Brewers fans are livid seeing Josh Hader's run after he limited himself in Milwaukee

Given Josh Hader's rough start to the 2024 season with the Astros, Milwaukee Brewers fans were pumping their fist and glad that the Brewers didn't sign him to a long-term deal. Hader's tenure was complicated in that he was truly awesome while he was the best reliever in baseball from 2017-2021 while posting a 2.26 ERA and striking out 15.4 batters per nine innings.

However, Hader's relationship with the organization soured during arbitration and he famously refused to throw multiple innings at a time in the wake of those arbitration decisions.

This put Brewers fans in two camps: those that wish that the Brewers would have valued Hader more highly and not poison that relationship to the point where he felt like he had to make rules for himself and those who just wanted Hader to suck it up and do his job no matter how many innings, regardless of his treatment in arbitration.

Even now when Hader hasn't thrown a pitch for Milwaukee since 2022, Brewers fans are still seething as they have been forced to watch Hader bounce back this season while throwing multi-inning appearances now that the Astros went out and gave him his mega-deal.

Former Brewers closer Josh Hader is back on track with the Astros

Just in the month of May, Hader has gone more than an inning three times and has given up a total of one hit in those appearances while still striking out ... everybody. This newfound willingness to go longer was the impetus for Olney's story explaining why things have changed now, but that didn't stop some Brewers fans from being in their feelings.

Hader is a pretty extreme example of the contention that arbitration can cause and it is certainly fair to say that he could have handled things better, but this isn't exactly the first time that the Brewers' hardline stance against arbitration guys has caused problems.

Corbin Burnes was thoroughly infuriated with how he was treated in arbitration by Milwaukee and ended any hope of a long-term relationship with him, too.

At the end of the day, Hader is gone and he got the contract and financial security he wanted and now is more willing to throw more as a result. Fans can long for the day when teams can use players however they want and try to lowball them at every opportunity all they want, but the fact remains that players like Hader are going to start looking out for themselves more if you treat them like that. Unfortunately, the Brewers have been among the worst culprits.

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