Brewers' bullpen has had more hiccups

Injuries have played role in the drop-off

ST. LOUIS – When the Milwaukee Brewers were building the best record in the National League over the first three months-plus of the season, there was no question which area of the club led the way.

The bullpen, ranked among the best in the major leagues, was the primary reason the Brewers were 5436 on July 8, the best mark in the league. The offense was sluggish, the rotation up and down, but the relief corps seldom missed a beat.

Since that date, the Brewers have been unable to keep their heads above water, going 14-19 entering their weekend series against the hard-charging St. Louis Cardinals. And, not surprisingly, the bullpen has been leaking oil a bit over that period of time.

Up until the all-star break, the Brewers were neck and neck with Arizona and Chicago for best-rated bullpen in the National League. The Diamondbacks (3.14 ERA) and Cubs (3.32) remain at the top of the league, but the Brewers had slipped to fifth (3.76) entering the weekend.

There are some obvious reasons for that decline, including injuries. Matt Albers was brilliant (1.08 ERA) over the first two months, slipped some in June, then hurt his shoulder and hasn’t been the same since. Currently on the disabled list with a hamstring injury, Albers’ ERA over his last five outings is 57.94, ballooning his overall mark to 6.23.

Rookie Taylor Williams, in his first full season in the majors, was superb in the first half, posting a 2.50 ERA through 34 outings. But Williams, who missed two years with a wrecked elbow, became less effective (11.57 ERA since the all-star break) and eventually found his way onto the DL as well with elbow tightness, albeit for only a short stay.

A watershed day for the bullpen, and not in a good way, came on Aug. 9 in a home game against the San Diego Padres. Closer Corey Knebel, who struggled with his command for some time, melted down completely, walking the bases loaded in the ninth and retiring none of the four hitters he faced as the Padres rallied for six runs to win, 8-4. Since that game, Knebel has not been used in save situations.

Making matters much worse, Joakim Soria, acquired before the July 31 trade deadline to provide another late-inning veteran, was forced unexpectedly into that game and gave up a grand slam before exiting with a groin strain. He is not expected to return any time soon, a big blow to the team’s relief corps.

Considering how extensively the Brewers use their bullpen, there were

bound to be some hiccups eventually. Entering the St. Louis series, their relief corps had compiled 4431⁄3 innings, seventh most in the major leagues.

Only one contending team had asked their bullpen to cover more innings – the Dodgers, with 447. And Los Angeles fans will be eager to tell you how poorly that relief corps has fared of late.

It’s no secret that manager Craig Counsell goes to his bullpen early and often. Following the modern-era scheme driven by analytics, he often pulls pitchers with manageable pitch counts rather than allowing them to go through an opponent’s lineup for the third time, which the numbers generally don’t support.

Counsell often uses the best weapon in his bullpen, left-hander Josh Hader, for more than one inning, and quite often (16 appearances) for at least two innings. Hader has dominated teams in that scheme, with an incredible 104 strikeouts in 581⁄3 innings, but it makes him unavailable, with few exceptions, on consecutive days.

Jeremy Jeffress has been the Swiss Army knife of the bullpen, able to be used in nearly every situation, especially tight squeezes, with great success. At age 30, he made the all-star team for the first time, but Counsell has chosen not to use him in the ninth inning, for the most part (Jeffress has finished a game only nine times in 56 appearances).

All of this explains why no area of the game is more important for a manager than managing the bullpen, and no area is more criticized. Nine out of every 10 complaints (perhaps 9.5) from disgruntled fans relates to how a team’s manager is running his bullpen. Guarantee you.

Despite heavy usage of the bullpen in

terms of total innings, the Brewers have made sure not to abuse relievers. Dan Jennings, who made 77 combined appearances last season for the White Sox and Rays, and likes to pitch a lot, led the pen with 58 appearances entering the St. Louis series, which put him on pace for 75.

Jeffress was next with 56, on pace for 73. You have to count Hader’s innings, not appearances, and he was on pace for 75, a manageable number for a former starting pitcher. Knebel, who led the NL with 76 appearances in 2017, missed more than a month early in the season with a hamstring injury and is currently at half that level.

The Brewers have tried to protect their high-leverage arms by rotating less-experienced relievers on and off the roster from the minor leagues. Jorgé Lopez was up and down six times before being included in the trade with Kansas City for third baseman Mike Moustakas. Adrian Houser has been up and down five times. Jacob Barnes has 41 appearances for the Brewers but recently was sent down for the third time.

In all, the Brewers have used 20 relievers this season, and no, we’re not counting knuckleballer Erik Kratz or eephus pitcher Hernán Pérez, whose primary job descriptions are position players.

“We have a number of relievers who have bought into this, and that’s a big part of it,” general manager David Stearns said. “Guys are going to go up and down. It’s not always the most pleasant experience. It’s part of the early picture with options in baseball. It has helped us manage the workload in the bullpen.

“It’s something that we talked about at the front end of the season. We knew

we’d be depending on a lot of guys who didn’t make the club out of spring training. And we’ve seen that. That’s true with guys acquired at midseason as well.

“Injuries are a part of this. We’ve had our fair share but so have a lot of other teams. I don’t think (usage) is the reason relievers are getting hurt. I think injuries are covered (by the media) a little more now than 20 years ago. Every time a player gets hurt, regardless of where they are, I read about it. So, it appears we have more injuries, but I think that’s just the appearance.”

As I have written often in recent seasons, major-league baseball is a bullpen game now. That’s why every ablearmed reliever was snapped up quickly on the free-agent market last winter while starting pitchers did 1,000-piece puzzles waiting for phone calls. That heavy usage makes it more difficult than ever for a relief corps to cover an entire season without hiccups.

Fortunately for the Brewers, Hader and Jeffress have continued to pitch like all-stars. A major objective at present is to get Knebel back on track and pitching at the end of games again, and he took a big step in that direction with a dominant inning Tuesday in a 7-0 romp over the Cubs in Chicago.

The bullpen certainly has experienced more ups and downs of late than during the first half of the season but that’s almost inevitable over the course of a long season, with performance drops and injuries factored in. If you look at other clubs, that trend is not unusual.

In fact, with so many moving parts in a bullpen, it’s more the norm than the exception.