The Brewers’ Bullpen Needs a Break
Few teams have leaned upon their bullpen more than the Milwaukee Brewers, but the taxing workload is already starting to take its toll.
Stats taken prior to play on May 29.
In each of the last two seasons, the Milwaukee Brewers have boasted one of the top bullpens in all of Major League Baseball.
Back in 2023, Milwaukee’s bullpen finished the year with the second-best ERA in baseball (3.40) to go with the highest Win Probably Added (WPA) at 11.73.
The ball club followed that up with another stellar year in 2024, where the ‘pen once again finished second in MLB only to the Cleveland Guardians in ERA (3.11) and WPA (13.14). Last year’s performance was particularly impressive given how much they used the bullpen.
Many anticipated the bullpen to pick up right where it left off a season ago, even after the departure of Devin Williams. So far this season, however, that has simply not been the case.
Brewers relievers currently rank 24th in MLB in ERA (4.55) and WPA at -0.88. The bullpen is bottom 10 in WHIP (1.38), and its production has been a far cry from what fans have been accustomed to seeing from this unit.
But when a bullpen is getting worked the way Milwaukee’s has this early into the season, concerns start to arise.
Not only is there added pressure to perform with all the injuries the team has dealt with in the starting rotation, but one starts to wonder how several of these high-leverage arms will hold up over the course of the season if this level of workload continues.
While they’ve managed success despite heavy workloads in previous seasons, it feels like a different story so far in 2025.
A Lack of Length from Milwaukee’s Starters
Struggling to get length from starters is nothing new for the Brewers. In fact, they were bottom five in MLB last season in innings from the starting rotation, and the bullpen still finished as strong as it did.
This season, that trend of short starts has continued. Brewers starters have the fifth-fewest innings pitched in MLB with 274.2. Part of that issue stems from the starters struggling to keep their pitch count down at times, but it’s also a result of how skipper Pat Murphy likes to manage his bullpen and starters.
Simply put, with how the rotation is currently constructed, the Brewers don’t have many arms who specialize in working deep into games.
After his second start of the season where he completed eight innings of work, Freddy Peralta has gone six or more innings just twice in 10 starts since that outing. It’s been a successful start to the year for Peralta in terms of run prevention, pitching to a 2.77 ERA, but length has once again been a pain point for Milwaukee’s ace.
Rookie Chad Patrick was thrusted into a key role from the get-go this season and has answered the call in a big way, but he too has struggled to work deep into games. Patrick has completed six or more innings three times in his 11 starts. Moreover, he’s completed five or more innings just five times.
Quinn Priester has made nine appearances since being acquired from the Boston Red Sox, and he’s gone six innings just once, which occurred in his most recent start over the weekend.
Point being, Brewers starters have performed well this season, pitching to the eighth-best ERA in baseball to this point. But their inability to work deeper into games is causing a ripple effect on the bullpen’s usage.
It’s also important to note that, as was alluded to earlier, Pat Murphy tends to shy away from letting some of his inexperienced arms face a lineup for a third time. This was a tendency of his a season ago, and it’s been particularly relevant for guys such as Priester and Patrick in 2025.
That said, it’s a strategy that worked well for the ball club last season, so it’s hard to push back on a philosophy that led to so much success in 2024. Nonetheless, it’s important to note that this style of managing is only adding to the workload of his bullpen arms.
The Impact of an Increased Workload for the Bullpen
Knowing all of that, it’s no surprise to see that the Brewers’ bullpen is second in innings pitched in MLB with 229.2 to go with the most appearances on the year with 211. In May, they lead MLB in innings (110.2) and appearances (101) by a relatively large margin.
Murphy has a tendency to lean upon his “A” bullpen has much as possible — especially in the month of May where the offense has struggled mightily. As a result of the lineup’s woes, the Brewers have played in a lot of tight games (they’ve played in four extra-inning games in the last eight calendar days), leading to a heavy workload for many of Milwaukee’s high-leverage relievers.
Take Abner Uribe, for example. Despite missing the first four games of the season due to a suspension, Uribe is tied for the MLB lead in appearances with 28. Fortunately so far, the usage hasn’t seemed to phase the young flamethrower, as he’s pitching to a dazzling 1.65 ERA in 27.1 innings.
However, his outing back on May 23 against the Pirates is a recent example of how the bullpen usage has come back to bite the ball club as of late.
In that game, Uribe came into the ninth inning, working his fourth game in six days, and surrendered a game-tying homer to Oneil Cruz. But because the bullpen was so taxed at the time, Murphy had no choice but to let Uribe go back out for the 10th inning, where he would surrender two runs and the Brewers would lose the game on a walk-off wild pitch.
Another example of an arm who has been worked a ton early in the season is Nick Mears. Despite missing the first week and a half of the season due to an illness, he already has 24 appearances on the young season, as he’s been one of Murphy’s go-to options out of the bullpen.
Mears thrived with a fresh arm early on in the year, allowing just one earned run and a total of six hits in his first 19 appearances. However, his usage has skyrocketed in recent weeks, and the results haven’t been as impressive as of late.
In his most recent five outings, he’s allowed eight hits, six runs, and two homers in 5.1 innings of work. He’s surrendered one or more runs in four of his last five outings and was attributed with three blown saves in that span.
Now, a pitcher needs to execute his pitches when called upon, and there have been times recently where Mears hasn’t been as sharp as he was early in the year. That’s certainly contributed to his recent struggles.
But one has to wonder how much his recent workload is also contributing to his lack of effectiveness.
Before being tasked with going two innings in Wednesday’s game, in which he would surrender a game-tying home run in his second inning out, his four outings before that came in the span of seven days, all in high-leverage situations.
What’s more, prior to throwing a career-high 57.2 innings last season (where he would eventually miss time with a forearm injury at the tail end of the regular season), his previous career high in innings pitched was 23.1 back in 2021 with the Pirates.
Mears has already thrown 23 innings this season, and the calendar hasn’t even flipped to June.
Even though Mears has posted strong results to this point and has ascended into being the high-leverage arm many Brewers fans thought he could be, one has to worry about how his body will hold up at this rate as the season progresses.
Jared Koenig experienced a full-fledged breakout last season, pitching to a 2.47 ERA. He was an essential piece of this Brewers bullpen down the stretch. Koenig has slid into an equally important role in 2025, as he too is tied with Uribe for the most appearances in MLB with 28.
In March and April, Koenig allowed just four earned runs in 15 appearances and 14 innings of work. So far in May, across 11.1 innings and 13 appearances, Koenig has allowed seven earned runs, and his hits allowed went from eight in March/April to 14 this month.
After throwing a career-high 62 innings last year, Koenig is once again on pace for a hefty amount of innings this season.
Even Trevor Megill is still settling in as the ball club’s full-time closer. This season, he’s made 12 appearances with zero or one day of rest. Opponents are hitting .216 against him and he’s allowed all six of his runs in those outings.
When pitching with two or more days of rest, batters are hitting just .178 against him, and he’s allowed no runs in those 10 outings.
Of course, one would expect an arm to perform better with more days of rest — that isn’t breaking any news. However, it does highlight how important rest is for an arm like Megill, who can be as effective as any reliever in the NL when he is fresh, but he can’t be overworked.
Being mindful of Megill’s workload and when he is deployed is just another piece of the puzzle for Murphy, and deciding when to utilize his high-leverage arms versus turning to his “B” bullpen will be a major storyline to follow as the calendar flips to June.
What’s the Solution?
Fortunately for Brewers fans, reinforcements couldn’t be coming at a better time.
Last week, Milwaukee got two key arms back from the injured list with Aaron Ashby and DL Hall. The importance of their returns truly cannot be overstated, as both will be utilized in valuable long-relief roles moving forward.
Even in the few games since they’ve each returned, we’ve seen their value shine through in bridging the gap and eating innings between the starters and late-inning relievers. Their presence in the bullpen should certainly help ease the pressure on some of the key names mentioned above.
Relying upon names such as Ashby, Hall, Grant Anderson, and Tyler Alexander to potentially go multiple innings may be the answer to Murphy’s bullpen problem at the moment.
That, along with the upcoming return of some veteran starters, should hopefully help mitigate some of the issues discussed and get this bullpen back on track in the coming weeks.
Written by
Joey Peterson is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an editor for Just Baseball. Joey covers the Milwaukee Brewers, along with general MLB topics…