Brewers’ once biggest strength has become team’s early-season weakness in 2026

It's not literally true, but since the start of the 2020s, it's felt like the Milwaukee Brewers are pretty much guaranteed to win whenever they enter the seventh inning with a lead.

Such is life when you parade out an endless assembly line of elite high-leverage relievers. From Josh Hader and Devin Williams to Trevor Megill and Abner Uribe, the Crew haven't been hurting for shutdown options late in games.

That was supposed to be the case again in 2026, but "faltering" has become more of the running theme. During the team's recent six-game losing streak, the bullpen blew three saves, one each by Megill, Uribe, and Zerpa.

Thankfully, the team finally busted out of their slump once Aaron Ashby and Uribe slammed the door on the Blue Jays, and Megill and Zerpa did the same the following day, but this remains a serious concern for a team that hasn't had to deal with bullpen issues for some time.

Pat Murphy's reliever usage may finally be haunting Brewers

There's no secret that Pat Murphy loves to ride the hot hand in the bullpen. He's been aggressive with his best relievers since he was coaching in college, and that certainly hasn't stopped since he took over the top job in Milwaukee.

But we may be reaching an inflection point with his bullpen usage. He may not have been able to ride Aaron Ashby into the ground in the second half last year, but he tried his darndest, especially during the postseason. Despite that, he still found a way to get Uribe (75 games), Jared Koenig (72), Grant Anderson (66), and Nick Mears (63) huge workloads.

Sure, it doesn't help matters that the Brewers tend to be very careful with their starters after the fifth inning, but it's not like the team was in desperate need for innings. Both Freddy Peralta and Quinn Priester covered more than 150 frames each in 2025, with Jose Quintana (131.2) and Chad Patrick (119.2) not far behind.

Murphy's not likely to change his habits while managing a very young (and injury-prone) rotation this year, so the mainstays in the bullpen will need to be ready for another taxing workload this season.

Perhaps, then, if the work won't be evenly divvied up, then the roles will need to be nebulous. There's already been signs that Megill's role as the closer isn't necessarily safe, and having a few more players comfortable in those do-or-die spots will at least give Murphy the option of which tired reliever he wants to use on a given night.

This will need to be monitored closely for the rest of the season, lest the Brewers burn out all of their high-leverage firemen before October even rolls around.

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