Jack Stern

Image courtesy of © Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images You can never have too much starting pitching. The Brewers have experienced that adage firsthand in each of the last two seasons. Including openers and bullpen games, both the 2024 and 2025 Brewers used 17 different starters during the regular season. Last season, an immediate bout of injuries left them starting Elvin Rodríguez and Tyler Alexander in April. Given that history, the length of Milwaukee’s depth chart entering 2026 is no coincidence. The Brewers are poised to open the regular season with up to 14 capable starting candidates on their 40-man roster. Non-roster arms like Tate Kuehner, Drew Rom, and (eventually) a healthy Gerson Garabito bring the count to 17. Over the winter, the club traded away Freddy Peralta and Tobias Myers and lost Jose Quintana to free agency, but it added nearly twice as many starters. Brandon Sproat came over in that Peralta trade, and the club traded its entire big-league depth chart at third base to the Boston Red Sox for southpaws Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan. Meanwhile, Logan Henderson and Robert Gasser worked their way back to full health, and Rom and Gerabito joined waiver claim Sammy Peralta as upper-minors depth. As spring training got underway, it seemed that the organization would have more starters than starts, both in the big leagues and in Triple-A. Matt Arnold welcomed that potential logjam, but did not expect it to arise. “We know we’re going to have injuries,” Arnold said after the Brewers acquired Harrison and Drohan. “You guys saw what we were dealing with at the start of last year, when not everybody’s 100%. That’s going to happen again, and we know that.” It’s not a Brewers-specific trend brought on by an unusual number of injuries. The modern starter works fewer innings, meaning teams need more starters to cover a season. In 2010, 273 pitchers started an MLB game, 74 made at least 30 starts, and 45 pitched at least 200 innings. Last season, there were 369 different starters; 53 made at least 30 starts, and three logged at least 200 innings. “The game today, it takes a lot,” Pat Murphy said last month. “200 innings? Unheard of. It takes a lot. 150 is a lot. So you need depth.” That means clubs must construct rotation mixes of more than six or seven pitchers. Seventeen starters may have seemed like aberrations in back-to-back seasons, but it’s more likely to become the new normal. The Brewers are planning accordingly. “It’s no longer a five-man rotation, all five guys are getting 30 starts,” Murphy said. “That didn’t happen anywhere [in 2025], I don’t think … I don’t think it’s being built to be that way. I think it’s more about, 'Hey, we’re going to use 20 pitchers, and all 20 are going to contribute.' That’s kind of how staffs are being built.” Murphy has also made a spring mantra of reminding media that pitching injuries are seasonal, on which the data back him up. Here's a month-by-month three-year survey of injured list placements, for position players and pitchers, via Baseball Prospectus. The need for that many arms is already playing out as the Brewers anticipated, partially because they're being so cautious to combat the springtime pitching injury risk. Brandon Woodruff purposely slow buildup has him questionable for Opening Day, and Quinn Priester appears likely to begin the year on the injured list due to a nagging wrist injury that has muddied his outlook in camp. That means there could be at least two rotation spots up for grabs. Several of the Brewers’ younger and newer arms have initiated solid bids early in camp. Logan Henderson’s new curveball has looked like a legitimate breaking ball that could add needed balance to his arsenal. Sproat has flashed an extra tick of velocity and turned his short slider into a mid-90s cutter that he can throw in the strike zone as a secondary pitch. A new grip has given Harrison’s kick changeup outlier depth. Drohan induced whiffs on 38.3% of swings in his Cactus League debut. The Brewers didn’t just prepare an emergency plan for hits to their rotation depth; they expected those hits to come. They could quickly be rewarded for that planning. View full article

Image courtesy of © Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Since the Brewers acquired left-hander Kyle Harrison from the Boston Red Sox a few days before pitchers and catchers reported for spring training, he's suddenly faced a slew of introductions. Despite being less acclimated with Milwaukee's pitching development crew than many of his new teammates, he quickly picked up on how organized and focused his new coaches are. "The overall attention to detail here has been pretty awesome," he said last month, just over a week into his Brewers tenure. After the San Francisco Giants selected him in the third round of the shortened 2020 MLB draft, Harrison ascended quickly through their minor-league system, making his debut in August 2023. However, his development stalled as he bounced between the Giants' rotation and their Triple-A affiliate. In 39 games (35 starts) across parts of three seasons in San Francisco, the 24-year-old pitched to a 4.48 ERA (110 ERA-), 4.56 FIP (114 FIP-), and 4.17 SIERA. Harrison did not get many big-league opportunities after the Giants traded him to Boston in June as part of the Rafael Devers deal, as his new club immediately optioned him to Triple-A Worcester until September. However, that time proved crucial for his development. The Red Sox saw deficiencies in Harrison's existing arsenal, which consisted only of a four-seam fastball, slurve, and changeup. That four-seamer was the only pitch he could land in the zone. In his eight appearances with the Giants last season, his slurve and changeup had respective in-zone rates of 40.2% and 39.5%. As a result, hitters did not have to honor non-fastball spin and could easily lay off those secondary pitches. Harrison's 25.6% chase rate as a Giant was well below the league average. Harrison needed more pitches that tracked in the strike zone. To give him another in-zone offering for both right-handed and left-handed hitters, the Red Sox helped him develop a cutter and a sinker. "Having had the conversation with the higher-ups there, they were like, 'Yeah, we want to introduce a cutter to the mix, see if you can make your change a little better, and then also add a little sinker just to lefties to mix it in,'" Harrison said. Harrison's four-seamer averaged 14.3 inches of arm-side movement due to his low arm slot and because he keeps his hand perfectly behind the ball at release, so his sinker doesn't have more run. However, it had 5.3 more inches of depth than his four-seamer last September, which makes it a different look for hitters. "It's something that I don't think I'd say classifies as a sinker, but it's something that kind of goes in to lefties and doesn't allow them to just cheat on a firm heater," he said. The cutter, meanwhile, gave him another in-zone pitch to use against all hitters, but he mostly used it against right-handers. "I think their thought there was, 'We want something that you could throw for a strike that's not a fastball,'" Harrison said. "And for me, they were looking at my slurve, and I wasn't able to land that in the zone as much as I wanted to. So I think they just wanted to give me something that crosses the zero [horizontal break] line but has this good vert, anywhere from six to eight, or something like that. Something just to look like the heater, just so guys, like I said from the left side for the sinker, so they can't just sit on the heater." Finally, the Red Sox tweaked Harrison's traditional circle changeup into a kick-change, which uses a spiked grip to create more depth. "It was one of those things where I threw my first live BP there, and they looked at it, and were like, 'Oh, what changeup is that?'" he said. "I'm like, 'Oh, it's just my circle change I've been throwing.' They were like, 'Oh, try this.'" Harrison pitched only 12 innings for Boston down the stretch last year, but in that time, he looked like a more well-rounded starting pitcher with a complete arsenal. With those new pitches in his mix, his chase rate spiked to 35.4%, a career-best for any month of his big-league career. None of that means he's a finished product, though. Harrison said it took an offseason to start locating a changeup with more movement, and he's still searching for the most comfortable cutter grip. That's where Chris Hook, Jim Henderson, and others can accelerate his evolution. "We'll see what their plans here are for me with my pitch mix, but I love how they've just been laid back," Harrison said. "They've let me kind of run the show, and ultimately, I think they're going to let me know what they want me to keep and what I can get better at. So I'm just all ears and looking forward to getting better here." Any work the Brewers have done with Harrison's arsenal may come to light on Tuesday, when he'll make his spring debut against Great Britain in their World Baseball Classic tuneup game. He could join Quinn Priester as another young starter to improve his arsenal in Boston and perfect it in Milwaukee. View full article

Image courtesy of © Kirby Lee-Imagn Images In four big-league seasons, Aaron Ashby has filled every possible role within the Brewers’ pitching staff. He’s started 26 games, most of which came in 2023. As a reliever, he’s been a long man, a left-handed specialist, a multi-inning setup man, and has even picked up five saves. In last year’s postseason, he started three games as an opener or first man up in a bullpen game. During the 2025 regular season, Ashby became Pat Murphy’s bullpen iron man, partially at his own request. Despite not debuting until May 23 due to an oblique injury, he appeared in a career-high 43 games and worked 66 ⅔ innings, the third-most among Brewers relievers. “Ashby wants to throw every day,” Murphy said last September. “He’s this kid who, since he’s rehabbed his injury, he’s just been adamant about touching the ball every day. We laugh about it. Every time he comes off the mound, he’s like, ‘I’m good to go. Keep going, keep going, keep going.’ He wants to throw every day.” Ashby’s drive to pitch so often was partially motivated by a lighter first-half workload than several of his teammates, due to that oblique injury. “We were thin at the end of the year,” he said last week from the Brewers’ spring training clubhouse in Arizona. “Everyone's running on fumes, and I felt pretty good for where we were at. I'd missed the first two months of the season, essentially, so I had more rest and more time off than everyone else. So I felt like I kind of owed it to the team and to the bullpen to be available and take that workload, because they had all had another two months under their belt that I didn't.” Furthermore, his throwing program was already geared toward being available nearly every day. Ashby said the second half of last season was a “great learning experience” in how to prepare for such a workload, but pitching so often was not too dissimilar from the work he already did between appearances. “I think I try to replicate an intense throwing volume or intensity every day, so that I feel good every day,” he said. “I kind of get to that point where I'm loose, I'm ready, and then I kind of let it rip for a little bit. So I think that's something that's helped me feel good every day. I think the frequency, I've tried to create on my own for many years by just having a really intense throwing program.” Ashby spent time in a similar niche in 2024, albeit not until a promotion in late August from Triple-A, where he pitched most of the season as a starter. The move to a flexible relief role has brought out the best in him, as he’s pitched to a 1.98 ERA, 2.26 FIP, and 2.62 SIERA in 86 ⅓ innings. In that time, Ashby has changed how he attacks hitters. When he debuted in 2021, he relied heavily on his high-spin breaking pitches, particularly his slider. Since returning from shoulder surgery in 2024, he’s thrown more sinkers than breaking balls. Last season, he threw his sinker a career-high 51.3% of the time. “I finally feel comfortable relying on the sinker to get me weak contact,” Ashby explained. “I have a bit of a better understanding of when I can throw it. I think that my other pitches have elevated the effectiveness of my sinker. I think that the curveball makes the sinker play up. I think the changeup makes the sinker play up. So, yeah, I think just knowing when to use it, knowing where to throw it, and kind of just believing in myself that I can get out of a jam with it.” The sinker was more effective than ever last year, leading Ashby’s arsenal with a +8 Run Value, according to Statcast. It held opponents to a .297 wOBA and produced a 65.3% ground ball rate. Trusting it more has also made him more efficient, as Ashby averaged 3.8 pitches per plate appearance and 15.5 pitches per inning last year, both career bests. “I think if you can establish a fastball early and make them swing at that, and then induce weak contact, I think that's a good recipe for being effective and efficient,” he said. Ashby’s breaking stuff has evolved, too. Post-surgery, he’s been unable to rediscover the same sweeping slider he once had, and has instead relied mostly on his big curveball, which has gained nearly 3 mph. “Just coming back from surgery, that was the breaking ball,” he said. “The slider was kind of hard to get back, but for whatever reason, I was just able to throw [the curveball] pretty easily. I think the curveball got better the last two years. It’s just kind of the ebbs and flows of pitch shapes and stuff like that.” Ashby got plenty of mileage out of a sinker, curveball, and changeup mix during the regular season, but he added another tool to his toolbelt late in the year. He had dabbled with a four-seamer before, but it rarely had much vertical separation from his sinker. Throughout the year, though, he developed a capable four-seamer while attempting to throw a different kind of fastball. “More than any pitch that I throw, I want to throw a cutter, and I’m not able to do it,” Ashby said. “In trying to throw this cutter, I realized that I could throw a four-seam, and for whatever reason, it felt easy to execute.” Averaging 13.7 inches of induced vertical break, the four-seamer doesn’t have much carry and grades out poorly on its own. However, for the first time, Ashby found another fastball that moves differently from his sinker. “I’m not someone who spins the ball, at least my fastball, very well,” he said. “I throw a very below-average spin fastball. I’ve never really been able to get the vert ball, mainly due to my release height, but it just has to be enough separation off the sinker. I think it does that.” Using it almost exclusively high and inside to right-handers to keep them off his sinker, the pitch quickly became a regular part of Ashby’s arsenal in the postseason. “You have to adapt in this game,” Ashby said. “Guys know I'm going to throw a sinker, so righties are diving out over the plate more, ready for it. If I have four-seam up and in that I can throw, it doesn't make that very comfortable to do anymore. More of just a tool to use sparingly, but definitely something to keep working on.” Ashby’s role for this season is not yet set in stone. For now, the Brewers are stretching him out to remain a multi-inning reliever, with starting still on the table should the need arise. “You can always go back,” Murphy said of moving pitchers into shorter relief roles after initially building them up for longer outings. “It’s hard to go forward.” Ashby remains willing to pitch in any capacity the Brewers need. “I think the idea right now is just to build up to around three innings,” he said. “It could be more than that, it could be less than that. And then kind of with whatever the team needs is kind of where I'll fall in.” View full article

Image courtesy of © Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images When Rickie Weeks transitioned from the dugout to the front office over the winter, the Brewers did not hire a new associate manager or bench coach. Instead, Weeks’s responsibilities as Pat Murphy’s right-hand man will be redistributed among the rest of the coaching staff. That's because Murphy didn't want to add more voices to his staff. “I don't like to add people as much as I like to add responsibility,” Murphy said from Brewers spring training last week. “It’s just like mixing anything else together. For that strategy part of it, I need all the help I can get. I think we’re going to have two or three people be in that role of giving information. Everybody has a kind of a different area.” As baseball’s data boom has created more information to process in the front office and in the dugout, coaching staffs have grown. Nobody can process and apply everything that's become relevant, so it made sense for teams to develop more specialized coaching roles. Each coach focuses on the finer details of their area of the game and shares their thoughts with the manager, who makes the final decisions. Such a structure brings unique challenges. Teams must pick the right coaches to handle different facets of the game. They must also hire enough coaches to ensure nobody is stretched too thin, but not so many that there are competing messages in the dugout. The Brewers believe they’ve struck that balance. “It's just a new configuration,” Murphy said. “Matt [Arnold] and I sat down and said, ‘What's the best way to utilize and not really add people?’ Because it gets crowded, you know? So that’s how we came up with it.” Under the new structure, several returning coaches will assume new roles or specialize more strictly in their area of expertise. Former third base coach Jason Lane will now advise Murphy on in-game hitting decisions as offense and strategy coordinator. Jim Henderson already filled a similar role on the pitching side, but his new title as major-league pitching coordinator cements it. Lead pitching coach Chris Hook will continue working with starters. Eric Theisen has been promoted to lead hitting coach, the role Al LeBoeuf held last season. Matt Erickson, who assumed Lane’s old role as third base coach, will continue coaching infielders and managing defensive positioning. Field coordinator Nestor Corridor will continue working with catchers, but will also specialize in controlling the running game. Game preparation specialists Daniel de Mondesert and Evan Martin will deliver analytics and other information from the front office to other coaches. “They all know what they’re responsible for,” Murphy said. “I think it’s a good collection.” Along with giving Henderson a new strategy-centric title, the Brewers also promoted Juan Sandoval from assistant coordinator of minor-league pitching to assistant pitching coach. With Julio Borbón and LeBoeuf moving into front office roles and Connor Dawson taking a hitting coach position with the Kansas City Royals, the club hired Spencer Allen as first base coach and Guillermo Martinez and Daniel Vogelbach as assistant hitting coaches. Vogelbach, who played parts of two seasons with the Brewers in 2020 and 2021, may be the most recognizable hire. The 33-year-old retired after the 2024 season and worked for the Pittsburgh Pirates as a special hitting assistant last season. Less than two years after the end of his playing career, he’s now a full-time coach. “Vogey’s great,” Murphy said. “He's unique. Not many players can come off the field [and into coaching] so quickly.” During his playing days, Vogelbach was known for his swing decisions and cerebral approach at the plate. Early in counts, he offered only at pitches in his personal hot zones, rather than swinging at strikes he could not hit as well. While he was an active player, his 33.7% swing rate and 47.7% in-zone swing rate were the lowest among qualified hitters. “He studied the game,” Murphy said. “As a hitter, he studied opposing pitchers. He was very adamant about approach, very adamant about how to practice. So he's one of those players that you could see coaching no matter what.” The Brewers have a similar philosophy. They have an internal swing decision metric across all levels of the organization and instruct their hitters to take strikes early in counts, if the pitch is not in their wheelhouse. Like Vogelbach (as an individual), Milwaukee hitters (as a group) have had the lowest overall and in-zone swing rates in baseball over the last two seasons, making him a fitting voice to help guide their approaches. “I don’t know that you teach that verbally or anything else,” Murphy said of coaching swing decisions. “I think there’s an approach that leads to that, and I think he’ll teach that approach. It coincides with what we’re doing.” “I think that comes with part of the role of being a hitting coach in the hitting department,” Vogelbach said. “I mean, an approach comes with hitting. But I'm not here to reinvent the wheel or change people. This is a team that won 97 games, that did a lot of really good things. It was a series away from playing in the World Series.” Having watched last year’s Brewers from the Pittsburgh dugout and observed their hitters up close in the early days of spring training, Vogelbach sees a group that is already disciplined. “They're really good at it,” he said. “They know the strike zone. They all have a plan when they go to the plate. You don't win 97 games if you don't have that. I think that in baseball, though, you can always get better, and I think that's the best part about this team. They want to get better, and they want to keep getting better. And when you have a good approach, and you swing at the right pitches, and you're good players, good things usually happen.” Even in an age of rapid innovation, a staff without a bench coach is borderline radical, but what the Brewers are doing could quickly become the new normal. They’re confident in the baseball minds flanking Murphy and believe they’ve identified the best roles for each of them. “The coaches make me look good,” Murphy said. “They make me look like I know what I'm doing. This staff in particular is up there. I can’t say enough about them.” View full article

Image courtesy of © Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Given his recent injury history, Brandon Woodruff and the Brewers are taking things slow this spring. Woodruff, whose comeback from career-threatening shoulder surgery was truncated by a season-ending lat injury last September, is building up more gradually than most of Milwaukee's starters, to the point that he is not guaranteed to be ready for Opening Day. Both player and team are more interested in having a healthy Woodruff during the stretch run than in April. "We don't want to push him too fast, necessarily, because we want to have those bullets available at the end of the season, for sure, and he is coming off a real injury here," president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said last week. The Brewers expect Woodruff to be available this year, though, and they expect him to be a major rotation piece once he's ready to go. The club affirmed that confidence by extending him the $22.025-million qualifying offer in November, which Woodruff accepted to return to the only organization he's ever known. "In terms of the qualifying offer and accepting it, it was a pretty easy decision for me," he said. "If I had to spend one year pitching somewhere in my career—and fortunately, I've been here my whole big-league career so far—this was easy, I'd love to throw it here. I had a few other opportunities, but nothing that compared to here." For the first time in two years, Woodruff is coming off a normal offseason, a welcome change of pace from a grueling rehab process. The slower buildup is to ensure he stays healthy, and has nothing to do with how he's feeling. "This spring training, compared to last, not even comparable in terms of the way I feel," Woodruff said. As he worked his way back, the question was not only when Woodruff would return to the big leagues, but how he would perform when that time arrived. Unsurprisingly, a major shoulder surgery sapped some of his velocity. His four-seamer and two-seamer averaged north of 96 mph in his prime, but they sat at 93 in his return. Woodruff was no less effective, though, authoring a 3.20 ERA, 2.90 SIERA, and 32.3% strikeout rate, the latter two of which were career bests. He announced his return with authority, tossing six innings of one-run baseball with eight strikeouts on July 6, 2025, against the Marlins in Miami—the location of his previous big-league start, nearly 22 months prior. "His command was really good," Pat Murphy said. "His poise. He had that same gunfighter mentality. It's precious. That game in Miami, it still gives me chills thinking about it." In some ways, Woodruff still looked like his vintage self. When he threw his four-seamer, he still went right at hitters. It still induced whiffs on 32.1% of swings, essentially the same elite rate as when it sat in the upper 90s. While its horizontal movement bordered on glove-side cut more than it once did, at 17.6 inches of induced vertical break, it still had above-average carry at the top of the zone. It was clear from that first outing, though, that this was an evolved Woodruff. Yes, the four-seamer could still miss bats, but he used it a career-low 30.7% of the time and developed new ways to supplement it. "Last year was a very, very big teaching moment for me in my career and how I can pitch," he said, "how I can go about pitching and doing different things and expanding on my arsenal a little bit, and not having the velo." Throughout that afternoon in Miami, Woodruff repeatedly dotted the outside corner with comeback two-seamers to right-handed batters. He continued doing it for the rest of the season to a greater extent than before his injury, when he almost exclusively used the two-seamer to jam righties inside with running velocity. "I started doing that in '23, too, before having surgery," he said of the back-door two-seamer. "I've always wanted to do it, but I never really needed to do it. That was kind of a different layer for me. So then when I came back and started rehabbing and getting in games, I made sure to kind of keep that in my pocket a little bit." "For the two-seamer to come along the way it has, it's changed him a little bit," Murphy said. Woodruff also added a third fastball to his mix. Leveraging his newfound inclination to cut the ball slightly more, he developed a riding cutter using an offset four-seam grip. Sitting at 89 mph with 13 inches of induced vertical break, it mirrored his four-seamer and sinker out of the hand before cutting a few inches toward his glove side, helping him establish an effective tunnel with those two-seamers on the outside corner. "Just trying to play lanes," Woodruff said. "I think that's a big part of pitching, is understanding how your stuff plays. It's all planes, trying to get a pitch to come out of the same area, the same kind of box, essentially, and have those shapes play together." One of his intended changes didn't stick. Woodruff developed a sweeper during his rehab process to better complement his fastballs and separate from his curveball, but after throwing seven of them across his first two starts, he threw just five the rest of the season. Poor results were part of the reason—the sweeper surrendered a home run in each of those first two outings—but more than anything, Woodruff struggled to throw it consistently. "It's a pitch for me where I have to really get extended out in front and get in front of the baseball," he explained. "It's a pitch for me that's pretty tough to [throw]. I have to really think about throwing this thing way out in front. There might be a couple of good ones in there, but I'm the type of guy – I've always been like that – if I'm throwing something that isn't consistent or what I like, I kind of work around that and then use it when I really need to bring it out. It's kind of a back-pocket pitch for me." Instead, he leaned heavily on that trio of fastballs and a changeup that has improved over the years. How Woodruff deployed those four pitches, however, often varied from one game to the next. "I just kind of went with the flow," he said. "It's one of those things where I try to read the hitter as much as possible, and I throw what they are telling me to throw … I have a plan, and I know my strengths, but I kind of let the hitter tell me everything." Woodruff didn't know what results to expect in his return last year, focusing more on the goal of making it back to a mound. Murphy was also unsure how he would perform, but he was unsurprised that he made the necessary adjustments to retire hitters in new ways. "I don't know that I could have predicted that, but I know that when I watched him attack his rehab and just be so diligent day in and day out, I'm like, 'Man, this guy's hungry. He's hungry,'" Murphy said. "It didn't surprise me totally, because of the way he attacked his rehab, the process to come back." With the 2026 season approaching, Woodruff remains hungry, but just as he learned to expand his arsenal and methods for attacking hitters, he's also navigating changes to his body and how he must approach his workload. "I still have to be smart going forward for this year," he said. "I didn't throw a ton of innings. But as far as right now, physically, I feel really good." View full article

Image courtesy of © Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Editor's Note: This piece was originally an exclusive for Brewer Fanatic Caretakers. Jack is particularly happy with this piece and wishes for it to reach a wider audience, so it is now free to read. Please consider becoming a Brewer Fanatic Caretaker to help fund on-site coverage like this and help Jack receive compensation for his incredible work. Remember, 100% of your Caretaking funds go to our creators. After trading Caleb Durbin, Anthony Seigler, and Andruw Monasterio to the Red Sox as part of a six-player trade days before spring training began, the Brewers needed more third base depth. Offensively, Luis Rengifo was a viable solution. Having posted a 111 wRC+ across three seasons from 2022 through 2024, the versatile 28-year-old was a reasonable bounceback candidate available on a cheap one-year deal. He has the profile to match Durbin's offense in 2026. At first glance, though, the fit on defense looks less clear. The Brewers prize above-average fielding. Throughout the past few seasons, they have frequently favored players who defend over those who hit more. Rengifo, however, has graded as a below-average defender at every position he's played. He's been especially poor at third base, amassing -6 Defensive Runs Saved and a -14 Fielding Run Value in just over 1,400 innings. However, president of baseball operations Matt Arnold told reporters shortly after signing Rengifo that the Brewers do not project him as the poor defender he's been to date. That's due to the presence of third base and infield coach Matt Erickson, who has helped several Milwaukee infielders improve their glovework. "Just knowing that Matt Erickson's here, and what he's been able to do with a lot of our infielders, was somebody we talked to a lot about before we acquired Rengifo," Arnold said. "Having those tools and ingredients, and having Matt as part of that evaluation process, saying, 'Hey, I've seen this guy, I think he has a chance to be really good here.'" Durbin was one of Erickson's top success stories last season. After looking so poor defensively at third base that he failed to crack Milwaukee's Opening Day roster, he improved remarkably in-season, finishing the season with +5 DRS and +1 FRV. The Brewers believe Erickson will help Rengifo make similar strides. "We believe in Matt Erickson making these guys better," Arnold said. Rengifo's poor public marks don't mean much to Erickson. He values defensive metrics – the team has its own proprietary numbers to evaluate its infielders, which he incorporates into his coaching – but takes that information for what it is. The number of runs a player saves or gives away is a result, not a predictive measurement of his physical ability and, by extension, how many runs he could save. "You can use the metrics, and you can use spray charts as information, but it's all in the past," Erickson said. "It's all history, right? I'm more concerned with what they are now, what I see with my eyes, and what their beliefs are, and then what they think they're good at and what their deficiencies are." Erickson believes Rengifo's athleticism gives him many of the ingredients of a good infielder. His arm is stronger than Durbin's, and while he isn't quite as fast, he seemingly has enough swiftness to play a solid third base. His average sprint speed last year of 27 feet per second was slightly higher than the MLB average for third basemen. When he played in 21 games in the outfield in 2023, his average jump (distance covered within the first three seconds of a pitch being thrown) was 2.2 feet above average, which suggests he can move quickly and suddenly. "To be very honest with you, the physical ceiling that he has, I think, is impressive," Erickson said. "I think his footwork and his lower half are explosive. He's got arm strength. There seems to be some repeatable actions. I think that's the thing, though. Just because you're physically talented doesn't mean you're a good infielder." Just like baserunning, the quickest player is not always the most successful. Mental preparation and anticipation allow an infielder to move early enough in the right direction to successfully reach and field a batted ball. A slower infielder with that anticipation could reach a ball that a quicker one without it may not. That's where Erickson's work truly begins. Raw athleticism is generally not coachable – coaches can't cue players into being faster or more mobile – but he and the Brewers have excelled at developing anticipation and mental awareness in their infielders, including Joey Ortiz throughout last season. He has already started that process with Rengifo. "We challenge all of our infielders with engagement," Erickson said. "What that means is being mentally prepared and using the information pre-pitch that that you have, whether that's the PitchCom, whether that's the location of the pitch, learning our pitchers and their tendencies, paying attention to the to the hitter and what the hitter's giving you for information, and subtle movements to our prep step where we can gain advantages. I've had some of those conversations with him." The Brewers aren't necessarily looking for infielders with good defensive metrics, but for infielders with the athleticism to succeed there. From there, Erickson coaches the player's approach on the dirt to maximize his efficiency. He gives defenders pointers on how to position themselves to make more plays, based on their individual strengths and weaknesses. "We all have a physical ceiling," he said, "whether it's footwork, lateral quickness, can we go front to back, what are our reactions, how are our hands? As far as what our process is, I talk a lot from the ground up and using your feet to get yourself in the most optimal fielding position possible. And that's different on every play, based on the speed of the ball and the direction it takes you. "Once they get those details down and start to recognize what the optimal fielding position is for that particular play – which happens through a number of reps, off the work we do on the half field, into our infield routine, and then ultimately our experiences and our chances in the game – all of those experiences help give you information about not only the game, but about yourself and how you could be a little bit better the next time." After just a few days of work, Erickson has been impressed by Rengifo's openness to new information and has already seen him make some proposed adjustments. "He's been outstanding so far," he said. "He's been very professional. He's been eager. You can tell that he's excited to be a part of this organization." The Brewers have not officially named Rengifo their starting third baseman – David Hamilton and Jett Williams will also get significant reps there this spring – but he'll be a key part of the mix. He could become the next infielder to flip his defensive reputation in Milwaukee. "I have no reason to think that Luis can't be a quality defender," Erickson said. "That remains to be seen, but we're very optimistic about him right now." View full article

Image courtesy of © Mike Watters-Imagn Images There was little question that Pat Murphy remained the best fit to manage the Brewers beyond 2026, but it's now official. Instead of managing this season as a lame duck, Murphy and the Brewers signed a new three-year contract with a club option for 2029. "I feel lucky. I feel fortunate," Murphy said from his office at American Family Fields of Phoenix on Friday morning. "I know how tough it is to get here, but I think with it comes a responsibility. I didn't need to be certain that I was wanted. I didn't need this to happen. I just felt like it probably is the best to get it done, and I don't want to be with any other organization. I feel really connected. Going on my 11th season, I feel really part of it, and I feel like this is where I'm supposed to be." In two seasons under Murphy, the Brewers have gone 190-134 in the regular season and won a franchise-record 97 games last season. The 67-year-old moved into the manager's chair in November 2023 after Craig Counsell signed with the division-rival Cubs and has kept the club highly competitive amid what could have been more tumultuous turnover. "Things didn't change a ton when he took over," said Christian Yelich. "Obviously, him and 'Couns' have different personalities and different ways of going about things, but he was familiar with us and the way we did things. I was glad that he was the one that was taking over. Obviously, it went really well for a couple of years." Murphy has been specifically hailed for his leadership in the clubhouse, balancing his trademark humor with a no-nonsense, straight-shooting approach to the game that has resonated with players. "I think players know when it's time to have fun with him and joke around, but know when it's time to lock it in, and you have to do your job," Yelich said. "There's high expectations, and you have to meet those expectations, or there's going to be some discussions if you don't. I think it's fine knowing where you stand with the manager and knowing that you don't ever have to wonder. With Murph, he's going to tell you good or bad." A longtime college coach before joining the professional ranks, Murphy's reputation as an old-school coach seemed to clash with a forward-thinking front office that relies heavily on analytics. However, he has proven he understands the modern game enough to effectively blend his perspective with the information he receives from the ivory tower. "I think there's value in the old school mentality, absolutely," president of baseball operations Matt Arnold said. "But he's not completely old school. He's not closed-minded. There's a difference between those two. I think he's very open to ideas and continuing to get better. I think that's the goal here for all of us. We all want to get better." "I've learned so much about how the game is run," Murphy said. "How the game is run from the top down. I'm constantly growing myself. I think of myself coming out of college, trying to be a college coach, and then turn into a major league coach, like, wow. The education that I needed in order to do that, I've learned so much." Some of those college elements are still evident in Murphy's style. Because those players are far less polished than professionals, the college playing environment is an unpredictable bloodbath condensed into a 60-game season. Coaching in that setting for nearly 30 years solidified Murphy's "win tonight" approach, which often prompts him to green-light aggressive player workloads, even as many teams set strict usage guardrails as part of load-management plans. "Every game might be the difference between a seeding in the postseason," Murphy said. "Every game, no matter where it is and what the environment. It's a good thing to build into your computer, you know? And I can't shake it. So that's why every game means so much. "Sometimes, perspective-wise, that's not the best, but I think as a core value, I think it really rubs off, and it resonates with people that these all matter. There's no reason to believe that you can give anything away. It's that competitive. So I think that part. But the season is so much longer, it really challenges you." Murphy acknowledged last October that such a hard-nosed approach may have worn some players down by the postseason, where the Brewers were swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. Finding the right balance between winning tonight and planning for the future may still be his greatest weakness, but he's been self-aware and open to feedback. "That's part of the job," he said. "You've got to try to stay the course in the right way. I'm hungry. I'm still hungry. I still want to learn. I still want to impact people." He could have the opportunity to continue impacting people in Milwaukee for up to four more seasons. "I think it's important to know where you're going to be. I really didn't have any doubt that this was going to work out, and I'm really grateful, really thankful." View full article

Image courtesy of © Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images In camp with the Brewers after they acquired him as part of a six-player trade with the Boston Red Sox, Shane Drohan brings a familiar objective to his new surroundings. "I want to pitch in the big leagues," he said. "It's always been the goal." That goal, Drohan admitted, was pushed to the back burner for a couple of seasons by injuries, including shoulder issues that sidelined him for most of 2024. But after a breakout 2025 that saw him pitch to a 2.27 ERA and 65 DRA- with a 35.3% strikeout rate in Triple-A, the 27-year-old is on the cusp of his major-league debut. After the injury, Drohan slowed things down, both off the field and on the mound. When he returned a year after shoulder surgery, he was a vastly improved pitcher. From a health standpoint, Drohan was stronger from rehabbing and working in the weight room, which helped the ball come out of his hand crisper and more accurately than before. He added a tick of velocity to every pitch in his arsenal, and the induced vertical break of his fastball increased from 14 to 16 inches, meaning it had more carry at the top of the strike zone. His cutter gained even more. "I had the muscles contracting again in the rotator cuff," he said. "That wasn't happening before. So I feel like that was kind of like the uptick in velo and uptick in carry on the fastball, just quality of stuff. Everything went up, just because the shoulder was properly functioning. And on the strength and conditioning side, it's kind of been a year-to-year process of just putting on size to put more force on the ball." The time away also gave Drohan a chance to refine his slider. After he made its shape more compact and consistent, it emerged as his best offering last year. Opponents chased 49.5% of sliders outside the zone and whiffed on 42.2% of swings. "When I came back from the injury, it was just better and tighter because I had more reps with it, just working on it when I was rehabbing," he said. Drohan also slowed his delivery to better leverage his added strength down the mound. Earlier in his career, he focused on delivering the ball as quickly as possible. It's possible for a pitcher to move too quickly, though, which was what happened to Drohan. "I felt like in years past, I was pretty wound up in my delivery and just not as free as I'd like to be," he said. To establish a more natural tempo, he switched to a fuller wind-up. Drohan's delivery took slightly longer, but his improved rhythm and added strength allowed him to move more explosively toward the plate as he started moving forward. drohan.mp4 "It's just that the timing of it seems a lot better," he said. "I think it was also just the strength and conditioning. I'm just a lot stronger. I don't have to worry about moving as ridiculously fast as I used to down the mound. I just have more weight now. I can put more force into the ground." For all the positives last season brought, Drohan still missed three months with a forearm strain, which is often a precursor to more serious elbow injuries. He downplayed the severity of the injury and confirmed he is fully healthy. "I think the little forearm strain that popped up last year was almost like a reaction thing from the shoulder being strong again," he said. "The rest of my arm just wasn't used to the force that the arm was producing, because in years past, it just wasn't producing that force. So I think the forearm kind of just freaked out a little bit." Drohan said he spent most of those three months building back up as a starter, after a three-week shutdown. When he returned, he maintained his velocity gains through the rest of the year. "When I came back, I threw well," he said. "The stuff felt really good, so it was a good sign." A pair of trying seasons may have stalled Drohan's journey to the big leagues, but they made him a more polished product than he was during his first, unsuccessful stint in the upper minors. Now he's joining a Brewers pitching staff that can further develop him. "It's pretty hard to ignore the success they've had here on the mound," he said. "Starters, relievers, everybody. I wasn't too dialed in on their exact mindset and teaching certain things, but it was very easy to just watch the Brewers play. They get guys to pitch really well." It's taken longer than it has for many prospects, but Drohan is finally positioned to reach his goal. "I feel like I learned a lot in those two years. I feel ready to pitch in the big leagues." View full article

Image courtesy of © Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Among the young pitchers vying for a rotation spot in Brewers camp, Logan Henderson may have the most impressive big-league résumé so far—except, it's one of those CVs that fits on an index card. In five starts last season, the 23-year-old posted a sparkling 1.78 ERA, 3.20 SIERA, and 33.3% strikeout rate. Henderson induced whiffs on 27.6% of swings while working almost exclusively with his signature fastball and changeup pairing, both of which have deceptive movement from his low arm slot. The two offerings comprised 89% of his pitches thrown. Still, questions remained about the rest of his arsenal. As an extreme pronation-biased pitcher (meaning his wrist naturally turns inward before he releases the baseball, leading his thumb to point downward and his palm to face outward), Henderson excels at throwing pitches with arm-side run but has struggled to make the ball break the other way. Even though his fastball and changeup have excellent separation, he knows he'll need that different look to stick as a big-league starter. "I had the success with the four-seam and changeup last year and felt if I was going to get burned, I was going to get burned on one of my best two pitches," Henderson said. "I still feel that way, but at the same time, the book is out on me, and I know that I need the third and fourth pitch." Last season, Henderson threw a cutter and a short bullet slider as those third and fourth pitches. Public stuff models liked the slider more because of its depth, and Henderson felt it was in a decent spot by season's end, but he always felt more comfortable with the cutter, which had more consistent glove-side movement. The slider, meanwhile, often backed up. All along, Henderson thought of reviving the curveball he threw in college as a pitch with true glove-side break. That thought grew as he watched Los Angeles Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto slice through the Brewers' lineup in last year's NLCS with his secondary pitches. "I don't quite have the stuff that he has, but similar four-seams, low slot," Henderson said. "His curveball is incredible, and it's hard not to go, 'What if I had a curveball? What if I started throwing that again?'" Pitching coach Chris Hook told Henderson during the series that the pitch could work nicely with his existing arsenal, so he reintroduced it over the offseason. When he threw his first session of live at-bats on Wednesday, Henderson threw curveballs instead of sliders. "I wouldn't say that the slider's completely gone, but the aim is more towards throwing the curveball right now, and I think that fits my arsenal a little bit better than the slider did," he said. Henderson's slot gives the pitch a slurve-like shape, similar to the breaking ball Chad Patrick added during the second half of last season. Most importantly, he's spinning it in a way that creates true glove-side break. "I wouldn't say it's a true 12-6—maybe you've got a little bit of slurve to it—but I would say it's pretty much a true curveball," he said. "I've got a low three-quarter arm slot, and it's about what you'd expect from that arm slot. It turns left more than the slider did, for sure." Henderson has yet to dive into the movement metrics, but he feels the pitch doesn't need any tweaks to its shape. The next step is getting more comfortable locating and sequencing it in competition. "The movement's there, for sure," he said. "It's about execution now, and being able to throw it in spots I want to, when I want to. It's definitely a work in progress, but I showed it a couple of times in lives today, and it was okay. But I really am pleased with the progress on it so far. I think it's gonna help my arsenal a lot." There was nothing fluky about the swings and misses Henderson's best two pitches generated last year. If he now has a legitimate breaking ball to support them, he could leapfrog some of his teammates in a wide-open rotation battle. View full article

Image courtesy of © Jim Cowsert-Imagn Images Gerson Garabito navigated a long and winding path to the big leagues. Signed as an international free agent by the Kansas City Royals in 2012, the right-hander spent nine minor-league seasons with three different organizations before making his big-league debut with the Texas Rangers at age 28. "It was a long time, just trying to keep everything together," Garabito, in big-league camp with the Brewers on a minor-league deal, recalled from his locker on Tuesday. "The first couple years, it was kind of tough for me because I had no control of my fastball." After two years of pitching exclusively in winter ball, Garabito showed enough with Texas's Triple-A affiliate in 2024 to finally get the call to the majors. He would spend parts of the next two seasons bouncing between the two levels, with uninspiring results. With the Rangers, he pitched to a 5.77 ERA, 4.97 FIP, and 113 DRA-. After he struggled to an 8.53 ERA and 7.38 FIP in 10 Triple-A starts last year, they released him in June to sign with the Samsung Lions of the Korean Baseball Organization. Garabito's performance took off after the change of scenery. In 15 starts in the KBO, he posted a 2.64 ERA (a 59 ERA-, 41% better than the league average) and 3.94 FIP (88 FIP-) with a 25.7% strikeout rate. "This is baseball," he said. "Baseball, one day you're the best pitcher, the best player, and some days you are the worst. But this is something we just learn from that." On the strength of that success, Garabito received an offer from another Korean team to remain overseas in 2026, but after his agent informed him of Milwaukee's interest and its success in developing pitchers, Garabito accepted their offer to return to the United States. "I said, 'Okay, let's go there, then, because I like that,'" he said. With multiple fastball variations in his five-pitch arsenal, including a heavy sinker, it's easy to see why the Brewers called. It stands to reason they'll have him lean into that sinker, but Garabito said he has not yet had conversations about pitch usage or mechanical changes with his new pitching coaches, who are just getting to know him in his first bullpens of the spring. "The first couple days, they're just going to see you, how you look and what you need," he said. "After maybe a week, maybe two weeks, they're going to say, 'We need to work on this.' But right now, everything is going good." Garabito is not on the 40-man roster and is unlikely to break camp with the team. Still, he'll get some feedback on the best way to maximize his abilities and the opportunity this spring to prove his stuff can play against big-league hitters. These next few weeks could lay the groundwork for a big-league role later in the year. "I'm glad to be here right now," he said. View full article

Image courtesy of © Dave Kallmann / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images Brewers principal owner Mark Attanasio, flanked by president of baseball operations Matt Arnold and president of business operations Rick Schlesinger, addressed the media on Tuesday morning. Among other topics, Attanasio discussed the Brewers' current competitiveness, where they want to improve, and the organization's player development system. Here are a few key notes. After Last Year's NLCS Defeat, Brewers Are Still Learning From the Dodgers (and Others) The Brewers have been one of baseball's most forward-thinking front offices for the last decade, but Attanasio said they are constantly looking for shortcomings or flaws in their process. That includes looking at what other successful clubs do that they can emulate. "You somewhat stay in your lane, you're self-aware and know what you're good at, but you have to be open to what others are doing," Attanasio said. In making his point, Attanasio pointed to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who swept the Brewers in last year's NLCS and are again projected to have a luxury tax payroll of around $400 million. While the Dodgers' spending has been at the heart of a brewing labor dispute that figures to lead to a lockdown next offseason, Attanaio focused on a reality that isn't acknowledged as often: the Dodgers aren't just rich; they're rich and smart. Many of baseball's brightest executives work under Andrew Friedman. "Everybody talks about the Dodgers' payroll, but it's probably the smartest group that there is," Attanasio said. "Whatever we can add in players, they've got more. Whatever guys Matt can hire [in the front office]—and he hires the best and the brightest—they have more. And when we play them, we're smart enough to see they're doing some things maybe we're not. So Matt and his group think about that." Player Development Regulation Changes Could Become Another Obstacle to Navigate As a small-market team, the Brewers allocate much of their budget behind the scenes to player development. It's a key reason why they've remained competitive every season for nearly a decade, while developing one of baseball's best farm systems. "I think anyone will tell you we have a state-of-the-art facility here in Phoenix and a state-of-the-art facility in the Dominican," Attanasio said. "I can't hang a banner for Baseball America's top farm system, executives of the year across the board, and Grade-A facilities, but I'm saying it starts from this macro perspective. Because if you get that wrong, it doesn't matter." Part of that success stems from the Brewers tracking and applying the right analytics at those facilities. To this point, teams could determine which data was most valuable and choose which tracking systems to install at their facilities to collect it. This year, MLB is regulating the use of that technology. All 30 teams must use the same league-mandated devices across all levels, just as all 30 MLB ballparks use Hawk-Eye cameras for Statcast tracking. That change could help teams that are behind the times analytically, but it also forces those on the cutting edge to tear down their existing information systems and adopt what they consider inferior technology. Attanasio said the Brewers won't use it as an excuse. "We feel that whatever the system is, whenever it looks like the cards are stacked against us, we're going to compete," he said. "We've done that for 21 years." However, he also acknowledged that forcing the smartest teams to change how they operate could negatively affect competitive balance, even if the intent is to improve it. "We're trying to have competitive balance so the fans can come out and have hope for all 30 teams," Attanasio said. "If there are some advantages that certain teams have because of what they're doing, you've got to be careful about taking those advantages away, because then maybe you disrupt balance somewhat." No Public Updates on Pat Murphy's Future Murphy is entering the final season of the three-year contract he signed when the Brewers named him their new manager before the 2024 season. Most teams extend their current manager before their final contract year to avoid a lame duck situation, but there have been no updates about Murphy's future. Both sides have sidestepped the question, which Attanasio did again on Tuesday. "Everybody loves Murph, there's no doubt," Attanasio said. "But we don't talk about contracts. We do talk about stability. We've had a huge amount of stability here, and that's the goal." View full article

Image courtesy of © Rick Cinclair/Telegram & Gazette / USA TODAY NETWORK Kyle Harrison is the more recognizable of the two left-handed pitchers the Brewers acquired from the Red Sox in the Caleb Durbin trade earlier this week. However, president of baseball operations Matt Arnold stressed that the club also thinks highly of Shane Drohan, who owns an unassuming 4.29 ERA and 4.52 FIP across five minor-league seasons and has yet to make his big-league debut at age 27. “Our scouts really, really like this guy,” Arnold said on Monday. “He was a very big part of [the trade] for us as well.” After Boston made him its fifth-round pick out of Florida State in 2020, Drohan made it to Triple-A Worcester in 2023, but injuries and control issues stalled his progress there. Shoulder surgery wiped out most of his 2024 campaign (which included a brief stay in the Chicago White Sox organization as a Rule 5 pick), and he missed three months last year with forearm inflammation. When healthy, he has walked 11.4% of hitters over his minor-league career. Drohan’s ability to miss bats, however, has always been apparent. Thanks to a deceptive arsenal delivered from a low arm slot, he owns a career 26.3% strikeout rate as a professional. By cleaning up that five-pitch mix last year, the southpaw elevated his game to new heights, posting a 2.27 ERA, 68 DRA-, and 35.3% strikeout rate in 47 2/3 Triple-A innings. “He’s kind of flown under the radar a little bit more than Harrison, but this guy dominated in Triple-A last year,” Arnold said, adding that the club has no concerns related to that forearm injury. “I mean, he was very good. Strikes out a lot of guys and has really good stuff.” Visually, Drohan’s delivery looked more athletic. Here’s a comparison of the southpaw throwing a breaking pitch in his previous healthy season in 2023 and in 2025, both with the bases empty. drohan.mp4 Drohan moves quicker in the earlier clip, but his delivery is stiffer. Pitching out of a fuller windup in the 2025 clip, he takes longer to get to his release point, but he gets deeper into his back leg before rotating more explosively toward the plate. The result is a well-located, sharper slider that gets a chase low and away. With those changes, Drohan added a tick of velocity to each of his pitches, increased the backspin-induced carry of his four-seam fastball, and tightened his cutter and slider into more consistent and distinct shapes. His control also improved, as he cut his walk rate to 8.4% in Triple-A. Those developments turned Drohan into one of the top swing-and-miss pitchers in minor-league baseball. He generated whiffs on 37.3% of swings, which ranked in the 99th percentile of Triple-A pitchers. His riding cutter, which opponents tagged for a .504 xwOBA, was the only pitch not to produce a plus whiff rate. The rest of his arsenal was dominant. Drohan’s improved four-seamer played well at the top of the zone, and his fading changeup baffled hitters, thanks to nearly 10 mph of separation off the heater. His shortened gyro slider remained in the strike zone longer before its late movement took effect, leading to more chases and weak contact. His curveball, regarded by some evaluators as his best pitch before he refined his slider, offers bigger movement when necessary from a similar slot to the rest of his pitches. Drohan could scrap his cutter in a relief role, where his fastball-slider pairing would be enough to carve through most hitters. If he remains a starter, he and the Brewers must determine the best way to use the pitch. He found the most success when back-dooring it to right-handed hitters, which is how Quinn Priester began using his similarly shaped cutter to lefties throughout last summer. Drohan’s swing-and-miss upside has never been in question, and with improved control, he’s closer to missing big-league bats. The question is how consistently he’ll tap into that upside, and in what role. He figures to be further down the depth chart than the myriad bona fide starters in camp, but he has the arsenal to start. Don’t be surprised if he’s recording pivotal outs in Milwaukee by season’s end. View full article