What Should Chad Patrick’s Role Be for the 2026 Brewers?

Ever since the Milwaukee Brewers acquired Chad Patrick in the 2023-2024 offseason, he’s made a substantial impact.

In his first year in Milwaukee’s system, Patrick was named the 2024 International League Pitcher of the Year, finishing with a 2.90 ERA across 136.1 innings with Triple-A Nashville while winning the league’s first pitching Triple Crown since 1976.

Though he wasn’t even considered a top prospect in the Brewers’ farm system, it put him on the radar as someone who could make meaningful big-league starts for the Brew Crew heading into 2025.

That quickly became the case, as Patrick made the Opening Day roster in 2025 and emerged as a meaningful arm for Milwaukee throughout the season.

Across 119.2 innings pitched, Patrick tossed to a 3.53 ERA and racked up 2.6 fWAR, a mark that was second on the Brewers’ entire pitching staff only behind Freddy Peralta. He also led all rookie pitchers in that category.

Despite some road bumps in the middle of the season that eventually led to a demotion to Triple-A for a few weeks in July and August, Patrick looked the part of a big-league starter. It became clear that he would be a valuable piece of the playoff picture for Milwaukee, we just weren’t exactly sure of the role he would have.

Then came the postseason, where ‘Reliever’ Chad Patrick became a thing. Coming out of the bullpen, Patrick took his game to an entirely new level.

He was throwing harder, his accuracy was more precise, and most importantly, he didn’t look like a rookie on the mound — he looked like a seasoned vet who was built for high-pressure moments.

Fast forward to 2026, and the Brewers are once again trying to figure out what Patrick’s role will be. Except this time it’s not a result of poor performance as a starter, but instead a testament to how impressive he has been as reliever.

Patrick is earning skipper Pat Murphy’s trust with each appearance he makes, and the Brewers might have their next high-leverage relief arm blossoming in front of their very eyes.

Stats were taken prior to play on May 21.

Chad Patrick, Starter or Reliever?

From Opening Day through May 4, Patrick made seven appearances; five of them were as a starter, and two of them came out of the bullpen following an opener.

Patrick was solid across those first seven appearances, pitching to the tune of a 3.45 ERA. However, the command was a bit shaky at times, the strikeouts weren’t exactly there, and he was pitching to a lot of hard contact. He struck out just 20 to go with 16 walks and 29 hits allowed over those seven appearances, yielding a WHIP of 1.44 thanks to a good amount of traffic on the basepaths.

While he was relatively successful at run prevention over that stretch, the peripherals weren’t particularly encouraging.

After allowing seven hits, four runs, and three walks across 3.1 innings in a start against the Cardinals on May 4, the Brewers made a change. Patrick’s first true relief appearance came against the New York Yankees on May 9, and he’s looked like a different pitcher ever since.

Since that date, Patrick has made four appearances out of the bullpen, pitching 8.1 scoreless innings while allowing just three hits and one walk with nine punchouts.

His walks per nine has dropped by over three and a half, he’s punching out four more hitters per nine as a reliever, and his batting average has dropped from .252 through his first seven appearances to .115 since shifting to the ‘pen.

Acknowledging that it’s a small sample size, there’s also been noticeable improvements to both his arsenal as a whole and how he is approaching at-bats and attacking hitters after his role change.

Patrick’s stuff has been playing up out of the bullpen. Not only is he allowing less contact in general, but he’s also minimizing the damage of that contact with over a three-mph drop in average exit velocity.

His opponent average has dropped 137 points, his opponent slugging percentage has been cut in half, his strikeout rate has more than doubled, and he’s cut the walk rate down to less than four percent. Likewise, he has yet to allow a barrel since moving to the bullpen.

Much of that success can be attributed to an uptick in the effectiveness of each one of his pitches out of the bullpen.

Starting with his cutter, which is his best and most-used pitch, it’s up over a tick, going from 89 mph to 90.3 mph after moving to the bullpen. On top of the extra tick of velocity, the pitch is also getting much more movement, both in terms of its cut and ride.

His cutter’s glove-side movement has gone from 0.9 inches to 3.0 inches, and he’s added an inch more of ride to the pitch as well. All in all, it’s just a harder, better-moving version of the pitch, and the results have followed suit.

He’s holding opponents to just an .077 batting average with a whiff rate near 42% with his cutter out of the bullpen. On the season as a whole, Patrick’s cutter has a run value of +6, which is the third-best mark among MLB cutters.

The rest of his arsenal has seen similar improvements. Patrick’s four-seamer is up a tick and a half, his sinker velocity is up just over one mph, and his slurve has also added two ticks. He has yet to allow a hit off his four-seamer or slurve out of the bullpen, and his whiff rate is up on both of those offerings.

Now, an uptick in velocity isn’t everything, and it doesn’t automatically make a pitcher better. But when a pitcher pairs that velocity increase with improved strike throwing and a stronger movement profile, just as we are seeing with Patrick, then the results start to have some merit to them.

What we are seeing with Patrick feels more than just a good few outings out of the bullpen. It feels as if he’s getting comfortable in these high-leverage relief moments, trusting his stuff a bit more, and letting his best pitches play up in shorter spurts.

Patrick Is Entering Murphy’s ‘Trust Tree’

In the end, Patrick’s role will likely be dictated by roster need. And as it currently stands, he’s been more useful as a high-leverage arm out of the bullpen than a starter.

In his first true relief appearance on May 9 against the Yankees, Patrick entered the game in the fifth inning with the Brewers trailing 2-0. He delivered three scoreless innings, which proved to be vital, as the Brewers ended up winning the game 4-3 in extra innings.

His next appearance came against the Padres on May 12 when he entered in the seventh inning with the Brewers leading by three runs. He delivered a scoreless inning on just seven pitches, passing the baton to Trevor Megill in the eighth and Abner Uribe in the ninth en route to a hold and Brewers victory.

His most impressive showing came against the Twins on May 16, when he came into the sixth inning with a 2-1 Brewers lead. He delivered four scoreless innings of one-hit ball, leading the Brewers to victory and earning the first save of his career.

His most recent outing on Tuesday featured the most pressure yet, and he answered the call in a big way. Leading 5-2 against the Cubs at Wrigley Field, Patrick entered the game in the eighth inning with the bases loaded and two outs. Facing one of the Cubs’ most lethal power threats in Seiya Suzuki, Patrick generated an inning-ending groundout on three pitches, a decisive moment in the Brewers’ eventual victory.

Point being, while no official decision has been made on whether or not Patrick will move back to the rotation or remain in the bullpen, it’s hard to deny the value he has provided as a reliever during Milwaukee’s recent hot stretch.

The Brewers are winners of 11 in their last 13 dating back to May 6, and Patrick has left his mark on several of those wins.

Murphy said it best in his postgame availability following Patrick’s performance in Tuesday’s win: “He’s showing us over and over he’s that kid. He’s showing that to us over and over in that role. He did it last year in the postseason, and he’s doing it again this year.”

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Final Thoughts

Often times when a starter is moved to the bullpen, it’s due to a lack of performance in the rotation. But that isn’t the case with Patrick. Instead, Murphy realizes the kind of weapon he can be for this team as a long-relief option or as a high-leverage arm in crucial situations.

It also helps that there are plenty of irons in the fire for Milwaukee in terms of starting pitching.

Jacob Misiorowski and Kyle Harrison have been taken the league by storm through the first two months of the season, Logan Henderson has more than earned a spot in the starting rotation, and guys like Brandon Sproat, Robert Gasser, and Coleman Crow round out formidable group of starters.

Once Brandon Woodruff and Quinn Priester return from the injured list, the Brewers will have more starters than there are spots in the rotation. Moving Patrick to the bullpen now could be Murphy’s way of getting ahead of the issue while also giving the team a better chance to win in the present

While Patrick has been more than serviceable as a major-league starter for the Brewers, the bullpen is where he can provide the most value for the Brewers. As a reliever, he’s looked sharp, he’s looked poised, and he has the makings of being one of the Brewers’ most valuable weapons out of the bullpen this season.