Return of key rotation piece results in demotion of struggling reliever

While the Milwaukee Brewers starting rotation isn't quite back to full strength, it officially received a highly anticipated boost this morning. Tobias Myers, who missed the first four weeks of the season after going down with an oblique strain in spring training, is back on the roster and set to start in this afternoon's series finale with the San Francisco Giants.

Myers had an unexpected breakout season in 2024 after spending eight years in the minor leagues. Everything clicked for the right-hander when he joined the Brewers organization, and in his rookie season last year, he posted a 3.00 ERA across 25 starts. Myers even started game three of the Brewers' Wild Card Series against the New York Mets, a game in which he threw five scoreless innings and struck out five opposing batters.

Hopefully, Myers can offer some stability to a rotation that has been anything but to start the season. However, despite having to piece together their starting staff to begin the 2025 season, the Brewers rank second in MLB with a starting pitcher ERA of 2.34 in the month of April. Myers, who joins Freddy Peralta, José Quintana, Chad Patrick, and Quinn Priester in the Brewers rotation, should help to lower that number even farther as he adds the promise of quality innings to the Brewers pitching staff.

Tobias Myers' return sends Bryan Hudson to Triple-A in corresponding roster move

It was expected that the Brewers, who carried just four starting pitchers on their roster before Myers' reinstatement, would part with a reliever to make room for the second-year starter, and the clear option was the struggling Bryan Hudson. The Brewers could have opted to part ways with Joel Payamps, who is also off to a slow start in 2025, but with Payamps out of minor league options and Hudson still with one remaining, the latter was the clear choice.

Through 8.2 innings of work this season, Hudson has posted a 4.15 ERA, but his underlying metrics tell an even bleaker story. Hudson's walk rate is up from 7.4% in 2024 to a staggering 20.7% this season, and he's paired it with a lower strikeout rate and a higher hard-hit rate. The deceptive motion that made Hudson so successful in 2024 is far less effective when he isn't spotting the ball where he wants it.

Hudson will almost certainly be back on the major league roster at some point this season, and might even be called on to cover high-leverage innings. A few weeks in Triple-A Nashville should help him get back on track and give him the freedom to focus on the changes he needs to make to return to the reliever he was in the first half of 2024.