4 observations about the Milwaukee Brewers bullpen heading into the 2024 season
PHOENIX – Milwaukee Brewers pitchers and catchers reported to American Family Fields of Phoenix on Wednesday morning.
Led by all-world closer Devin Williams, flame-throwing youngster Abner Uribe and returnees such as Joel Payamps, Hoby Milner, Elvis Peguero, Trevor Megill, the team's relief corps will once again seek to perform as it did a season ago.
And for the first time since 2019 it was the bullpen – not the starting rotation – that boasted the most recognizable faces.
Which is to say, surprisingly and incredibly well.
Starting from the back end with Williams is always going to be a winning proposition, and then beyond the other familiar faces there could be prospects like right-hander Jacob Misiorowski who will factor in as well as potentially several pitchers who fall short in their bid to open the season in the starting five such as Jakob Junis, Joe Ross and Aaron Ashby.
"Relievers are the most volatile performers in baseball," manager Pat Murphy said when asked about his bullpen as a whole. "I think, as the person responsible for that group, you kind of plan for it. I think you have to."
There is also going to be plenty of roster flexibility – a must for the way the Brewers operate – in this area with Megill, Peguero, JB Bukauskas, Taylor Clarke and Bryan Hudson all possessing minor-league options, enabling them to be shuttled freely between Milwaukee and Class AAA Nashville.
"Murph and I will meet with all the guys and sort of talk about the expectations," general manager Matt Arnold said. "The guys that have options understand that that's a possibility. We want to try to win games here, and it takes a lot of players to help win. We used 59 players last year, an enormous number.
"I think you really do have to use that level of depth in order to survive a full season, so we're going to need all these guys to help us this year."
Here are four observations about the bullpen picture with the first official workouts scheduled for Thursday morning.
The Brewers have the closer market cornered
For the fifth time in six years, the Brewers enter spring training with the preeminent closer in the National League.
Williams, 29, answered any questions about how he’d handle being of full-time closer for the first time by turning in unquestionably the best season of his career, a run of success that was capped by the right-hander winning his second Trevor Hoffman Award.
In 61 appearances and 58 ⅔ innings – four and two shy of tying career highs, respectively – Williams ranked first among relief leaders in batting average against (.129), second in hits allowed per nine innings (four), third in ERA (1.53) and strikeouts per nine innings (13.4), fourth in WHIP (0.92) and saves (36) and tied for sixth in strikeouts (87).
Pulling back further, Williams blew only four save opportunities, allowed earned runs in only six appearances (and multiple in only two) and ranked in the 94th percentile or higher in the majors in eight categories.
Right-handed batters had virtually no chance against Williams, batting just .107, while left-handed batters slugged only .192 by managing four doubles and no triples or homers in 118 plate appearances.
Not surprisingly, Williams threw his signature “Airbender” changeup 57.9% of the time – basically the same amount as 2022 – and his four-seam fastball a tick more often (and faster). His third offering, a cutter, gave batters something to think about only on occasion (3%) while for the first time in his career Williams didn’t throw a slider at all.
Four times last season Williams pitched more than one inning (including three straight times, 1 ⅔, 1 ⅓ and 1 ⅓ from May 16-28, with the Brewers winning all four games), each time demonstrating a willingness to lock down games rather than rigidly stick to the three-outs-and-done mandate laid down by predecessor Josh Hader.
"He's underrated, based on the attention he hasn't gotten, you know what I mean?" said Murphy. "He's an underrated player, much in the same way Josh (Hader) was in his first few years. I think Devin's right on that same track. He's special, and he loves to compete.
"Great competitors, you don't have to worry about them staying still. Great competitors want more. They want to be better. They want to solidify what they already have. It doesn't always show in the numbers year to year in baseball. But Devin's passionate about his career. He's passionate about competing.
"I feel confident he'll find ways to get better."
So, how can Williams improve upon near-perfection? Is it even possible?
If one wants to be incredibly nitpicky, his walk rate of 12.1% in 2023 (eighth percentile in the majors) is one area Williams could help himself in. His solid contact percentage (7.8) and barrel percentage (7.0) in 2023 were also career highs.
Otherwise, there isn't much more Williams can do other than fine-tune what is already an incredible arsenal.
"He's the best in the business," said Arnold.
Avoiding the sophomore jinx
Uribe made his highly anticipated major-league debut last July 8 and over the ensuing three months quickly graduated from a prospect known mostly for his blazing fastball to a reliable late-inning option out of the bullpen for an eventual playoff team.
Sure, Uribe lit up the radar gun; his 103.3 mph fastball on Aug. 24 was the fastest pitch ever recorded by a Milwaukee pitcher, and his sinker’s average velocity of 99.4 mph ranked in the 99th percentile in the majors.
But more important, the 23-year-old got batters out consistently and didn’t shrink in big moments. Uribe finished with a 1.76 ERA, 39 strikeouts in 30 ⅔ innings over 32 appearances, eight holds and a save.
Control has always been Uribe’s biggest issue, and there were times when the rookie completely lost the plate. His walk rate of 15.7% was high but his command has gotten a tick better with each step up the ladder he’s made.
And remember: Uribe has just 92 professional, affiliated appearances to his credit since 2018.
His sinker is his bread-and-butter pitch, as he threw it 61.2% of the time and generated ground balls an impressive 53.7%. Uribe threw a slider 32.2% of the time and mixed in a four-seamer for good measure as well.
His crazy physical tools and skill set should allow Uribe to remain in that high-leverage mix with the likes of Payamps and Peguero.
The sky appears to be the limit.
Coming from out of nowhere
Payamps and Peguero both came to Milwaukee with prior major-league experience but neither had the type of track record that would have predicted the impact they’d ultimately have on the Brewers.
The 29-year-old Payamps, a journeyman who had stints with four other teams before being acquired in the William Contreras trade, set career bests across the board with a 7-5 record, 2.55 ERA, WHIP of 1.05 and 77 strikeouts in 70 ⅔ innings over 69 appearances.
His total of 28 holds also tied for second in the NL, and Payamps threw in three saves as he quickly developed into the de facto setup man for Williams.
Payamps threw his slider more than ever (43.8%), his sinker and four-seamer harder than ever (95.3 and 95.4 mph respectively), rarely allowed batters to barrel the ball up against him (4.8%, 91st percentile) and didn’t issue free passes (5.9% walk rate, 85th percentile).
Peguero, 26, ended up as the big piece in the three-pitcher package the Brewers received for Hunter Renfroe and after debuting for the Brewers in mid-April worked his way into increasingly more important roles thanks to an almost even slider-sinker mix that both got batters to chase (34.2%, 95th percentile) and hit it on the ground (56%, 92nd percentile) while almost never hitting a barrel (3% of the time, 97th percentile).
He finished 4-5 with a 3.38 ERA, 21 holds and a save in 59 appearances, far and away the most of his career.
This duo, along with Uribe, gives Murphy plenty of options before handing the ball to Williams with the lead.
New man running the show in the bullpen
Charlie Greene is the Brewers’ new bullpen coach.
But he certainly isn’t new to the organization. The 53-year-old had a 32-game cup of coffee as a backup catcher for Milwaukee in 1999. Then after his playing career ended, Greene moved behind the scenes.
Greene enters his 21st season after spending the first 19 as a well-regarded catching instructor.
During that span he was also field coordinator and he spent last year as an assistant director of player development, a role that called for him to oversee the development of minor-league coaches and ensure carryover of major-league practices and strategies to the lower levels of the organization.
Now, Greene returns to the majors for the first time since 2000 and takes over for Jim Henderson, who was promoted to assistant pitching coach after running the bullpen for the previous two seasons.
One would be hard-pressed to find an individual more respected or well-liked in the organization than Greene.
There's also a new bullpen catcher joining holdover Adam Weisenburger: Christian Correa, who takes over for the promoted Daniel de Mondesert, who is now holding dual roles as a coach and Spanish-language translator.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 4 observations about Milwaukee Brewers bullpen for 2024 MLB season
