If the Brewers are going to make another serious October push, the bullpen is built to be right in the middle of it again.
That’s been the story before in Milwaukee. In 2011, the relief group stumbled to a 4.20 postseason ERA.
By 2018, it had tightened all the way to 2.67, and a year ago it got even sharper, finishing with a 1.80 ERA. The faces changed from run to run - John Axford and Francisco Rodríguez in 2011, Corey Knebel, Josh Hader and Jeremy Jeffress in 2018, then Trevor Megill, Abner Uribe, Chad Patrick and Jacob Misiorowski last year - but the formula stayed the same.
The Brewers kept finding a bullpen good enough to carry real weight in October.
That’s still the case in 2026, and maybe more so than a year ago.
Misiorowski is no longer part of that relief picture in the same way. He’s moved into the ace role and has become the front-runner for the National League Cy Young Award. But the rest of the 2025 group is back, and the overall outlook around Milwaukee’s pitching staff looks even stronger now.
Manager Pat Murphy has the kind of bullpen mix every club wants this time of year: right-handers, left-handers, multi-inning arms and one-inning specialists. Megill, Uribe and Patrick are still central pieces, and the Brewers also have more right-handed depth available, with Antonio Senzatela and possibly Grant Anderson in the mix depending on how the playoff roster comes together. On the left side, Aaron Ashby, JoJo Romero, Shane Drohan, DL Hall and maybe Kyle Harrison give Murphy plenty of ways to match up.
The biggest change is at the back end. Megill is healthy now, which matters.
A year ago, a flexor strain knocked him out for all of September, and Uribe handled the save chances in the postseason. This time, Megill has been available and steady, converting his last 20 save opportunities in a row.
His last blown save came on June 5 against the Colorado Rockies.
Ashby is also throwing the ball better than he was a year ago, and Uribe hasn’t missed a beat since coming off the injured list on August 31. Behind them, Patrick and Drohan have given the Brewers legitimate long-relief options, each settling into clear roles while putting up ERAs of 3.27 and 1.65 as relievers.
The timing couldn’t be much better. Milwaukee’s bullpen has posted an MLB-best 2.22 ERA in August, a strong sign that this group is hitting its stride at exactly the right moment. Between the health, the depth and the flexibility, Murphy has a lot to work with when the games get tight.
In Other News...
Pat Murphy Sends A Clear Message With Brewers Lineup Choice
The Brewers are back at it against the Orioles on Wednesday afternoon, and Pat Murphy is taking a deliberate approach as Milwaukee turns to left-hander Robert Gasser for the second game of the series. Trevor Rogers will start for Baltimore, but the more notable development for the Brewers is the lineup Murphy chose, one that gives several regulars a breather while the club tries to manage the stretch run with a little more intention.
It is the kind of move that says plenty about where a manager thinks his team is right now, especially with a 3:05 p.m. first pitch on the schedule and the game set for Brewers.TV, WTMJ 620, and the Brewers Radio Network. The rest day signals Murphy is thinking beyond just one matchup, even if the immediate question is how Milwaukees adjusted lineup will hold up in a game the Brewers still want to win. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Suddenly Have An October Pitching Call They Can't Avoid
The Brewers spent part of the week huddled with Pat Murphy and the pitching staff, looking ahead to the last stretch of the regular season and the roster choices that come with October. Even with the postseason race settling into focus, there is still real work to do on the mound, and recent bumps from Dustin May and Kyle Harrison have made the conversation more complicated than a routine September tuneup.
May said he feels fine physically but has had trouble with execution, which is the kind of detail that can linger when the games start mattering more. Milwaukee is also weighing who gets the ball in the final series and how the NLDS pitching group should be shaped, with a 12-pitcher, 14-position player setup like last year among the possibilities. For a club trying to line up its best arms at the right time, the decisions in front of Murphy and his coaches are the sort that can define a month. [Read more 🡒]
Brewers Have One Playoff Concern Fans Cant Ignore
The Brewers have spent the season answering almost every question with wins, and with eight games left before the playoffs they are on the verge of matching a franchise record while sitting atop baseball. Even with that kind of overall success, the way they have built their offense stands out as one of the more unusual profiles in the league, because they have scored the second-most runs without leaning on the long ball nearly as much as anyone else.
Milwaukee has made small ball work during the regular season, but October tends to ask different questions, especially when pitching gets sharper and mistakes get scarcer. The concern is not whether the Brewers can create runs over 162 games, but whether an offense that has lived on contact and movement can keep producing when postseason games often turn on one swing. [Read more 🡒]