HADER STRIKES FEAR
Flaky hockey-loving lefty ringing up hitters at record rate
Josh Hader has the look of a Southern California surfer — with the dirty-blonde, shoulder-length hair and ink-stained arms — but he’s from a small village in Maryland.
He’s a big-time hunter and avid fisherman who just happens to love hockey.
He’s a skinny, six-foot, 180pound left-handed, 24-year-old chill dude. But instead of listening to rap, hip-hop or country, he rolls with classic rock, with his walk-up song hitting the charts back when eight-track cassettes dominated.
He’s a pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers: not a starter, closer or even a setup man, but helping to define the newest, baddest bullpen role in baseball.
“That’s the beautiful thing about Josh,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell says. “You can’t put him in a box. You can’t stereotype him, or even try to figure him out. He’s just his own self.
“You just sit back and appreciate him. And believe me, we’re doing that every single day.”
In a season that’s starting to become magical for the Brewers, first in the NL Central at 28-19 through Sunday despite having four of their starting pitchers on the disabled list, Hader has emerged as perhaps their most dynamic, vibrant and integral player.
Just 11 months ago at Chase Field in Phoenix he was making his major-league debut, and he returned for the first time this past week as the nastiest reliever in the land, whose exploits should be on a national stage in July when he’s selected to the all-star team.
Wearing No. 71 and galloping in from the bullpen with his hair flopping down his back, sometimes singing to himself, stepping to the mound and then humiliating hitters who dare step to the plate, Hader has struck out more batters than any reliever in the majors — 56 in just 271⁄ innings heading in3 to Monday night’s home date with the Diamondbacks, including six of seven batters for the win against the Twins on Saturday night. The opposition is hitting .080 and he is striking out roughly 18 batters per nine innings, which would break Aroldis Chapman’s 2014 record.
“Right now, what he’s doing,” Brewers GM David Stearns says, “is as good as any reliever in baseball. There are other guys who have done it longer and have done it more consistently, but what he’s doing right now is as good as anyone.”
Just a year ago, he was a struggling minor-league starter who had been twice traded. Now he’s an overnight sensation, thanks in part to his feat on April 30 in Cincinnati, when he became first pitcher in the modern era to rack up eight strikeouts in 2 2⁄ innings. He’s 3 the only National League reliever since 1893 — the year the mound was moved 60 feet, six inches from home plate — to strike out at least three batters in seven straight appearances.
“He’s the coolest guy out there,” Brewers first baseman Eric Thames said. “Guys like that do so well because there’s so much failure in this game. He’s like, ‘You know, I’m going to go out, work hard, do my best and whatever happens, happens. And when I’m done, I’m going to go hunt or fish or listen to music.”
Well, sometimes Hader creates his own music, and can even be spotted singing the words to his walk-up song: “Renegade” by Styx, which came out in 1979 and has never been more popular in Milwaukee.
“I’m getting a lot of good compliments from my song. It just pumps people up,” Hader says. “I mean, it pumps me up, too. I just start singing it myself on the way to the mound.”
Hader, who used to cut his own hair — a buzz cut — before stopping altogether four years ago, skips to the mound almost like Shaggy Rogers in ScoobyDoo, with hitters trying to figure out whether he’s going to be pumping his 93- to 97-m.p.h. fastball, firing a nasty slider or completely confusing them with his changeup.
“Sometimes he doesn’t know what’s happening,” says Brewers veteran reliever Jeremy Jeffress, “and that’s a good thing.”
The most dangerous facet of Hader is the element of surprise. The opposition keeps gazing into the Brewers bullpen, never knowing when he’s going to emerge. He could pop out in the fourth inning or in the eighth, and face two batters or nine, with 12 of his 16 appearances going longer than one inning.
“There’s no name for it,” says Hader of his role. “I guess just an out-getter.”
It’s the role Andrew Miller glorified in the Cleveland Indians’ 2016 World Series run, the one that Archie Bradley perfected for Arizona, and now it’s Hader who has taken the hybrid position to another level.
Hader was the final acquisition of former Brewers GM Doug Melvin, who was stunned that the Astros (and earlier the Orioles) wanted to give him up. Stearns was the Astros’ assistant GM at the time, and his front office desired outfielder Carlos Gomez and starter Mike Fiers to bolster a franchise chasing its first playoff berth in a decade.
“Look, the Astros happened to make the playoffs that year, and Gomez and Fiers had a meaningful part of it down the stretch,” said Stearns, who became the Brewers’ GM six weeks later. “But looking back a few years later, I’m glad to be on this side of it.”
There may be a time after the season when the Brewers try moving Hader back to the starting rotation. The debate will be whether he’s more valuable in the bullpen or pitching 180 innings as a starter. It’s no different for the Diamondbacks, with Bradley hoping he returns to the starter’s role one day.
Yet, for now, the Brewers know they have something special going, featuring the best bullpen in baseball and the man who makes it all come together.
And perhaps in two months the Brewers will share him with everyone when he’s on centre stage, a 40-minute drive from his hometown, pitching at Nationals Park in the all-star game.
“One of my goals was to be perform well enough to be in that game,” said Hader, who has pitched only 75 career innings. “To be back home on the east coast, and for all of my friends and family to be there. Just how awesome would that be.”