Aaron Ashby surprisingly leads all of baseball in this one outdated stat

Pat Murphy's reliever usage has, yet again, become a popular topic of conversation among Brew Crew fanatics. The bullpen was one of the root causes of the team's now-extinct six-game losing streak, as numerous stalwarts simply looked tired despite the season still evolving through its nascent stages.

Somehow, Milwaukee Brewers iron man Aaron Ashby remains unfazed by his absurd usage rate. He's pitched 11 times in the team's first 18 games in 2026, covering a bullpen-leading 14 innings. As you might expect, he's tied for first in appearances by a pitcher to this point, which is hardly surprising for Murphy's favorite reliever.

What is a little surprising, though, is that Ashby has the most wins in the National League and is tied with Los Angeles Angels ace José Soriano for the most in all of MLB. They both have five. No other pitcher on the Brewers' roster has more than one win.

Ashby's on pace for 45 wins in 2026. It's been a long time since a non-closer reliever won a Cy Young award, but that'd be a pretty good argument for Ashby to break that trend.

Aaron Ashby is pitching a lot and winning a lot in 2026

Obviously, Ashby isn't going to go 45-0 as a reliever this year (probably). His role is so absurdly nebulous -- he's part opener, part set-up man, and part bulk leverage reliever (if there is such a thing) -- that it makes it hard to approximate his value to the team, but it's safe to say that the Brewers wouldn't be the NL Central favorites without him.

Pitching wins don't mean anything close to what they used to, but it's fun to appreciate a reliever leading the league in them in mid-April. Considering that there was talk about moving Ashby back to the rotation this spring, perhaps let's use this archaic anecdote as strong-enough evidence to leave him be.

There aren't many pitchers who could handle the durress of this kind of usage and undefined role, but Ashby continues to thrive in the chaos. He's got a 3.21 ERA this year that's actually unlucky compared to his 2.83 xERA and 2.24 FIP, and he's striking out a career-high 37.3% of opposing hitters.

The southpaw has gotten to this level of dominance on the back of the league's best curveball, as his favorite breaker has reached a new level in 2026. Opposing batters have mustered a .065 wOBA against the pitch, and they're whiffing on 77.7% of the swings they take at it. I don't need to tell you how absurd that is.

As Murphy continues to sort through the hierarchy of his relief corps, expect him to continue relying heavily on Ashby to pick up the slack. That kind of reliability alone is worth its weight in gold.

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