Brewers reliever's comeback story officially reaches noteworthy peak with White Sox

Remember back in 2024 when Milwaukee Brewers' reliever Bryan Hudson was in serious consideration to make the All-Star Game? A feat that is incredibly difficult for a non-closing relief pitcher, Hudson certainly had a case during his breakout 2024 campaign. Through the first half of the 2024 season, he held a 1.49 ERA, 0.74 WHIP, and collected 53 strikeouts in 48.1 innings. That was enough to at least have his name mentioned in the same sentence as the Midseason Classic.

Unfortunately, Hudson ultimately missed out on the All-Star Game, and landed on the injured list with an oblique strain shortly thereafter. Despite maintaining a solid stat line through the month of August, after he returned to the mound, Hudson was, somewhat confusingly, optioned to Triple-A for the month of September, where, in part due to his high innings count from the first half of the season, he was seldom used. He missed out on the Brewers' 2024 postseason roster, but expectations remained high heading into the 2025 campaign.

The left-handed Hudson met those expectations out of the gates, with seven consecutive scoreless appearances at the beginning of the 2025 season to prove it, but his performance quickly dipped and by late April he was in roster limbo, spending much of his time with the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. When his numbers didn't improve in Nashville, and the Brewers needed to open roster spots for their midseason trade additions, Hudson was designated for assignment on July 31.

The towering southpaw landed with the Chicago White Sox, like all other former Brewers, and though his tenure on the South Side didn't get off to a great start, he's now putting together even better results than his breakout campaign in 2024.

Bryan Hudson is currently out-performing his 2024 breakout campaign in the White Sox' bullpen

Hudson was actually designated for assignment by the White Sox this winter and then traded to the New York Mets. However, just before Opening Day, he was DFAd by the Mets as well and once again claimed off waivers by the White Sox. Though he allowed runs in each of his first two appearances of the season, one of which came against the Brewers in the second game of the season, Hudson has since embarked on an impressive string of scoreless performances.

Since March 31, Hudson has made 18 appearances and hasn't allowed a single run in any of them. He's lowered his ERA down to a dazzling 0.95 mark, and has quickly become one of Will Venable's most trusted bullpen arms.

After often covering multiple innings for the Brewers back in 2024, Hudson has essentially been limited to a one-inning reliever with the White Sox this year. Though he's walking batters at a slightly higher rate than he did back in 2024, his strikeout and whiff rates are up, and as detailed in the graphic above, he's limiting hard contact in an impressive way.

The Brewers clearly saw something that other teams didn't when they traded for Hudson, who posted a 7.27 ERA in his debut season in 2023, ahead of the 2024 campaign. That potential shone through in the first half of 2024, and while it's unfortunate that Hudson hit a roadblock during his Brewers' tenure, it's at least validating for the front office that their model on pitching acquisitions remains strong now that their former southpaw is once again thriving in a big-league bullpen.

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