Amidst Bullpen Struggles, Brewers Designated LHP Jake McGee For Assignment

After officially signing with the Brewers 15 days ago, left-handed reliever and former closer Jake McGee has been designated for assignment for the second time this season.

McGee made six appearances during his time with the Crew and allowed four earned runs over 5.2 innings pitched. During this brief stint he did get charged with one blown save and gave up two home runs, which is how many he had given up all season as a former member of the Giants.

Given his experience, the Brewers were not afraid to put him into medium to high leverage situations, but half of his outings resulted in surrendering runs. Unfortunately for the Brewers and McGee, a change of scenery did not help the struggling veteran get back on track for 2022 has been uncharacteristically bad for him.

What does this mean for the Brewers bullpen going forward?

Since the All-Star break, the bullpen has struggled. Brewers beat reporter Adam McCalvy pointed out that since that time the Crew’s pen is 26th in ERA (4.99) and OPS (.748).  Additionally, since trading Josh Hader, the bullpen’s struggles have been magnified due to losing arguably the best closer in the game.

In response to losing Hader, David Stearns brought in Taylor Rogers, Dinelson Lamet, Matt Bush and Trevor Rosenthal to help mitigate the loss of Hader. But Rosenthal likely will not be available until the end of August due to a hamstring injury and Dinelson Lamet was DFA’d and subsequently claimed by the Colorado Rockies.

As mentioned, Jason Alexander was recalled as a result of McGee being DFA’d. Alexander has worked as both a starter and out of the bullpen this year. He has the ability to eat up innings, but previous experience has told us that he does not move the needle all that much.

Essentially, the Brewers are in need of bullpen help. They do have quite the slew of pitchers in the minors who are either ready or close to returning from injury. This includes Adrian Houser, Luis Perdomo, Justin Topa, and Jake Cousins.

Hopefully the Brewers bullpen is just in a bad stretch of games right now.  There seems to be a dark cloud hanging over this team and the quicker they can snap out of this funk the better.

It is going to be a fight to the finish in the NL Central with the Cardinals and the magnifications of each game are getting larger.