Brewers’ reliever’s head-turning WBC debut has carried into MLB regular season

Ángel Zerpa was one of the breakout stories of the World Baseball Classic, dominating out of the bullpen for the championship-winning Venezuelan team. He tied with teammate Andrés Machado for the most pitching appearances in the WBC with six, tossing 5.1 scoreless innings while allowing just three hits and two walks against eight strikeouts.

That success has carried over into the early portion of the 2026 regular season, where Zerpa has pitched three times in the Milwaukee Brewers' first six games. He's looked the part of a high-leverage reliever, surrendering no runs and stranding all three of his baserunners.

His most intriguing outing came in the Brewers' 6-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on March 31; with a three-run lead entering the eighth inning, Pat Murphy turned to Abner Uribe for the set-up appearance and Zerpa for the door slam. It worked to great effect, as both worked around a walk to fire off a scoreless frame.

That's certainly more responsibility than most expected Zerpa to get this early in the season with his new team, but it was also a proof of concept that should make Brewers fans ecstatic.

Ángel Zerpa's high-leverage evolution is precisely what Brewers' bullpen needs

It's fair to point out that Zerpa's ninth-inning appearance may have been a result of necessity rather than game-planning; closer Trevor Megill had appeared in each of the two prior days, and there's no way Murphy was going to toss him out there for a third consecutive outing this early in the season.

Still, Zerpa got the ninth-inning nod over several other Brewers relievers in the March 30 game, despite many of his colleagues having more experience in Milwaukee. His presence gives the bullpen a lot more length, while also arming Murph with more late-game flexibility.

The perception around the relief corps has been that there are four leverage relievers, two from each side: Uribe and Megill (the righties), and Ashby and Jared Koenig (the southpaws). Zerpa's breakout, in conjunction with early-season success from righty Grant Anderson, inflates that number to six, with an even mix of handedness.

There are reasons to be cautious about going all-in on Zerpa's stock. He remains poor at getting hitters to chase outside the zone, he's become even more reliant on his sinker in Milwaukee, and his control still leaves something to be desired. But those are minor grievances in a small sample that (when including the World Baseball Classic) is quite impressive.

He's already earned the trust of the coaching staff. So long as he keeps performing like this, he isn't going to lose it.