must work with what they have on a given day, especially a less consistent hurler like Peralta. Thursday's mix may soon become his default, though. While Peralta's changeup was more valuable than ever last year, the opposite was true of his fastball, which yielded a .338 wOBA and +1 run value. That's because it's become less of an outlier in its shape. Hitters have described Peralta's four-seamer as an "invisible fastball" that gets on them quickly and seems to disappear late, an effect he created from a unique blend of deceptive ingredients: above-average spin, a low arm slot, elite extension, and a crossfire delivery that hid the ball until release. Vertical approach angle (VAA) is the closest metric to a catch-all for those attributes, and Peralta's four-seam VAA was among the flattest in baseball for years. In recent seasons, the veteran has raised his arm slot and adopted a shorter and more direct stride, decreasing his VAA. Meanwhile, as more pitchers have followed suit in throwing high four-seamers from low slots, the league-wide VAA for such fastballs has increased from -5.1° in 2019 to -4.7° in 2024. Peralta's fastball still enters the strike zone at a much flatter angle than average, but it's not the unicorn it once was. Some of last year's dip might have been the result of the mechanical issue that forced him to change his mound position, but there's more at work, too. Season Pitcher Run Value Whiff% StuffPro VAA Above Average Extension Arm Angle 2020 7 36.6% -0.3 0.94 7.3 34.9 2021 22 30.9% -0.7 0.94 7.1 36.8 2022 5 24.9% -0.3 0.81 7.0 33.3 2023 17 29.2% -0.3 0.80 6.9 35.8 2024 1 25.2% 0.0 0.57 6.7 39.3 Thursday saw a continuation of this multi-year trend. Peralta's fastball is still a solid pitch, but in today's environment with its current traits, opponents hit it harder and whiff less often. He'll need the offspeed stuff to keep hitters off the heat and open more ways to use it. He generated nine called strikes with his fastball at the bottom of the zone Thursday, because Yankee hitters were expecting low changeups and breaking balls to dive below their knees. Changing eye levels also made the high fastball more effective as the game progressed. Peralta generated just three whiffs on high fastballs through his first four innings, but notched the same number in his fifth and final frame, alone. His fastball will remain his most-used pitch, but Peralta's changeup is catching up to his fastball as his most impactful. It may take a few more starts before he commits to consistently throwing it more, but don't be surprised if it assumes a greater role in his mix as 2025 progresses. View full article

"We've talked about what I needed to do to kind of become a little bit better of a player," the Brewers' newly-minted utility infielder said after receiving the good news over the weekend. He did it, and a trip to New York awaits. It was the obvious outcome for the entirety of spring training, and Pat Murphy made it official on Sunday: Vinny Capra has made the Brewers’ Opening Day roster. It will be the first Opening Day for the infielder, who slashed .283/.353/.739 this spring and hit six home runs to tie with teammate Rhys Hoskins (and five others) for the Cactus League lead. Spring training stats are noisy and often meaningless. Authentic signs of improvement, if any, are found in process-based adjustments and (sometimes) the metrics accompanying them. Capra checked those boxes after spending his offseason training to increase hit bat speed. His procedure was a bit unorthodox. Many hitters train bat speed by swinging weighted bats, but Capra worked predominantly with Chicago-based mentor and mixed martial arts trainer Dimitri Therios. “Throwing punches, kicks—the form of it is very similar to baseball,” he explained. “It's just the transfer of energy from the ground up, so the rotational power is essentially the same. “You got to kind of build the engine, I guess, to swing harder … I was trying to work on rotational speed and have things moving away from my body, like [when] you swing, and I guess it transferred over as best as it could. Trying to use the ground, too. That was a big thing, staying grounded in the swing and using my legs the best way possible.” Without numbers in front of him, Capra could not speak directly to his progression, and the absence of public bat tracking at most Cactus League stadiums means no one can definitively say (from the outside) that he is swinging harder. Mechanically, though, he feels improvement. “I think the main impact is just how hard I'm hitting it. That was the main goal," he said. "How we get there doesn't necessarily matter, if it's bat speed or mechanical changes, but that's kind of the end result.” There have been quantifiable signs of growth on that front. In 489 Triple-A plate appearances last season, Capra hit seven batted balls with an exit velocity of at least 105 mph. He hit three in just 55 plate appearances this spring—and again, not all of those trips to the plate even came under the electronic eyes of the Statcast system. Bat tracking data will provide quick answers to how much Capra’s unique training helped him. For now, he sees an initial payoff in making the roster and hopes it will help him contribute. He is still not a serious power threat, nor will he be a lineup mainstay, but he has the profile to help in a utility role. “You like to see things go forward, right? And more so, it's being able to contribute at this level, and that's going to hopefully help win ballgames every day if you can do a little bit of something. I think that was kind of the main goal coming in.” View full article

The Brewers' would-be fourth outfielder admitted disappointment in having to stay on the sidelines, but he's doing his best to remain in shape and engaged in the game he loves. Image courtesy of © Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images Blake Perkins’s recovery from a fractured right shin is progressing slower than he or the Brewers initially anticipated. “I was told to continue to be patient,” Perkins told reporters on Sunday. “The fracture, I guess, is just in a tough spot. It’s just going to possibly take a little bit longer than I would have hoped, or anyone would have hoped, coming into it.” Perkins clarified that he did not suffer a setback. He is simply bound to his body’s healing process, which requires more time. Since he was cleared for light activity last week, he’s been throwing and running on an anti-gravity treadmill at 30 percent of his body weight. It could take a bit before Perkins can commence a true ramp-up, though. Naturally, frustration has accompanied his inability to be on the field. “I think when you’re injured—at least, when I’ve been injured—it kind of hurts to go out there and watch when I can’t be a part of it,” he admitted. However, Perkins has still taken advantage of the opportunities presented to him in spring training to remain physically and mentally sharp, so he can ramp up as quickly as possible. He is using other cardio machines to stay in shape without putting pressure on his legs, and he has stood in to see pitches against the Trajekt machine the Brewers use to simulate real-life pitchers. He’s also staying engaged in games in which he cannot physically participate. “Yeah, 100 percent,” Perkins said when asked if there are still lessons to learn from the bench. “There’s always questions to ask, so when I sit on the bench, I’m constantly talking to [Rhys Hoskins] and whoever else is out there … I’m not at the away games, so these home games are really the biggest time I can take to survey the field, see what people are doing differently this year, and just be around the game.” With family in town, Perkins has even watched a few games from the stands. “I get to see what it’s like on the other side, which I haven’t been able to do in so long,” he said. “It’s been fun. It’s just [having] small appreciation for things like that, which I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.” When his teammates travel to New York on Tuesday, Perkins will remain behind in Arizona to continue rehabbing. He’ll continue trying to make the most of that time. “Trying to take the best out of it that I can,” he said. View full article

It was bound to be an eventful weekend of news. The Brewers delivered, further trimming their roster as Opening Day approaches. Image courtesy of © Rick Scuteri-Imagn Images The dominos are starting to drop in the final days of Brewers camp. After a busy weekend of transactions, the roster the club will take to New York is nearly finalized. It started on Friday night when the Brewers scratched Mark Canha from their lineup and traded him to Kansas City for cash or a player to be named. After reuniting with Milwaukee on a minor-league deal last month, Canha looked like a solid bet to break camp as insurance at first base and in the corner outfield spots. His signature plate discipline remains a strength—he walked four times and was hit by a pitch in 28 Cactus League plate appearances—but the veteran recorded just two hits, limping to a .087/.250/.261 line (40 wRC+). Evidently, the Brewers did not see enough to guarantee him a roster spot, so they flipped him to a Royals team that could. “Thought it was a great opportunity for him,” Pat Murphy said that night. “We want to do right by the player, and we couldn't assure him he was going to be on the club yet.” (It's a signature bit of tradecraft and diplomacy by the team. Yes, they traded Canha to a team that should give him plenty of big-league playing time. They could as easily have released him, though. By sending him to Kansas City, they slyly ensured that the good opportunity he found elsewhere wouldn't be on a rival within the division or in a potential NL Wild Card race, at least for now. When the front office has a chance to head off a potential upgrade for an opponent or glean a morsel of value in situations like these, they don't miss it—part of why they so consistently find success at the margins.) More moves followed on Saturday afternoon. The Brewers optioned infielders Caleb Durbin and Tyler Black to Triple-A Nashville and released outfielder Manuel Margot. Durbin’s demotion was somewhat surprising. He was projected for a timeshare with Oliver Dunn at third base, and he seemed ticketed for a spot after repeated votes of confidence from Murphy and the demotion of Monasterio, but it’s the correct decision. A natural second baseman, the 25-year-old struggled mightily to pick up third in camp, complicating his path to playing time. Durbin needs more time to master his reads and mechanics at the hot corner in a low-pressure environment. He’ll likely make his big-league debut sooner than later, though. “I'm higher now on him than I was before camp,” Murphy asserted, indicating that the decision was more about making room for others in the position-player mix. “I love the kid. I love the way he plays. He's going to help us win games. He's a winning player.” That quote notwithstanding, it’s difficult to believe Durbin’s spring showing in the field had nothing to do with the move. Even if he receives time at multiple positions in Triple A, his work at third will be most worth monitoring. Margot, another non-roster invitee, was fighting for a fifth outfielder gig after Blake Perkins fractured his right shin at the onset of camp. While he could always return to Milwaukee on a new minor-league deal, he first gets a chance to gauge other opportunities on the open market. That the Brewers were happy to let him do that exploring himself (whereas they traded Canha) speaks both to the likelihood that he has a big-league roster spot waiting elsewhere and to the team's estimate of his capacity to contribute should he find one. The moves leave 13 healthy position players in big-league spring training, for the same number of roster spots. Barring another addition, the projected bench consists of backup catcher Eric Haase, utility players Vinny Capra and Isaac Collins, and first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers. Bauers was still in limbo on Saturday afternoon, Murphy said, due to the upward mobility clause in his minor-league contract. Exercising that clause would allow Bauers to survey interest from the rest of the league. If any team promised him a roster spot, the Brewers would have 72 hours to add him to their roster or release him to pursue those opportunities. “We’re pretty close (to a decision),” Murphy said. If the Brewers keep Bauers, they’ll have to make room for him on their 40-man roster. The most straightforward way would be to place Aaron Ashby on the 60-day injured list. The left-hander has stalled in his recovery from an oblique injury and will need time to build back up as a starter upon returning to the mound. On the pitching side, Jose Quintana made his second spring training appearance on Saturday and estimated that he would need two more before he is ready for his regular-season debut. He expects to stay behind in Arizona to start a minor-league game next Thursday. If he requires a final tune-up after that, the earliest he could pitch would be in the final game of the first homestand. That means the Brewers would have to use a spot starter or bullpen game for their fifth game. “It's one of those deals where we don't want to rush this guy in any way, shape, or form,” Murphy said. “He's a starter. We don't want to use him as a reliever, so he might not break (camp) with the club.” Murphy also said the Brewers are still weighing whether to roster Abner Uribe to serve his four-game suspension or wait until late April. That leaves a couple of pitching spots still unresolved, but the roster picture continues to come together as spring training nears its close. View full article

"It started off coming up all traditional, up on both feet, and that's the only way I knew how to catch," the Brewers' veteran backup catcher said. Throughout the last two seasons, he has transitioned to modern techniques and transformed his capabilities as a receiver. He’ll tell you that his mentality of taking nothing for granted remains unchanged, but Eric Haase finds himself in a much different situation this spring than he did a year ago. Last March, Haase was fighting an uphill battle to break camp with the Brewers as a third catcher, a roster hurdle over which not even his fantastic performance could vault him. Fast forward a year, and a guaranteed pairing of William Contreras and Haase at catcher was one of the few positions already settled before spring training commenced. Drafted out of high school in 2011, the 32-year-old has seen firsthand the evolution of receiving techniques during the last decade-plus. After doing his part in recent years to keep up, he’s improved on his longstanding reputation as a bat-first catcher and suspect defender. Most notably, Haase has reversed what was once one of his greatest weaknesses: framing pitches. For most of his career, Haase set up behind the plate in a traditional squat and graded as a poor receiver. That began to change in 2023 when he started experimenting with a one-knee setup. Haase kicked out his other leg mid-pitch to get closer to the ground, which was supposed to help him better frame low pitches. “It felt good at the bottom of the zone,” he said. “Lower center of gravity, just working up through everything.” Haase’s receiving improved dramatically at the bottom of the zone but remained below average everywhere else, so he felt he had room to refine his mechanics further. After he signed with the Brewers, Walker McKinven et al. encouraged him to eliminate the leg kick most of the time in favor of a calmer and more upright one-knee stance. “Their big thing was, ‘Hey, you're very athletic. You're not really using your athleticism. Here are some different stances or angles or whatnot to put you back into a more athletic position,’” Haase recalled. “And then I guess my natural glove patterns and loads started coming out a little bit better.” With the adjustment, Haase joined a long list of backstops to transform their framing under the tutelage of Milwaukee’s catching instruction team. According to TruMedia, between Triple-A and the big leagues, he accrued a career-high 5.1 Count-Adjusted Framing Runs Above Average last season, up from -0.1 in 2023 and his career-worst of -9.9 runs in 2021. “I'm a little bit more stable going side to side,” Haase explained when asked how the new setup helps him. “Not just one pitch, kind of selling out for at the bottom, kind of how I was before. But it just allows me to be a lot more athletic.” With increased control and receiving range throughout the entire strike zone, most of Haase’s improvement came on high pitches, where he graded as an elite framer last year. The leg kick previously hampered his ability to present the ball up there. “When I was on a knee and kicking out every time, I was taking my head below the top of the strike zone,” he said. “So even if there (were) pitches at the top that were strikes, it's above my head, and that's just a bad look for (the umpire). So just staying on one knee, not kicking out, staying a little bit taller, knowing I can still get to the bottom, really helped me out at the top.” Developed in the minor leagues when traditional receiving still reigned supreme, Haase has successfully transitioned to modern framing. It’s an active process with plenty of glove movement, with the key being to have the proper movement that best presents the pitch. Today’s catchers are setting up increasingly closer to the back of home plate and going to get the ball as it approaches the plate. The idea is not to pull that pitch back into the strike zone but to work around and through the ball with the mitt so that it appears to have crossed well over the plate. “I mean, that's the whole thing with receiving,” Haase said. “You're not really tricking the guy behind you as much as just trying to give them the best look possible. These days, there's so much tracking technology, the days of catching a ball here and moving it there and hoping you trick the guy is probably not going to happen anymore, you know? Those umpires are getting their reports, they can see exactly where pitches are, and those are the best in the world at what they do.” Giving umpires the best look possible requires knowing how to handle different pitchers with a wide range of pitch shapes and varying degrees of command. It’s easiest to catch a pitcher with predictable movement who hits his spots, Haase admitted, but that’s not always the task he’s assigned. “Some guys, their stuff moves a lot more than other guys, even if it could be the same pitch. It's just a constant battle of, ‘How much plate do I need to give them? What angles do I give them? Height of the target?’ And we go ad nauseam about that with pitchers’ meetings and these guys throwing side bullpens and things, so there's a lot of crossover before you're actually on the field, things you can iron out before you get out there.” Fighting that battle is an all-hands-on-deck effort. “Oh, it's a lot,” Haase replied with widened eyes when asked how many individuals contribute to the process. “I mean, shoot, off the top of my head, three, four catching coaches, two, three pitching coaches, and Charlie Greene in the bullpen. Murph’s got his input on stuff. So obviously, there's a lot of areas that you're taking it in from. You're trying to bottleneck and get it down to the product on the field.” While beginning in an upright stance with a knee down has proven to be the best way to control his center of mass and present the ball most of the time, Haase stressed that he’ll never commit to a single constant setup. He is always willing to tweak things based on immediate in-game variables and the continuous evolution of his position. “I could be back on two feet next year,” he said. “I think about it more as just tools in my tool belt, rather than just, ‘Okay, this is my stance, and this is how I do it.’ It's whatever the game is calling for, I try to position myself into that.” Haase’s defense remains far from perfect. He’s made significant strides, though, and now has a hard-earned opportunity to showcase them in the big leagues. Most importantly, he’ll continue putting in the work to adapt as the game demands it. View full article

Despite the manager throwing his name into the ring to fill a fresh vacancy, it's not yet a fitting time for one of the Brewers' top pitching prospects to join the big-league starting rotation. Image courtesy of © Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images A day after Pat Murphy designated Logan Henderson as a potential rotation replacement for an injured Tobias Myers, he gave a harsh public evaluation of the 23-year-old’s three-inning start in Peoria against the San Diego Padres. “That’s not acceptable,” Murphy said. “That’s not acceptable to walk four people. That’s not who he is. He’s got to be better than that.” The manager was not wrong. Henderson walked just 4.7% of opponents in the minor leagues last year. Filling the strike zone is one of his strengths. But while the free passes drew Murphy’s ire on Monday, it was another foible that indicated Henderson needs more development time in Nashville before the Brewers can seriously consider him for big-league starts. The right-hander has gotten excellent mileage from a great fastball and changeup combination in the minors. Last year in Triple A, his four-seamer averaged 17.3 inches of induced vertical break—often reaching an elite 20 inches—from a below-average release height of 5.28 feet. That makes the ball difficult to get on top of, yielding a 29.3% whiff rate against the pitch. His real bread and butter is a plus changeup that averaged 17.9 inches of arm-side run and falls off the table as it nears the plate; it held Triple-A opponents to a .193 xwOBA with a 32.6% whiff rate. To be a big-league starter, though, Henderson needs a viable third pitch with glove-side movement. He mixed in a cutter in the minors and has added a slider this spring. Both offerings have been inconsistent. They looked passible in Henderson’s previous outing at a Statcast-equipped park on March 5th, but backed up on him a few times in his start this week. It’s understandable that Murphy would propose a strike-thrower with two highly effective pitches as a potential substitute for Myers. However, his absence seems likely to be brief, and the Brewers have several length options (with higher floors) who should be ahead of Henderson on the depth chart. Tyler Alexander could slide into the fourth rotation spot for a few turns, with Connor Thomas, Elvin Rodriguez, and Chad Patrick among the additional candidates. The Brewers don’t need Henderson yet, and he has not quite found the elusive third pitch he’ll need to navigate big-league lineups multiple times within an outing. He may surface in the bullpen at some point this year, but for now, more seasoning in Nashville is the best thing for his development. View full article

After a spring training of twists and turns involving the infield and pitching plans, the Brewers are inching closer to finalizing the roster they’ll take to New York next week. Image courtesy of © Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images Pat Murphy succinctly summarized the challenges he and the front office face in crafting the Brewers’ initial 26-man roster. “It’s hard,” Murphy said on Tuesday, minutes after meeting with Matt Arnold and other Brewers executives to discuss precisely that. “We sat and went over every scenario we’re talking about right now. We didn’t solve anything.” With Opening Day a week away, the catching tandem of William Contreras and Eric Haase is the only position fully set in stone. Club decision-makers already had to mull moving pieces around the infield, and recent injuries have further complicated the process on both sides of the ball. Blake Perkins fractured his right shin early in camp, cutting into the outfield depth. After the Brewers flipped their preferred middle infield alignment, moving Brice Turang to shortstop and Joey Ortiz to second base, the former’s shoulder ailment prompted them just as abruptly to switch it back. DL Hall, Aaron Ashby, Tobias Myers, and Nick Mears will open the year on the injured list, making the pitching puzzle more complex. While not every question has been answered decisively, things are starting to take shape after the latest round of cuts and an approaching decision deadline for a handful of players. On the pitching side, Brewers camp is down to the 13 hurlers who will not begin the season on the injured list and figure to comprise half of the roster: Freddy Peralta Nestor Cortes Aaron Civale Jose Quintana Tyler Alexander Trevor Megill Jared Koenig Joel Payamps Bryan Hudson Elvis Peguero Abner Uribe Connor Thomas Elvin Rodriguez Murphy confirmed that Peralta, Cortes, and Civale will start the first three games of the season in New York. He also said Peralta will start the sixth game of the year against the Kansas City Royals, indicating the Brewers do not plan to utilize a four-man rotation through its first turn with an early off day. The skipper stopped short of naming Tyler Alexander the fourth starter in Myers’s stead, but the signs point that way after he stretched to four innings in his latest Cactus League outing. Quintana will round out the rotation, but not until he’s ready to go after a delayed start to spring training. Because he’d likely be ready before the 15-day minimum absence mandated by an injured list placement or agreed-upon optional assignment, he’ll likely make the roster regardless of his immediate availability. The Brewers could still recall Logan Henderson or Chad Patrick shortly into the season to cover innings, particularly if Quintana isn’t ready to go for the season’s fifth game. Murphy also raised the possibility of waiting until the club’s road trip at the end of April to recall Uribe to serve his suspension, in which case it would likely recall Grant Anderson to round out the initial bullpen. In any case, they’ll exchange an optionable reliever for a fresh one from Triple A a few days into the season, if not sooner. On the position player side, the Brewers optioned Andruw Monasterio on Wednesday, and they must inform non-roster veterans Mark Canha, Jake Bauers, and Manuel Margot by Friday morning whether they’ve made the team. So as not to tip the club’s hand, Murphy said the Brewers could roster more than one of those veterans, but assuming Caleb Durbin will join Vinny Capra as the other part-time infielder, it seems those three non-roster guys are competing for the final spot on the bench. Tyler Black also remains in camp, but is still an apparent odd man out due to his continued lack of defensive improvement at first base. As somewhat versatile pieces who can play first base and the corner outfield, Canha and Bauers appear to be the leading contenders for the last spot. Bauers has outperformed Canha this spring, posting a .985 OPS compared to his competitor’s .511. However, Canha has never performed well in preseason play, and his signature plate discipline has still looked strong. Murphy has also intimated repeatedly that the Brewers perceive Bauers as the more likely of the pair to accept a reassignment to Triple A. A surprise roster decision could still be in the cards, but it is becoming less likely by the day. What was a convoluted roster puzzle is starting to come together, and there should be even more clarity by the weekend. View full article

The Brewers' deceptive southpaw reliever unveiled his new changeup earlier this spring, and this week, he broke out the other arm-side mover he's been crafting. It’s a tale as old as baseball’s modern era: a pitcher using spring training to develop a new pitch. Even in an age when hurlers can visit high-tech pitching labs to develop and refine a new offering off the field, the ultimate litmus tests are whether they can execute it in games and the outcomes it generates against live hitters. Low-pressure preseason games are the best opportunity for pitchers to see whether they can parlay new pitches into the regular season. After an offseason of experimentation, Bryan Hudson is taking advantage of that time this spring. “You just got a little bit more time,” he said of the spring training environment. “You're not so on edge, so cutthroat about, ‘I don't want to get beat by my worst stuff. I'm going to throw my best stuff here.’ Here, you're working on stuff, getting better, and trying to see what will help you and what won’t in-season.” Hudson had already debuted a changeup that gives him fading action away from right-handed batters. He’s also developing another new trick: a sinker he broke out against the San Diego Padres in Peoria on Monday. He and the Brewers are partly motivated by a desire to improve his below-average 40% ground ball rate from last year. “It was a group decision for me to work on it,” Hudson said. “There were a few times last year where I felt like a two-seam could’ve got me a ground ball in a good spot where my four-seam didn’t.” The first sinker he threw in Cactus League play induced the kind of batted ball he desired. Unfortunately, Jake Cronenworth’s ground ball near third base rolled past a shaded Juan Baez and down the line for a double. TUF2eU5fWGw0TUFRPT1fVXdSUlZRSUNCd1lBRGxBREJRQUFDRk1DQUFBTlZsUUFVRmNGQnd0UlZRZFVDRlpY.mp4 Hudson threw the pitch inside to the left-handed-hitting Cronenworth, which is how he plans to use it in the regular season. While his four-seamer, cutter, and sweeper mix decimated lefties last year, holding them to a .295 xwOBA, the absence of arm-side movement largely relegated him to pitching them away. The sinker gives Hudson a pitch he can run inside on same-handed opponents at the bottom of the zone, to change their sights. “I can go (four-seamer) up and away, and then I can go sinker down and in, and then I’ve got the slider or the cutter, or I can go four up again (because) I just changed their eye level,” he illustrated. “Really, it’s a pitch just to change their eye level, trying to miss a barrel, get a ground ball. I don’t think it’ll be a swing-and-miss pitch that often, but I think it will get some weak contact.” Hudson’s sidearm slot equips him to kill ride on the pitch and create sink. The one he threw on Monday had -1.1 inches of induced vertical break, meaning the orientation and spin of the baseball are slightly assisting gravity in making the ball drop instead of resisting it. That’s about where the pitch has been sitting as he’s worked on it, Hudson said. “Yeah, zero (induced vertical break) and like negative 15, 16 (horizontal break), so it’s a decent sinker … On my four-seam, I’m across (the seams), and on the two-seam, I’m just literally ripping down off of one seam on my middle finger, and whenever I’m pronating, it turns it over and makes it (sink).” As he enters his second season in Milwaukee, Hudson is working to become a more complete pitcher with more cards in his deck. His spring training results so far have been underwhelming, but he’s more focused on feeling good about his arsenal by Opening Day. “I think it'll all pay off in the season," he said. "I’m not necessarily putting up zeros like I want to, but I think it’s a lot of trial and error right now. So that’s frustrating, but it’ll get better.” View full article

The Brewers' 2024 Co-Minor League Pitcher of the Year knows he has a unique ability to generate elite movement to both sides of the plate. His next objective is to find the best way to keep that break within or near the strike zone more consistently. Image courtesy of © Curt Hogg / USA TODAY NETWORK Craig Yoho's screwball-like changeup has been the talk of Brewers camp, but one of his other pitches drew the spotlight in the Brewers' Spring Breakout Game on Sunday night. With his final pitch of a perfect inning, Yoho landed a back-door breaking ball to strike out Cincinnati Reds prospect Carlos Jorge. Yoho only threw the pitch 16% of the time in Triple A last year and has thrown it even less in most of his spring training outings. However, its break is arguably as impressive as his changeup's. In last year's sample, Yoho's Statcast-tracked breaking balls averaged 20.2 inches of horizontal movement. There's no pitch quite like it at the MLB level. In 2024, only one qualified pitch—Boston Red Sox reliever Greg Weissert's sweeper—averaged at least that much glove-side break. Most sweeper-like offerings have minimal depth, but Yoho's breaker averaged -7.8 inches of induced vertical movement. That unorthodox shape has left evaluators and pitch-tracking systems divided on how to label it. Some within the Brewers organization view it as a curveball. Statcast tags it as a sweeper. Yoho prefers to call it a slider, because it reinforces his mental cue of ripping the pitch as hard as possible. "That's what I've called it since I started throwing it in college," he recalled on Monday morning. "If I try and think curveball, I probably slow up a little bit, so I call it a slider. So that's what I like to think it is. But it's just more for my own thought process." Yoho tries to keep that thought process as simple as possible, setting him apart in an era when many pitchers fixate on spin and release data to achieve their desired direction and degree of movement. "I don't think necessarily about spin direction or anything on that," he said. "I'm already kind of on the side of the baseball. It's kind of almost like a cutter grip on it, and then I'm just kind of supinated on it when I come through, and I'm just thinking about ripping the seams down the side of the baseball." That's a luxury Yoho enjoys as a rare breed on the mound. Most pitchers are biased toward pronating or supinating the baseball, but he excels at both, allowing him to generate elite movement in both directions. That creates the daunting matchup that terrorized hitters across three levels last year. "It just forces the hitters to stay on everything for so long and make those swing decisions hard," Yoho said of the interplay between his two big breakers. "I might throw a changeup in there and it might run away, and then, all of a sudden, you see a swing at a slider in the other batter's box. It's like, 'Why do they do that?' And it's because everything starts at different spots and finishes somewhere else." The drawback to all that movement is that, at times, it's proven difficult to land in the strike zone. If there was a nit to pick with Yoho's dazzling first full professional season, it was the frequency of free bases he conceded. He issued progressively more walks as he faced increasingly disciplined hitters, culminating in a 14.5% walk rate at Triple-A Nashville. Cutting down those free passes has been an area of focus this spring. On that front, Yoho debuted a minor adjustment in his appearance on Sunday. He has long pitched from the extreme third base end of the rubber to maximize the perceived break of his stuff. As recently as the beginning of this month, Matt Trueblood talked to Yoho and wrote about his theory for working from that spot. In the short time since, though, the Brewers' pitching development brass nudged him slightly toward the middle to keep his pitches over the plate longer. "I've been so far to the third base side, my toes are kind of hanging off (the rubber)," he said. "And they were like, 'Hey, I think it might help your stuff, just to keep it more on-plane with the plate longer, to kind of move back towards the middle.' So (Sunday night), I kind of tinkered with it where I moved back a little bit. So now my toes are in line with the edge of the rubber." Yoho is correct in believing that pitching from the third-base side makes right-handed movement look more extreme to a right-handed batter. But the Brewers led him to a more important realization: he needs no such illusions to make his stuff more challenging to hit. "A lot of times, guys do that because they don't have good stuff," he explained. "I already have good stuff. Now it's like, how much can I get that in the zone and competitive? And so that might actually take away from how good my stuff is if I'm that far, where it's hard to get my changeup back over the plate with having to get so much to my glove side." Yoho is positioned to become the latest in a long line of dominant Milwaukee relievers. He has the stuff and the poise. All that's missing is more consistent control, which could fall into place with his new starting point. "It's just kind of like, 'Hey, you've got good stuff, it's just got to be in the zone. So just keep throwing it and find those sight lines of where you got to start the pitches.'" View full article

It was a triumphant day for the Brewers' former ace, but it was also the first public demonstration of the areas where he's still tinkering and trying to unlock the best version of his post-surgery self. Image courtesy of © Curt Hogg / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Sunday was a major milestone for Brandon Woodruff. For the first time since Sept. 23, 2023, the right-hander toed the rubber in a big-league game, tossing a scoreless inning. The obvious highlight was his velocity. According to the stadium gun, Woodruff’s fastballs averaged 93.1 mph, and he touched 95 twice. Given the adrenaline boost that accompanied his first big-league appearance in 18 months, it wouldn’t be surprising if Woodruff’s velocity ticks down a notch in his next outing. Still, the fact that he’s already recovered this much of it after major shoulder surgery is remarkable. It’s not just about velocity, though. Pat Murphy noted that morning that the Brewers were more focused on Woodruff’s pitch shapes. “You still got to go through this process where it's coming out with the same—it's not just the number on that gun, you know—the same lift on the ball, the same properties of the pitch, and then we know he's getting closer,” Murphy said. Then Woodruff took the mound and immediately threw a few fastballs with a different shape. Instead of riding with backspin at the top of the zone like his signature four-seamer, they cut. That’s been a recurring twist throughout his rehab, he explained. Woodruff, a natural pronator for his entire career, is fighting to recapture consistency in his lower-body mechanics to keep his hand behind the ball. “My lower half drives everything,” he said. “But I’m trying to make adjustments with it to help, because it coincides with my release point. So I have been cutting the ball a little bit, which is not a bad thing if I can use it the right way. But ideally, I’d like to get back to having that four-seam that rides. That’s kind of my thing.” He made adjustments throughout the inning, throwing some four-seamers with a more standard shape. His fastest pitch of the afternoon was his last, a heater that induced a groundout off the bat of Jhonkensy Noel. “The funny thing is, I’m a bigger guy, so getting the timing in my delivery has always been important for me, and spring training is always the time for me to really hammer that out," Woodruff said. "The ones that were at higher velocities actually felt easier, delivery-wise. That’s a positive. That just means you’re timed up better.” Woodruff showed his entire arsenal during the inning, inducing whiffs on a curveball and a pair of changeups. He said the latter was the sharpest it's been this spring, after mixed results in his bullpens and minor-league outings. He also debuted a modified slider with more glove-side break, preceding that final fastball. NXlhN2VfV0ZRVkV3dEdEUT09X1ZWSUhCVlVFVWxjQUMxcFVVUUFBVWdNREFBTURVRk1BQkZFR0FsQU1Cd1ZRQ1ZOUg==.mp4 For his entire career, Woodruff has thrown a shorter gyro slider that has never exceeded an average of 3.8 inches of horizontal break in a season. He’s long desired more lateral movement, though, to better separate the pitch from his 12-6 curveball and better compliment the rest of his arsenal. Notice in the chart below how Woodruff lacks movement away from a right-handed batter. Woodruff said he started toying with the longer slider in 2023 and resumed the experiment as he worked his way back to a big-league mound. After some trial and error, he feels he’s starting to add more consistent sweep after a new cue from pitching coach Chris Hook. The Brewers’ former ace isn’t just returning from a serious injury. He’s also trying to better shape his arsenal along the way, and he may need to tweak his approach on the mound to match changes in the behavior of his pitches. His unofficial return to a big-league mound showcased how far he’s come, and where he remains a work in progress. Even an effective post-surgery Woodruff appears unlikely to get there the same way he once did. He’s embracing and working through that part of the process. View full article

The Brewers had some tough decisions to make about their final bullpen spots in the coming days, but the near-certain absences of two would-be locks open fresh opportunities to carry certain pitchers—and introduce some even trickier roster math. Image courtesy of © Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images The Brewers have an embarrassment of riches in the bullpen, but they'll utilize all of it throughout a long regular season. Pat Murphy made sure to note as much on Saturday morning. "This group," he said, referring to all of the remaining pitchers in big-league spring training, "they're all going to pitch. They're all going to pitch in the big leagues. We used 36 or something last year." Only eight can break camp in the bullpen, though. Until recently, most of that group already appeared locked in. Trevor Megill and Jared Koenig are the top high-leverage arms. Joel Payamps and Nick Mears cannot be optioned to the minor leagues. Neither can southpaw swingmen Tyler Alexander and Connor Thomas, who seemed ticketed for relief roles after the addition of Jose Quintana. "It's about health, who we're playing, who has options, you know?" Murphy said. The health disclaimer proved prescient, as hours later, Tobias Myers left his start in Tempe with left oblique discomfort. Myers downplayed his removal as precautionary and the injury as minor, but Murphy reminded reporters of the fickle nature of oblique ailments. "Whenever you're talking about an oblique, whether it's mild or whatever it is, he had to come out of the game. It's concerning." As Myers undergoes imaging, Murphy listed Logan Henderson and Chad Patrick as candidates to start in his absence. Alexander, Thomas, or Elvin Rodriguez could also receive spot starts. Henderson and Rodriguez are scheduled to start the Brewers' next two Cactus League games. Mears also appears to be headed for the injured list, after losing nearly 10 pounds due to illness last week. He appeared in three games beforehand, but Murphy said Mears is effectively starting from scratch as he builds back up. "He was down a long time, you know? He has to build back up, hasn't had a back-to-back," the skipper said. "I mean, he's not going to be able to throw a pen for four or five days. So now it's like, kid loses that much weight, that much strength, that could be a possible injury situation. So more and more opportunities are opened up." While an unfortunate break for Mears, it could be good news for Rodriguez and Abner Uribe. It opens a more flexible bullpen spot and an opportunity to get Uribe's four-game suspension from last year out of the way to open the season. With Mears on the shelf, the Brewers could roster a suspended Uribe, carry Rodriguez as added length to cover some of those innings (if he doesn't start for Myers), and still have space for at least one of Bryan Hudson or Elvis Peguero. The extra optionable bullpen spot would also allow them to rotate through more arms over the season's first two weeks, giving Murphy more room to enact his aggressive "win tonight" management style without taxing his relief corps out of the gates. "That's the exact thinking," he said, adding that the potential of only needing to cover eight innings in some of the season-opening road games is another potential reason for rostering Uribe. However, the Brewers may need their multi-inning relievers to cover Myers's innings, which could make a dead bullpen spot more detrimental. Another option, Murphy said, is waiting until road games in St. Louis and Chicago at the end of April, when there is a day off between series to help the active relievers recuperate. A few days ago, there was no apparent black-and-white bullpen alignment for Opening Day. Now, the Brewers have even more roster math to think about. "We have a bunch of pitchers that are going to pitch for us," Murphy said, "and it's kind of how we reconnoiter it." [Ed. note: No, that's not what 'reconnoiter' means. That's one of Murphy's pet words this spring, a remembered bit of verbiage from card games with his father as a kid. As they said in Animal House: Forget it. He's rolling.] View full article

In recent years, the Brewers' Rule 5 draft pick has transformed how his cutter and sweeper interact with the rest of his arsenal. He's put in additional work on that front with his new team as he looks to establish a foothold in the big leagues. Image courtesy of © Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Connor Thomas has quietly been one of the Brewers’ better performers this spring. Perhaps that’s a fitting beginning to his stint with a new team. Listed generously at six feet tall, Thomas is not an intimidating presence on the mound. He does not post gaudy strikeout figures, nor are modern stuff models enamored with his arsenal, but he effectively mixes and commands five pitches. He appeared on prospect lists in the St. Louis Cardinals organization but never near the top. As a Rule 5 draft selection, the Brewers cannot send Thomas to the minor leagues without first offering him back to the Cardinals. That alone gives him a leg up on his competition for a roster spot, but he’s bolstered his case with solid work on the mound. He’s allowed just one earned run in 9 ⅓ innings across five appearances. Team decision-makers have taken notice. “He’s been very, very good,” Pat Murphy said. “He’s very much in the conversation, very much in the conversation. He’s pitched really well. I think that the consensus is he’s made our job a lot tougher than we thought. Do you know what I mean? He’s throwing the ball good.” As Tobias Myers awaits word on the severity of his oblique injury, Thomas will likely be among the hurlers tasked with filling the void, whether as a long man in the bullpen or as a spot starter. He has starting experience and stretched out to three innings in his latest outing on Saturday. Known as a cerebral pitcher (like most Milwaukee arms these days), Thomas is making his bid with a fuller understanding and tightened utilization of his glove-side-moving pitches. The Brewers selected him after a breakout 2024 season in which he permanently morphed his slider into a sweeper, seemingly in an attempt to differentiate it from his cutter. Thomas confirmed Saturday morning that was indeed his motivation. “As I started throwing the cutter more, they started to kind of morph into the same pitch,” he recalled, “but the slider was slower and in the zone more, so it was getting hit pretty hard. And so I kind of self-assessed and said, ‘Hey, maybe I need to work on maybe sweeping it more to have a little differentiation.’ End of (2023), I started playing around with it, and then in (2024) kind of let it happen. And it turned out to be my best pitch last year in most aspects – movement profile, all that.” While Thomas’s slider held opponents to similar slugging percentages across both seasons, the longer version yielded more sustainable success. Opponents’ hard hit rate dropped from 46.8% against his standard slider in 2023 to 35.1% against his sweeper in 2024. “Hitters were just having a field day,” he said of his old slider. “Specifically, righties were having a field day whenever I threw it. And so when I started throwing the sweeper more, I started missing barrels again with it, and I was like, ‘Okay, that's kind of the result I'm looking for.’” The linchpin of Thomas’s arsenal is his cutter, which he locates primarily up-and-in to right-handed batters. That’s a somewhat unique approach, particularly because his cutter is more of a gyro-spinning, slider-like pitch without much ride than a true cutting fastball. However, Thomas confirmed it plays up there due to his low three-quarters arm slot. “From talking to righties that I've been teammates with, they said to me, ‘Just from your arm slot, it looks like it's going 20 inches inside the way you throw it.’ So it may not have a big movement profile, but to the hitter's eyes, it looks like it's bearing in on them, which is exactly what I was trying to do with it, because then that opens up the sinker and the changeup away, and I can truly go expand it to both sides.” The feedback from hitters was helpful, but the informationally-driven Thomas also dove into the data to determine how to use the pitch. “The Cardinals had a database, kind of like what the Brewers have. I think every team, for the most part, nowadays has a database to look at your numbers. And I just went and looked at heat maps and something called RAW and all these different advanced stats about where I should go – this pitch, what counts, and all that. It said if you're facing a righty, it's a reset pitch for me to get their eyes up. So I don't really want to throw that down. I want to get it up.” Jamming righties with elevated cutters has worked well, but the Brewers’ top pitching minds have challenged Thomas to explore new ways in which the pitch can complement the rest of his arsenal. Specifically, they’ve encouraged him to adopt their strategy of “making X’s” with his cutter and sinker to both sides of the plate at the bottom of the zone, which has made past hurlers like Colin Rea and Bryse Wilson more deceptive. “Kind of advancing my cutter to more of an early strike-throwing machine on both sides of the plate, as opposed to just kind of keyholing me to the inner part of the plate,” Thomas explained. “Now hitters are having to respect the cutter back-door and on both sides of the plate. We're playing around with it… They’ve really kind of opened my eyes to what I can do as far as crisscrossing on both sides of the plate, up and down, here and there.” While working his cutter high-and-tight last year, Thomas unconventionally threw most of his sinkers over the middle of the plate instead of working them away as he did in past seasons. That wasn’t so much a conscious effort to better tunnel the two pitches, he said, as it was increased confidence that he could get more roll-over swings on sinkers over the plate because hitters were protecting against the cutter. “Seeing the cutter, seeing their reactions – changing their eyes and kind of a little get-back from the hitter – it gave me so much more confidence just to have the sinker middle away in the zone and be comfortable that I'm going to get the ground ball or get the end-of-the-barrel kind of swing because they have to respect both sides of the plate now. And so that comes from me just having confidence throwing it for a strike, not worrying about nit-picking on the corner and missing away.” Thomas is the latest entry into what has become a successful development practice for the Brewers: taking a smart, deliberate pitcher making strides toward maximizing his arsenal, implementing more changes to get him over the hump of productivity, and reaping the benefits of an unexciting but valuable innings-eater. He has eagerly bought into the process, and it could start to pay off even more in a few weeks. View full article