His fastball hits 100 mph. But a tweak to another pitch is making a difference for Brewers' Trevor Megill
Entering 2023, the Milwaukee Brewers’ bullpen was a major question mark.
Aside from Devin Williams and Hoby Milner, there were very few known commodities. But as the season progressed, relievers began emerging and earning roles.
First came Joel Payamps, who has developed into one of baseball’s best setup men.
Then came Elvis Peguero, who claimed the seventh inning.
Rookie fireballer Abner Uribe was next to burst onto the scene.
The latest reliever to make an impact?
That would be right-hander Trevor Megill, who in his fourth stint with the Brewers this season has finally found a foothold thanks to a combination of dialing in his incredible stuff, a few small mechanical tweaks and a dose of good old-fashioned confidence.
“It’s simple to say. The stuff hasn’t changed; it’s the confidence,” manager Craig Counsell said recently. “He’s just gaining confidence right now.”
Megill, 29, had logged parts of two years in the major leagues with the Chicago Cubs (2021) and Minnesota Twins (2022) but failed to make Minnesota’s opening-day roster this season and was struggling mightily at Class AAA St. Paul with a 13.03 ERA, 2.28 WHIP and walk rate of 12.1 per nine innings when the Brewers acquired him April 30 for a player to be named.
The numbers were as ugly as they come, but his triple-digit fastball was extremely tantalizing, so the trade made sense from the Brewers’ perspective (they eventually sent minor-league right-hander Taylor Floyd, a 10th-round draft pick in 2019, to the Twins on June 14).
Trevor Megill gets fresh start in city he always has liked to visit while playing for other teams
For Megill it was a chance to start fresh in a city he came to appreciate during his previous stops.
“I've always told everybody Milwaukee has always been my favorite city to visit on the road,” said Megill, a native of Long Beach, California. “Having this as my home stadium now is awesome. I love the dome. There's never really a bad day when you're inside that. The crowds are just electric. They're loud. It seems like a playoff atmosphere.
“I don't really like the big city. I like the layout where it's spread out and I'm able to just kind of breathe a little bit. It's really pretty and there's a lot to do if you want, especially to being up against the lake.”
Megill debuted for the Brewers on May 17 with two strikeouts in a scoreless inning.
Twelve of his ensuing 16 appearances were also scoreless. But because he is optionable to the minor leagues, Megill found himself bouncing between Milwaukee and Class AAA Nashville three times in that span.
In late June, Megill and his younger brother Tylor, a starter for the New York Mets, were demoted on successive days.
It was during those stints with Nashville that Megill would look at numbers, seek feedback from others – including Sounds pitching coach Jeremy Accardo – and ponder how to best to deploy his explosive four-seam fastball and curveball.
As far as the four-seamer, there aren't many who throw it harder than Megill. His average of 99 mph ranks in the 98th percentile in the majors (Uribe's average of 100.9 is second-best for those who have thrown 100 or more pitches), while the spin Megill gets on it ranks in the 96th.
“Seeing the analytics on the fastball and how it’s coming out of my hand, that verified what I’m feeling and what I’m doing,” he said. “So, seeing the numbers as far as throwing fastballs in the upper third, it allows me to just chuck it and let it do what it needs to do."
Velocity only goes so far, however. Every hard thrower also needs a quality off-speed pitch to keep hitters from sitting on the fastball.
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New grip with curveball gives flame-throwing Trevor Megill an extra edge
Megill's offering, the curveball, received a bit of an overhaul during a round of golf, of all things, in early August.
“After I got optioned last time, I was on the golf course the next day and kind of fiddling with a baseball in between shots,” Megill said. “I’ve always got one. I just like playing around with it and using it to roll out, make my body feel a little bit better during the season.”
In the midst of the fiddling, Megill found himself using a curveball grip he first used during his days at Loyola Marymount University. Up to that point Megill had been throwing what he referred to as a “spike” curveball that he learned while with the Cubs.
Now, to be more precise, it's a knuckle curve that can touch 90 mph.
“I held it and was messing with it and seeing how it would come off my hand,” he said. “It just felt right.
"I still throw it like a curveball, hold it like a curveball. It spins pretty much 12-6. Sometimes I do adjustments here and there to give it a little bit different profile, but for the most part I'm throwing it just like a curveball. Just the grip that I have and the hand positioning allows me to have some more freedom with arm speed."
Megill went back to Accardo, who was all for the change.
“We've had some really good discussions in the past,” Megill said. “I trust what he has to say, and he worked with my brother and he's had good success with him, too. It's just easier when you’ve got a good group of guys just verifying what they're seeing and what you're feeling like.”
Megill went on to allow one hit in 3⅓ scoreless innings over three appearances for Nashville before he was again brought back to the Brewers.
In 7⅓ innings over six outings since Aug. 16, Megill has yet to allow a run. He has surrendered five singles (.192 batting average against), hasn’t walked a batter and has struck out 13.
And now, Megill is beginning to receive more opportunities in higher-leverage situations.
“The moments are a little bigger right now,” said Megill, who is 1-0 with a 3.60 ERA, WHIP of 1.28 and has 37 strikeouts in 25 innings over 22 appearances for a career-best rate of 13.3 per nine.
“I’m definitely finding it pretty fun, going out there and competing in tighter spots. It makes everybody’s game a little better. It’s fun right now.”
Megill's last outing was easily his best of the season – and maybe his career – as he struck out five in a two-inning, 32-pitch effort that saw him reach triple digits with his four-seamer 19 times. Megill allowed singles to the first two batters he faced, then struck out five of the next seven to lock down a 10-6 victory over the San Diego Padres.
At the end of the eighth, after a strikeout of Ha-Seong Kim, and again after he struck out Xander Bogaerts to end it, Megill let out a primal scream as he stalked off the mound in jubilation.
At 6 feet 8 inches and 250 pounds, Megill is an intimidating presence to be sure. And now, his performance is catching up.
"There's just a lot of emotion and there's been a lot leading up to that game in my career," he said of those moments. "Just kind of something that came out, and that's about all I'm going to say on that.
"But yeah, I'm pretty happy with how everything's going."
So is Counsell, who's feeling awfully good these days whenever he hands the ball to Megill.
"The last time he got sent down I told him, 'You're a big-league pitcher,'" Counsell said. "There were some things that he was doing, not about pitching, but in the running game that we needed to improve on. He did that. Maybe some of those things helped clean up some delivery stuff.
"But more so than that, he's just pitching with confidence right now and you can see it on the mound. He did it. And that's a credit to him."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Tweak to curveball making difference for Brewers' Trevor Megill
