Brandon Sproat’s latest shot in the majors may have answered one question pretty quickly: moving him to the bullpen doesn’t automatically solve the problem.
Pat Murphy gave the former starter a simple assignment Wednesday night in his return from last month’s demotion to Triple-A - get the final six outs with the Brewers up seven on the Cubs. Instead, Sproat got only four of them, and the inning turned messy in a hurry. He walked four batters, hit one more, and before long Abner Uribe was summoned to face pinch-hitter BJ Murray with the tying run at the plate and Pete Crow-Armstrong waiting on deck.
Uribe struck out Murray, and the Brewers finished off a three-game sweep. Even with that result, Murphy’s mood afterward was far from clean victory lap territory. Milwaukee had built the lead by scoring six early runs against Kevin Gausman, then stalled, and Sproat’s outing nearly dragged the night into dangerous territory.
“It’s unacceptable,” Murphy said. “You’ve got to throw the ball over the plate to be a major-league pitcher.”
That kind of control trouble has been hanging over Sproat for a while. Before his demotion, he walked 11.6% of the hitters he faced.
In Nashville, the issue got worse: a 12.8% walk rate and just 42% of his pitches in the strike zone. The stuff still played.
He struck out 34.6% of opponents and posted a 3.18 xERA against less disciplined hitters. But the underlying problem never changed.
The Brewers and their development staff tried to simplify things in Nashville, leaning more on Sproat’s straight four-seamer and dialing back the new cutter, which had produced the worst run value of any pitch in his mix this year. In his two-inning relief appearance before the call-up, 67% of his pitches were four-seamers or curveballs. The idea was basic: keep the sequence vertical, trust the two best pitches, and make life easier on the arm and the mind.
That sort of reset has worked for other pitchers who moved from the rotation to the bullpen, and Milwaukee has recently seen it click with Chad Patrick and Shane Drohan.
But Sproat’s bigger issue isn’t just pitch selection. It’s what happens when the inning starts slipping away.
He has shown flashes of dominance in nearly every start, but one bad stretch can turn into a disaster, and he has struggled to regain control once things go sideways. Wednesday fit that pattern.
He opened the inning by walking Pete Crow-Armstrong on eight pitches. Then came the moment that really let the inning spill loose: Sproat tried to pick off Crow-Armstrong in a spot where every team would have simply given him second base on defensive indifference. Andrew Vaughn wasn’t holding the runner, and the throw sailed into foul territory.
After that, the inning unraveled fast. A wild pitch came during a five-pitch walk.
Then another walk loaded the bases. Alex Bregman struck out, but a run-scoring walk followed anyway.
“I knew he was nervous,” Murphy said. “No matter what, you can’t let it snowball like that.”
William Contreras also pointed to the same issue.
“It’s a game of highs and lows,” Contreras said. “I don’t know if he’s out there trying to do more than what he is.
We all know who he is in this room. We’ve seen plenty of him this season.
He’s helped us this season. But it’s a hard game whenever you’re trying to do more than maybe what you’re capable of.”
For now, Sproat is likely headed back to Nashville, with a fresh arm coming in to take his place. His upside still keeps him in the conversation for a postseason roster spot, but that path won’t open unless he shows he can stay composed and make adjustments in the middle of an outing. Time is running short for him to prove that in 2026.
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