Did the Brewers foreshadow a significant change to their rotation over the weekend?

Over the weekend, the Milwaukee Brewers completed their first sweep of the New York Yankees since 1989, doing so in dramatic fashion. The series featured two walk-off victories, one capped by a sacrifice fly from William Contreras in extra innings and another delivered via a home run from Brice Turang on Mother's Day. Meanwhile, rising ace Jacob Misiorowski added to the excitement with an electric start on the mound on Friday night.

Perhaps overlooked amid all the weekend excitement was the performance of Chad Patrick, who emerged from the bullpen Saturday night following a shortened outing from Kyle Harrison. Patrick, who has made five starts among his eight appearances this season, delivered three scoreless innings while striking out five batters. His effort helped stabilize the game and gave the Brewers an opportunity to rally for four runs against the New York Yankees bullpen after an impressive start from Cam Schlittler.

For Patrick, this was not the first time he has found success in a relief role, as he thrived out of the bullpen during last year’s postseason run. However, with the rain out in St. Louis and an off day on Monday, May 11, having both him and Harrison cover multiple innings over the weekend kept both of them on a normal schedule.

That said, while the Brewers have remained adamant that Patrick has not lost his place in the rotation, several underlying metrics suggest he may need time to regroup and make adjustments in order to rediscover consistency as a starter. With Woodruff set to return to the rotation in a few short weeks and Logan Henderson once again impressing, was this a foreshadowing of things to come?

Could a switch to the bullpen be in store for Chad Patrick when Brandon Woodruff returns?

On the surface, Patrick’s 3.15 ERA across 34.1 innings this season does not immediately raise concerns. However, he has consistently found himself pitching behind in counts and he has struggled to finish hitters off when in two-strike situations.

This season, Patrick has thrown a first-pitch strike just 55% of the time, a notable 10% drop from last year and roughly 6% below the MLB average. Unsurprisingly, hitters have taken advantage when ahead in the count, batting .343 against him in those situations. Interestingly, Patrick has still shown an ability to battle back into at-bats, but even then he has struggled to finish hitters off, as 17 of the 31 hits he has allowed this season have come in two-strike counts.

One reason for Patrick’s struggles when trying to put hitters away may stem from his fastball and sinker generating fewer whiffs compared to last season. Overall, opposing hitters have handled both pitches well, batting .290 against his four-seam fastball and .360 against his sinker. That production has resulted in both pitches carrying negative run values, something that is difficult to overcome for a consistently effective MLB starting pitcher.

Additionally, Patrick's addition of a "slurve," which he refers to as a curveball, hasn't led to the increase in success that he and the Brewers were hoping for. Without a strong secondary offering, Patrick becomes the one-dimensional pitcher who found success early last year and this year, but not in a sustainable way.

Combined with the possibility of Woodruff returning sooner rather than later and the emergence of Henderson as a legitimate rotation option, the Brewers could ultimately push Patrick back into a bullpen role -- a role in which he has previously thrived. Whether intentional or not, the Brewers may have hinted at that possibility by deploying him long-term out of the bullpen this weekend against the Yankees.

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