Brewers signing of former Yankees reliever is a bit of a throwback to bygone era

The Milwaukee Brewers' bullpen is going to be going through a bit of a transition in 2025. Obviously the biggest change is that Devin Williams isn't going to closing games anymore, but Joe Ross isn't going to be helping out anymore and some new names are going to get a shot in Grant Anderson, Grant Wolfram, and Elvin Rodriguez.

With Williams out of the picture, the Brewers are likely to be relying upon a trio of power bullpen arms late in games in Aaron Ashby, Abner Uribe, and Jacob Misiorowski. Sure, Ashby and Misiorowski could still end up in the rotation, but those are the three arms that feel like the most likely options in high leverage situations at least at the start of 2025.

The complimentary pieces matter a lot when you go with a power bullpen. One train of thought is to lean fully into power arms and just have each of them do what they do best, but have some variation in the pitches they throw to keep opposing lineups guessing and disrupt their timing from inning to inning that way. However, the Brewers may be employing a different strategy with their latest roster move after they signed reliever Josh Maciejewski.

Brewers signed Josh Maciejewski to hopefully provide a different look out of the bullpen

Since Maciejewski is only inked to a minor league deal, there is no guarantee whatsoever that he will even make the big league roster. His incredibly small four game sample size in the big leagues went reasonably well with a 2.57 ERA, but his minor league numbers last season left a lot to be desired. There is a very good chance that Milwaukee's gambit here may not work.

However, Maciejewski is still a signing worth keeping an eye on heading into spring training. Unlike the bigger names in the Brewers' bullpen, Maciejewski is a bit of a soft tosser whose fastball barely eclipses 90 mph and he relies on locating his pitches and the strength of his offspeed and breaking stuff from the left side.

While far from a sure thing, having a guy that doesn't throw hard at all coming into games either as a long reliever or in the sixth or seventh inning could actually work out great for the Brewers. Timing up Maciejewski is going to require a very different approach and assuming he can still get outs, using him before guys like Uribe or Ashby could make opposing hitters' lives even more difficult. He is just such a different look for opposing hitters assuming he can actually miss bats and avoid hard contact.

If it doesn't work out, so be it. However, there is a method to the madness here.

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