Jack Stern

Image courtesy of © Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images The Brewers made their first strike of trade deadline week on Monday night, acquiring veteran catcher Danny Jansen and cash from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for infield prospect Jadher Areinamo. The Appleton West High School product will replace Eric Haase, whom the Brewers designated for assignment in a corresponding move, as William Contreras's backup. Haase is perhaps the better game-caller of the two and posted a capable 104 wRC+ in limited action across two seasons with the club, but several red flags behind that production meant his output was almost certain to decline. He flashed some power, but he chased 32.3% of pitches outside the zone and whiffed on 35.6% of swings, walking just 4.8% of the time against an alarming 40.4% strikeout rate. "It's a hard day for the Brewers, in some ways, because Eric Haase has for two years been an incredible team member," Pat Murphy said after the Brewers officially announced the trade. "When he plays, he helps us win. Anytime we subtract a guy that's been a leader in that clubhouse, too, it's a really rough day for me." Jansen, meanwhile, has struck out at a career-worst 26.3% rate, but his contact rates are comparable to past seasons in which he has punched out less. That strikeout rate could trend toward his career average of 20.7% down the stretch. The 30-year-old’s .218/.309/.389 slash line and 99 wRC+ are in line with his career numbers, and constitute an upgrade behind Contreras, who has caught a league-leading 765 1/3 innings despite suffering from a fractured left middle finger. "I think on one hand, it's a tough conversation with Eric Haase, but we felt like it was something that we wanted to try to insulate, in particular, with the health of William," Matt Arnold said. "Just making sure we were covered there with our depth." While Murphy pushed back on Monday night against the possibility of Contreras catching less down the stretch, and Arnold reiterated that the Brewers believe he's still healthy and productive enough to remain the starting catcher, they seemingly feel more comfortable resting him for Jansen than they did for Haase. "No concerns with near-term issues with his health at all," Arnold said. "I think it does give us an opportunity to potentially shade him a little bit." With his patience and sound swing decisions at the plate (12.7% walk rate and 19.7% chase rate) and his 121 wRC+ against left-handed pitching since the start of 2022, Jansen should fit in nicely while raising the catching tandem's floor. That's already enough to make the team better. He could prove even more impactful, though, by boosting the lineup in the power department. Milwaukee's offense ranks 22nd in slugging percentage (.386), 27th in ISO (.135) and hard-hit rate (38.3%), and last in barrels per plate appearance (4.1%). In addition to that lack of loud contact, only 15.3% of the Brewers' batted balls have been pulled in the air, the second-lowest rate in baseball. Instead, they generally shoot lower line drives and ground balls to all fields. Enter Jansen, a longtime extreme air-pull hitter whose 33.5% pull air rate ranks fourth among qualified hitters this year. Jansen does not crush the ball; his 40.6% hard-hit rate and 8.4% barrel rate are both below the league average. However, he hits it just hard enough (and in the right direction) to produce semi-regular pop. A peek at his spray chart this year reveals that he crushed very few of his home runs but lifted them well enough down the line to leave the yard. "He's been a dangerous bat in the box, for sure," Arnold said. "We think there's still more to tap into there, as well, but a really dangerous at-bat we think can complement our lineup well." The veteran backstop is a mixed bag defensively. He remains one of the game's best blockers, but his pitch framing ability has nosedived. After accruing 6 Statcast framing runs from 2018 through 2023, he has combined for -12 runs the last two seasons, including a career-worst -8 this year. The Brewers have been among baseball's best at developing that skill, though, with Contreras and Haase among their recent success stories. Like Haase, Jansen's pre-pitch movements have been overly noisy in his first season catching almost exclusively in a one-knee stance. Perhaps they'll coach him into the more upright and stable position that turned Haase into a competent receiver. akQ5MDFfWGw0TUFRPT1fQWdsWlVBSUJWUWNBRHdjQlVRQUhCVlZSQUFBR1UxRUFCbE1IQ1FjQUJRUlVVZ1pY.mp4 At the very least, Jansen projects as a solid backup who can ease Contreras's workload. He also features the ingredients for a potential second-half power binge, which could help shore up one of the Brewers' few weaknesses and propel him into a more regular role in the lineup. View full article

Image courtesy of © Patrick Gorski-Imagn Images After stretching out to 93 pitches in his latest rehab start, Nestor Cortes is ready to make his return to the Brewers. The veteran left-hander, acquired as the short-term piece in the Devin Williams trade with the New York Yankees in December, hit the injured list with a left flexor strain in April after just two starts. It was Cortes's second flexor strain in six months, as he also missed time last postseason during the Yankees' run to the World Series. The hope is that those elbow troubles are in the rear-view mirror. Cortes said on Saturday that his elbow is now responding better between outings than it did in spring training and after his first two regular-season outings. "The goal is to be able to prepare and get better between each outing, and I felt like I wasn't able to do that before I went on the injured list," he said. "My recovery wasn't well. I couldn't work in between starts on stuff that I needed to work on, and that's what made me decide what I decided. But I feel like now, throwing today and potentially a bullpen tomorrow or the next day, I feel like I can go out there and work on stuff I need to work on." Where Cortes fits in the rotation picture is still unclear. The Brewers have a fully stocked starting staff, and each of their five current starters has an 86 ERA- (an ERA at least 14% better than the league average, adjusted for park factors) or better. "It's a good problem to have, when you have pitching," Pat Murphy said on Friday after relaying that the Brewers were still discussing where and when Cortes would pitch next. Cortes said another rehab start could be on the table, even if he's healthy enough to return now. A six-man rotation is not a viable solution. Because teams can carry no more than 13 pitchers on the 26-man active roster, adding an extra starter would leave Murphy (who leans heavily on his relief corps) short-handed in the bullpen. "It's harder to do now, because it really limits your options on games in the fourth, fifth inning," he said last week in Seattle. "When things are teetering, it really limits your options when you're one down [in the bullpen]." With Cortes back in the conversation, a highly qualified starter will have to cede their rotation spot. Murphy said it will not be Jacob Misiorowski, whom the Brewers have no intention of optioning to Triple-A as they manage his workload. Quinn Priester also has an option year left, but has blossomed into a mid-rotation mainstay. Furthermore, the club was hesitant to burn that option even when he was struggling. That leaves Cortes himself or José Quintana—whose stuff and peripherals this season have been easily the worst of the group—as the odd man out. (Cortes was horrendous in one of his two starts before hitting the shelf, but posted a 3.33 ERA, 3.68 FIP, and 3.84 SIERA from 2021 through 2024.) Pitcher G ERA xERA FIP SIERA K-BB% Stuff+ Brandon Woodruff 4 2.01 2.23 3.36 2.61 31.0% 97 Jacob Misiorowski 6 2.45 2.47 3.36 2.98 25.0% 123 Freddy Peralta 22 2.81 3.51 3.67 3.71 17.8% 104 Quinn Priester 19 3.28 3.56 3.84 3.80 12.4% 97 José Quintana 15 3.50 4.77 4.77 4.98 6.3% 86 Nestor Cortes 2 9.00 7.74 11.84 6.02 2.6% 102 In fairness to Quintana, his style of pitching is designed to overperform some of those ERA estimators, particularly with help from an elite Brewers defense. This is his fourth straight season with a sub-4.00 ERA, even as the metrics have suggested in each of the last three that he deserved otherwise. Still, no other pitcher in the rotation mix (including Cortes) must live on the edges of the strike zone as strictly as Quintana to succeed. While three of his five runs allowed on Saturday were unearned, he labored through five innings in the latest semi-regular reminder of how tenuous things get when he tries to paint the corners without pinpoint command. The Brewers could bump him to the bullpen and option DL Hall or Tobias Myers, but that would not solve the 40-man puzzle, and Quintana does not profile as one who can slide into high-leverage innings if needed. The Brewers will likely drag out the decision until the end of the month. Thursday is also the afternoon of the trade deadline, so they have time to deal one of their veteran southpaws before they are forced to activate or waive Cortes. If both remain healthy the rest of the year, Cortes profiles as the better pitcher, but Quintana has been more durable and is making just over half of his salary in 2025. That may make him more enticing to most teams seeking rotation help and secure a better return. Cortes, meanwhile, could be fresher down the stretch if he has put those elbow issues behind him. "The grind is the same, but the workload hasn't been the same," Cortes said. "Probably a little better body-wise than what I would be in July in other years." If Quintana fetches a better return and the Brewers prefer Cortes's outlook, trading the former and activating the latter could be a straightforward solution. Perhaps they would rather maintain the status quo and find a taker for Cortes. Barring an injury that opens a spot, something involving one or both of them will give by Thursday afternoon. View full article

Image courtesy of © Benny Sieu-Imagn Images Taking extra bases has once again been integral to the identity of a Brewers offense that lacks power throughout the lineup. Being opportunistic and aggressive on the bases is partially why Milwaukee has a capable 101 wRC+ despite a .385 slugging percentage that ranks 22nd in baseball; they force defenses out of shape and speed up the clock of plays once the ball is hit. According to FanGraphs, the Brewers lead baseball in baserunning runs for the second year in a row. That's because they remain unmatched at taking extra bases on balls in play, leading the sport with 10 runs via extra bases taken. In one way, though, they've been demonstrably worse. When Anthony Seigler and Brice Turang were each caught trying to steal second base on Monday night in Seattle, it increased Milwaukee's league-leading caught stealing total to 38. The Brewers have gone from the cream of the crop in base-stealing execution to the middle of the pack. After accruing a league-leading 13 runs via stolen bases last season, they're down to 1 run this year, which ranks 13th. Their stolen base success rate has plummeted from 84% to a below-average 75%, falling shy of the commonly cited 80% benchmark that makes steal attempts no-brainers. There are a few leading culprits on an individual level. Turang's abrupt decline on the bases jumps out the most, and newcomers like Caleb Durbin have been less successful than their past counterparts. Still, several additional Brewers have taken steps back in the stolen base department. Player SB% (2024) SB% (2025) Change Jake Bauers 92.9% 100.0% +7.1% Jackson Chourio 75.9% 70.8% -5.0% William Contreras 81.8% 71.4% -10.4% Sal Frelick 85.7% 81.0% -4.8% Joey Ortiz 64.7% 75.0% 10.3% Brice Turang 89.3% 72.0% -17.3% Christian Yelich 91.3% 73.7% -17.6% "I think that one of the reasons it's down is because everybody knows that's what we're going to do, and they're defending it because they're the best in the world at what they do," Pat Murphy said. "So they're going to defend it. We're still going to press the issue when we can. But yeah, it's concerning that our percentage is down." Baseball is a game of inches and milliseconds, particularly baserunning. It doesn't take much for stolen base success to swing noticeably in either direction from one year to the next. Rather than any singular issue, the regression appears to stem from a combination of factors. In some instances, the Brewers have deprived themselves of bases they otherwise had stolen with poor slides, such as Caleb Durbin oversliding second base against the Pirates last month. durbin_overslide.mp4 Here's Joey Ortiz committing the opposite offense, hitting the ground too early and slowing his momentum with his slide. Originally called safe, he was ruled out upon review. ortiz_slide.mp4 "I can name six or seven where the guy didn't explode through his slide, we slid off the bag, or the guy looked in thinking something else and slowed up," Murphy said. "I mean, literally six or seven. And if you change those six or seven, our percentage doesn't look as bad." To Murphy's point about exploding through a slide, compare Sal Frelick's slide on a successful steal in April 2024… Frelick_sb.mp4 …to a slower-looking slide from April of this season in which he seems to crash into the base. Frelick_cs.mp4 Indecisiveness on steal attempts has been a running theme. A well-timed and explosive break is the key to stealing a base, and Murphy sees more hesitancy in those jumps this season. "They know that the word's out, and they know people are going to make big adjustments to hold our running game intact, and they're kind of caught in between [on] how to handle that." [READ MORE: Matthew Trueblood wrote about Turang's degradation in getting leads and jumps on steal attempts, earlier this momth.] As an example, here's William Contreras getting a late jump off Jake Irvin on the Brewers' last homestand for an easy caught stealing. Contreras_cs.mp4 In a fitting analogy, Murphy compared swiping bases to another kind of stealing. "It's like you're a jewel thief," he said. "You can't worry about getting caught. You've got to be willing to steal the base and willing to face the consequences of getting caught." Right now, his team is worrying about that, and it shows up in the numbers. Taking all stolen base opportunities—pitches with a runner on base and an open base in front of them—the Brewers are gaining just 3.1 feet toward the next base between the pitcher's first move and their release of the pitch, which ranks—stunningly—dead last in the majors. If you isolate actual steal attempts, when that metric measures jumps rather than just secondary leads, they move up to the average range—but that's from an initial lead distance that ranks 22nd in baseball. This team just isn't getting the extra few inches (or even feet) available at the front ends of steal attempts, either. Perhaps the Brewers are feeling the absence of former first base coach Quintin Berry, whom players lauded for his ability to read pitchers and relay those cues to help runners time their jumps. (Actually stealing or not, the team got better primary and secondary leads last year than they're getting this year.) It could be a mental block that has materialized from a few unsuccessful attempts. Whatever the cause, it's clear that they are not firing on all cylinders in one of their strengths. That won't stop Murphy and his coaching staff from asking his players to run, though. "You've got to be good at it," Murphy said. "You can't play on this team if you're not good at it, unless you really slug. I don't know if you've been watching, but we don't have many guys that really slug." View full article

Image courtesy of © Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images Peruse the list of regularly-thrown four-seam fastballs that induce the most whiffs and the least productive contact, and you'll see a litany of hard-throwing pitchers with some of the most electric raw stuff in baseball. You'll also find Grant Anderson's name—ahead of them all. Among four-seamers thrown at least 200 times this year, the Brewers right-hander ranks first in whiff rate and xwOBA, despite below-average velocity for a reliever. It's not especially close, either. Pitcher xwOBA Whiff% Velocity (MPH) Grant Anderson .208 45.2% 93.3 Jacob Misiorowski .229 32.1% 99.4 Hunter Brown .230 32.2% 97.4 Randy Rodriguez .234 28.0% 96.9 Brock Stewart .242 35.5% 96.0 Anderson's four-seamer has always excelled at generating swings and misses, due to his sidearm release slot. That makes it appear as though he's throwing the ball upward when he locates it at the top of the strike zone, giving it more perceived rise than its 11 inches of induced vertical break would suggest. Its -3.5° vertical approach angle ranks second among four-seamers thrown at least 200 times, meaning it enters the zone at an exceptionally flat angle. "Metrically, my four-seam is not anything special," Anderson said, "but the arm angle which it's coming from is pretty much completely opposite from where they're seeing most four-seams at. So it just adds another level of deception, I guess, to the pitch." The drawback with rising four-seamers is that when opponents make contact with them, they are often hit and in the air, due to their shape. Anderson experienced that to an extreme in his first two big-league seasons. He threw his four-seamer almost exclusively to left-handed hitters, who crushed it to the tune of a .543 wOBA and .497 xwOBA despite whiffing on 35.5% of swings against it. Ten of their 16 hits against it in that span were home runs. "He's got the upshoot, and if you catch it right, I feel like that's where the homers came from," assistant pitching coach Jim Henderson said in late April, when Anderson was using his four-seamer conservatively and leaning primarily on his sweeper and sinker to right-handers. "If the lefties kind of catch it right, they backspin it well." It was easier for lefties to catch the four-seamer because they could sell out for it at the top of the zone. With the new sweeper in tow, Henderson believed the four-seamer would play better because hitters now had to protect against increased horizontal movement at the bottom. "Now it's just that it's disguised a bit better, and it still produces whiffs," he said. "I think it was just damage prone, which doesn't mean it was a bad pitch, because it's still got the whiffs." That's precisely how things have played out. Because opponents are thinking about a sinker and sweeper combination with 31 inches of horizontal separation on average, the loud contact on elevated four-seamers has evaporated, and a plus whiff rate has jumped to video-game-like proportions. "It kind of makes you have to choose whether you're gonna look sinker or sweeper," Anderson said of his new breaking ball's impact, "and then it opens up the door for the four-seam, because the eyes are kind of looking more down, east to west. So then, when they see hard, and you can throw it up, I think it changes the eye level pretty well. It's just a good amount of separation between the two pitches." The four-seamer is no longer just his leading weapon against lefties, either. Anderson has thrown it progressively more against righties, who have yet to record a hit against it while whiffing on a whopping 57.5% of swings. There's no grand strategy behind that change, Anderson said, just an awareness that the four-seamer is his best option when he needs to miss bats. "I've come in a couple times in extra innings. Guy on second base, you want to try to do your best to strand them there, so you're gonna use your two best swing-and-miss pitches. And for me, that's four-seam and sweeper. And then you're obviously big on not letting your teammates' runners score when you come in, so if I can get swing-and-miss, that obviously lowers the chance of that guy scoring." It's not a conventionally dominant fastball; instead of blowing it past hitters at a high velocity, Anderson uses deceptive angles that leave them swinging underneath it. It's been increasingly instrumental in his breakout season as a swiss army knife in the Milwaukee bullpen. View full article

Image courtesy of © Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images In Jacob Misiorowski’s first start after the All-Star break—one that was pushed back a few days after the Brewers reshuffled their starting rotation—Pat Murphy took the ball from the rookie in the fourth inning after he had thrown just 64 pitches, even as he had struck out seven and not allowed a run. That was by design. “You can't give him that big of a rest and then let him go out there and make his normal start,” Murphy explained. “You [have] to build up to it a little bit. So we thought somewhere between 55 and 65 pitches and no more than four ups was a good way to get him back into it.” It was a matter of when, not if, the Brewers would limit Misiorowski to a shortened outing. It won’t be the last time it happens, either. His 97 1/3 regular-season innings last year were a career high as a professional, and he’s at 92 ⅔ frames this year with two months (plus a potential playoff run) remaining. The front office and clubhouse staff bear the responsibility of properly stretching the 23-year-old’s workload year-over-year, without pushing too far. The Brewers have not placed a public cap on Misiorowski’s innings, and their thinking is presumably guided more by the stress level of each pitch and outing than by a hard and fast number. Still, they faced the task of balancing his opportunities to help the 2025 team while maintaining his long-term health. Playing things as they did coming out of the break, whenever possible, will strike the best balance. A truncated outing made after a few extra days of rest is less disruptive to Misiorowski’s routine than skipping a start, moving him to the bullpen, or using him as a short-range opener ahead of a bulk pitcher. It also allows them to keep one of their best arms in the big leagues, and prevents a future need to shut him down in September or October. “It is what it is,” said Misiorowski, who got the news from Chris Hook that Tuesday night would be a shortened outing. “Obviously, I want to go six or seven [innings], but they’re looking deeper season-wise … There’s no real conversation. They’re like, ‘This is what’s going to happen,’ and you live with it.” As Misiorowski continues carving up big-league hitters amid the Brewers’ push for the top seed in the National League, eschewing workload limitations can be tantalizing. But if sticking to them means he will continue making starts all season, into October, and for years to come, it will pay off. View full article

Image courtesy of © Benny Sieu-Imagn Images Veterans Freddy Peralta and Trevor Megill will be joined by one of their youngest teammates in Atlanta next week, as the Brewers and MLB announced on Friday night that Jacob Misiorowski has been named to the NL All-Star roster, replacing Chicago Cubs starter Matthew Boyd. Pat Murphy said Misiorowski will pitch in the Midsummer Classic. Misiorowski has taken the league by storm five starts into his big-league career, pitching to a 2.81 ERA and 33.7% strikeout rate while outdueling household names in Paul Skenes and Clayton Kershaw. He's showcased electric stuff in that brief sample, including his triple-digit fastball, and has been at the center of the Brewers' recent evolution into a high-octane pitching staff. "He's kind of our version of Forrest Gump," Murphy joked while making the postgame announcement. The 23-year-old said the manager gave him the news shortly before first pitch against the Washington Nationals, forcing him to keep it to himself until the wide reveal a few hours later. "I got called into Murph's office, sitting in there, and he said, 'Hey, close the door. Come on. Get in here.' Basically broke it to me, and I had to sit there the whole game and not tell anyone." The right-hander, who addressed the team after the game, was emotional and surprised by the recognition. "I'm speechless," he said. "I mean, it's awesome. It's very unexpected, and it's an honor." It's an unprecedented decision, as the league itself is promoting that Misiorowski's five big-league appearances are easily the fewest by a first-time All-Star. For that reason, the move figures to inspire debate over how rosters should be assembled. On one hand, if MLB wants the All-Star Game to showcase the league's best talent, it's hard to argue against Misiorowski's inclusion. Since his debut on June 12, his 123 Stuff+ leads all starting pitchers. His fastball is an outlier for its combination of velocity and movement from his low release height and 7.5-foot extension. So is his curveball for its average spin-induced drop of 9 inches at 87.4 mph. On the other hand, there are plenty of deserving candidates with longer track records who have not received due recognition. Philadelphia Phillies starter Cristopher Sanchez, for example, has pitched to a 2.59 ERA and 2.75 FIP in 107 2/3 innings this year but is not on the NL roster. "At first I thought, 'This is not going to be fair,'" Murphy said. "Like, this kid, it's not the same way the other guys have to go out and pitch, whoever it might be." That's to take nothing away from Misiorowski, whose talent warrants national cognizance. He'll get that attention next week. "This is the entertainment business," Murphy said. "This is what MLB wants. This is what people want to see, and the kid can't say no to that." The All-Star Game currently exists in a strange space, its purpose ambiguous since 2017, with home-field advantage in the World Series no longer tied to its outcome. At some point, MLB must define its vision more clearly. Is the game meant to honor the best performers of the current season, showcase the most popular and marketable of established players, honor legends at the twilight of their careers, or amplify young talent just breaking onto the big-league scene? Is it all of the above? Can all of those goals coexist? Setting that larger debate aside, Misiorowski's selection is an opportunity for one of baseball's most talented arms to shine on one of the game's brightest stages. "I was really fired up for him," said Quinn Priester, whose locker is stationed along the same corner as Misiorowski's in the Milwaukee home clubhouse. "It's electric to watch. I'm excited for those guys. We get to see it from a dugout view, like I've been able to, and he's going to represent us really well." "It's been a long time coming," Misiorowski said. "I just want to honor the guys around me and be a Brewer." View full article

Image courtesy of © Patrick Gorski-Imagn Images After delivering his best outing of the season in a comeback victory to sweep the Los Angeles Dodgers, Trevor Megill received more good news minutes later in the clubhouse. The Brewers' closer has been named to the National League All-Star team, as a replacement for teammate Freddy Peralta, who will start on Sunday and (thus) be inactive for the exhibition game. In 36 games, Megill has pitched to a 2.41 ERA and 2.64 FIP, while converting 21 of 24 save opportunities. His triple-digit fastball hasn’t been as dominant as it once was, but he has still posted a strong 30.9% strikeout rate by leaning more on his hard curveball. “Very excited for him,” said Jackson Chourio. “He’s deserved it. The work that he’s done, and what he’s gone out there and put out for us, it’s been incredible.” “He’s given to the team,” Murphy said. “If you don’t know him, he’s a tremendous giver. He gives a lot of himself.” Making it to the Midsummer Classic was a personal goal from last offseason for Megill, who said he planned his All-Star break as if he would be in Atlanta. “This was the goal in the offseason,” he said. “Just worked my butt off for it, and here we are.” Megill joins a long line of Brewers closers to make All-Star rosters within the last decade. Devin Williams, Josh Hader, Jeremy Jeffress, Corey Knebel, and Francisco Rodriguez have all received the honor while occupying the ninth-inning role in Milwaukee. Most of those relievers blossomed into elite arms with the guidance of the club’s pitching development brass—including Megill, who owned a career 6.03 ERA in 67 appearances when the Brewers acquired him from the Minnesota Twins in April 2023. “It’s just trust in [Chris] Hook, Jim [Henderson], Murphy, and [Matt] Arnold, everybody involved,” he said. “It’s just a very mature organization. You put a game plan together with them, and they trust you to go out there and execute it. They don’t get lost too much in the analytics and whatnot, it’s just go out there and get the zeros.” There’s still a chance more Brewers could join the NL roster as more players opt out of participating. For now, the club will have two representatives from a pitching staff that ranks sixth in baseball with 12.7 RA/9-WAR. View full article

Image courtesy of © Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images Tuesday night was among the Brewers' most dominant pitching performances this season, as four arms combined to hold a depleted Los Angeles Dodgers lineup to a Shohei Ohtani leadoff home run and little else in a 3-1 victory, leaving Milwaukee on the doorstep of a commanding sweep of the top team in the National League. Jacob Misiorowski set the tone with a career-high 12 strikeouts, flashing stuff that left future Hall of Famer and opposing starter Clayton Kershaw impressed. Things didn't get much easier for the Dodgers after Misiorowski's departure, as the hard-throwing trio of Jared Koenig, Abner Uribe, and Trevor Megill combined for three perfect innings of relief with three more strikeouts. Overall, Brewers pitchers averaged 99.3 mph with their four-seamers and sinkers, tying the single-game record for a team in the pitch-tracking era, according to Baseball Savant. "That's something special," Megill said postgame. "Miz is throwing 101, and the curveball's almost at 90, or even at 90. Great stuff from him today." It was fitting that Misiorowski was at the center of the show. He's been at the heart of an in-season staff makeover that has vaulted the Brewers from the bottom third of baseball's velocity leaderboard to near the top. Through May, they were not blowing hitters away with much velocity on the whole. Since the start of June, they've boasted one of the sport's hardest-throwing staffs. Month 4FB + SI Velocity (MPH) Rank March/April 93.2 28 May 93.9 21 June 95.0 6 July 95.3 5 Misiorowski (average fastball velocity of 99 mph), who assumed the rotation spot of Aaron Civale (92 mph) on June 12, bears the most responsibility for the jump. He's not the only contributor, though. At the start of last month, the Brewers designated Tyler Alexander (90 mph) for assignment, and Aaron Ashby (97 mph) and DL Hall (94 mph) have since pitched most of what were once his innings. Not every pitcher will blow hitters away. Quinn Priester and Jose Quintana continue to occupy rotation spots, for now; Hall still profiles as a mix-and-match guy without his once-explosive fastball; and Brandon Woodruff's new cruising speed might settle in below the 93.3 mph he averaged in his season debut over the weekend. Still, Freddy Peralta's heater is averaging a career-best 94.9 mph, and Priester has flashed an extra tick when he needs it. It's not just raw velocity, either. More nuanced pitch modeling metrics agree that this iteration of the staff has more dominant stuff. At the end of May, the Brewers ranked 18th with an exactly average 100 Stuff+. Since then, their 106 Stuff+ leads baseball. The Brewers have excelled at maximizing pitchers with underwhelming stuff, and it will still be part of their larger pitching puzzle. But by and large, the current unit has a vastly different makeup than last year's, and it's much better than what the club took to New York on Opening Day. There are fewer gimmicks and more overpowering velocity and movement. Pitching has long been this club's specialty, and it's only growing stronger, with their new co-ace as both the face of that change and its biggest individual driver. View full article

Image courtesy of © Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images From a results standpoint, things have been trending in the right direction for Joey Ortiz. After limping to a .185/.254/.250 line (45 wRC+) with just two home runs through June 14, the Brewers shortstop has since hit .290/.323/.500 (130 wRC+) with four homers in his last 65 plate appearances. Despite that substantial uptick in production, Ortiz has found himself in the crosshairs of his manager’s ire. Pat Murphy pinch hit for Ortiz in his final at-bat on Saturday in Miami against the Marlins. He hasn’t played since, remaining on the bench due to Murphy’s displeasure with his recent swing decisions. “Yeah, the manager’s pissed,” Murphy said when asked on Monday afternoon about Andruw Monasterio starting in Ortiz’s place at shortstop for a second straight night. “I want him to give me his best approach at the plate. And, you know, we’ve given him a lot. We play him every day, and we need him, and he can’t just have lapses at the plate like that.” Passivity in the batter’s box has been a long-running issue for Ortiz. Last season, his 53.5% swing rate against in-zone pitches was the lowest among qualified hitters, rendering him a net negative hitter on hittable pitches over the heart of the plate despite a decent overall line. Ortiz has upped his in-zone swing rate to 59% this year, but that remains well below the league average. He fell back into the worst version of himself on Milwaukee’s last road trip, swinging at just 52.3% of in-zone pitches while chasing 37.5% of pitches outside the zone. “The swing decisions have been the worst [they’ve] been,” Murphy said. “And he’s swinging the bat way better, but [it’s] his swing decisions now. So all that mental stuff, he’ll sit and think about it.” Ortiz had a rough at-bat in New York in the first game of that road trip, rolling over a first-pitch sinker for an inning-ending double play after three straight walks to load the bases, but his last two at-bats in Miami were apparently the final straw before Murphy imposed a reset. First was a sequence against Cal Quantrill in which he watched three fastballs right down the middle and chased a fastball at his eyes. His next at-bat was a similar story, as Ortiz watched two fastballs and a hanging sweeper for strikes and offered only at another sweeper well off the plate. Perhaps Murphy was trying to motivate his shortstop to respond by publicly calling out his at-bats, or maybe it truly was a moment of authentic exasperation signaling that Ortiz’s leash is thinning. Either way, it’s clear that he still views Ortiz’s extreme passivity as a problem. “I want to see conviction when he gets back in there,” Murphy said. “Like, ‘I’m not letting this happen. I have a responsibility. I don’t have to get results, but I have to be convicted, I have to be ready, I have to be clear-headed, and I have to be able to fire.” View full article

Image courtesy of © Jim Rassol-Imagn Images Brandon Woodruff's first big-league start in 652 days could not have gone much better. In his long-awaited return from shoulder surgery, the longest-tenured Brewer tossed six innings of one-run ball, allowing just two hits and striking out eight. Without context, that line could've passed for a typical Woodruff start anywhere between 2019 and 2023. But this was the new Woodruff, and a sharp one at that. Yes, he faced a below-average Miami Marlins lineup, and he won't look as good in every future start, but Woodruff offered the first real taste of how he can (and will) go after hitters moving forward. Unsurprisingly, Woodruff's velocity was not quite back to pre-surgery levels. It's unlikely to get there consistently this year. Still, both his four-seamer and two-seamer averaged north of 93 mph, starting in the low 90s but bumping up a tick as his outing progressed. He topped 95 mph four times. The real takeaways, though, were Woodruff's new and improved movement profile and how he used it. A higher arm slot has slashed a couple of inches of arm-side movement from each of his two main fastballs, but those preexisting staples of his arsenal otherwise have largely the same shapes. Woodruff is complementing those offerings differently, though, with the new cutter and sweeping slider he first teased back in spring training. Notice how the movement plot on the right is more balanced than the one on the left. Woodruff can still pitch hitters north-south with his four-seamer and curveball, as he has always done, but he now features more shapes for working east-west, which he did in many of his most impressive sequences on Sunday. After using a steady diet of four-seamers his first time through the order, Woodruff masterfully mixed his new cutter and two-seamer to work both sides of the plate. In the third inning, he got ahead of Dane Myers with two cutters over the outer third, before punching him out with a boring two-seamer up and in. screen-20250706-213430~2.mp4 The following inning, after getting a call on an inside two-seamer to put Agustín Ramírez behind 0-2, Woodruff deliberately threw a cutter away to set up a perfect back-door two-seamer that froze Miami's cleanup hitter for strike three. screen-20250706-212851~2.mp4 Woodruff consistently executed to all four quadrants of the zone all afternoon, helping him rack up those eight strikeouts. The sweeper on which Heriberto Hernandez homered for the Marlins' lone run was one of his few true mistake pitches. Woodruff threw 53 of his 70 pitches for strikes. Statistically, it was the highest strike rate by a Brewers starter in any outing this year (excluding openers), and his command was arguably the best, as well. Hitting spots also allowed that four-seamer to continue playing up for whiffs with less velocity. Most of the swinging strikes against it came just above the top of the zone. This is not the same Woodruff who last pitched in a regular-season game on the same Miami mound nearly two years ago. He's diminished in some facets, the same in others, and arguably better in one. This iteration still has a seasoned feel for pitching, with more weapons to get hitters out. That doesn't mean it will always be smooth sailing; tempering expectations is still wiser than overinflating them. However, Sunday put to rest any lingering doubts over whether a healthy Woodruff could help the Brewers in the second half. View full article

Image courtesy of © Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images On Sunday, ESPN announced the rosters for the 2025 MLB All-Star Game, set to take place at Truist Park in the suburbs of Atlanta. Freddy Peralta will make his second trip to the Midsummer Classic as the Brewers’ lone representative—at least for now. It’s an unsurprising revelation. Milwaukee’s position player group consists primarily of solid contributors, rather than All-Star-caliber ones. Among hitters with at least 200 plate appearances, William Contreras is the club’s only regular within the top three in fWAR at his position in the National League, and most of his value has stemmed from his defense. Peralta, meanwhile, is in the midst of a career year, at least according to the surface-level results. The 29-year-old has posted a 2.91 ERA in 18 starts and ranks ninth in the NL in WAR. He’s also among the longest-tenured Brewers, affording him greater name recognition with the Commissioner’s Office and on player ballots, the two main vehicles for selecting pitchers and reserve position players. The right-hander has leaned on his fastball 57.6% of the time this year, the most he’s thrown it since 2020. However, he’s also continued to rely increasingly on his changeup, which has evolved into (perhaps) his best secondary pitch against both right-handed and left-handed opponents since his last All-Star selection in 2021. He's keeping the ball in the park better than he has since 2022, and his worst Game Score in any start this year is 45; that immunity to the true implosion is a new skill for him. He pitched a spotless inning of relief in the 2021 All-Star Game, striking out the side in order. Peralta is slated to start Monday night in Milwaukee, against the Dodgers. Thereafter, the team will have to decide whether to use their starting pitching depth to rest him until the other side of the break (allowing him to actually pitch in Georgia) or to have him come back on Sunday. There was no immediate indication as to which way they'll go, but given the meaning of this achievement for Peralta and their depth in the rotation, they could well choose to stretch the rotation and let him accept the honor. While Peralta will most likely be the only Brewer in Atlanta, more could join him in the coming days. A handful of players typically decline to participate in the game for workload management or other reasons, at which point replacement players further down on the player ballot are added to the roster. Brice Turang and Sal Frelick could be among those candidates, and although he himself might opt out, Christian Yelich shares Peralta's combination of stout production this year and a high Q-score. The game will be held on Tuesday, July 15, with the first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m. CT on FOX. View full article

Image courtesy of © Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images When the Brewers activated Aaron Ashby from the injured list in late May, Pat Murphy said the club planned to use him and DL Hall as “leverage long relievers.” The pair could alternate pitching multiple innings in meaningful situations, sometimes as a bridge between a short start and the back end of the bullpen, and other times to fill in for some of those late-inning arms to ease their workloads. In Ashby’s six weeks on the roster, such outings have been few and far between—sometimes due to game circumstances, and other times due to Murphy’s apparent hesitancy to trust him in bigger spots. He was finally back in that high-leverage, multi-inning role against the Miami Marlins on Friday night, and the southpaw was pivotal in a 6-5 win. With Quinn Priester unable to complete the fifth inning, Murphy summoned Ashby with two outs and the go-ahead run on second base. He struck out Connor Norby to end the threat and worked through the seventh inning, striking out three in 2 1/3 perfect innings. Meanwhile, the Brewers scraped across a run in the top of the eighth to take the lead, positioning Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill to finish things off. The outing showcased how pivotal Ashby can be in that unique role and why more opportunities in similar situations should follow. The left-hander has been dominant as a multi-inning reliever, both this year and dating back to his final call-up last season. After Friday’s showing, Ashby now owns a 0.93 ERA and 2.42 FIP in 19 ⅓ innings this year. Since August 25, 2024, he’s pitched to a 1.15 ERA and 1.59 FIP with a 29.1% K-BB% in 39 innings. Sixteen of his 23 appearances have spanned more than three outs. Beyond setting up the eventual win by keeping the score tied, his multi-inning effort also allowed Murphy to avoid using Nick Mears for a third straight day and Jared Koenig for the second time in three days. They would pitch unsuccessfully the following afternoon behind Hall, who worked two perfect innings in a similar multi-inning role and arguably could have pitched another in what was then a tie game. Properly pacing Mears, Koenig, and Uribe will be crucial in a heavily-worked bullpen that ranks fourth in baseball in innings pitched. With a rotation of starters best limited to two turns through the order in most outings, Murphy will continue to lean heavily on his relief corps in the second half. Ashby ought to be a cog in keeping that group effective, pitching in precisely the role he filled on Friday night. View full article