Top Brewers reliever Devin Williams will not be on the Brewers’ Wild Card Series roster due to a yet-unspecified arm issue, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (via Twitter). Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel tweets that Williams is dealing with shoulder soreness that isn’t considered a major issue but is enough to keep him from participating in this three-game series. It’s a massive blow for a Brewers club that was already considered a sizable underdog to the top-seeded Dodgers.
Williams, 26, posted an explosive rookie season during which he recorded a 0.33 ERA and 0.86 FIP with a ridiculous 17.7 K/9 against 3.0 BB/9 through 27 frames. Williams struck out 53 percent of the batters he faced on the year.
The Brewers formally announced their roster just minutes after Passan’s report, confirming Williams’ absence. Here’s how it breaks down:
Right-Handed Pitchers
- Ray Black
- Adrian Houser
- Corey Knebel
- Josh Lindblom
- Freddy Peralta
- Drew Rasmussen
- Justin Topa
- Brandon Woodruff
- Eric Yardley
Left-Handed Pitchers
Catchers
Infielders
Outfielders
Milwaukee’s roster also omits southpaw Brett Anderson, who dealt with a blister on his pitching hand late in the season, leaving them with just 12 arms on which to rely. That’s a bit surprising in today’s game, particularly for a Brewers club that lacks a defined rotation picture behind right-hander Brandon Woodruff.
Major blow to already slim chances to beat LA. One of the best if not the best reliever in the game this year.
Probably the most dominate pitcher overall this season. That’s four high leverage innings the Brewers just lost. Knebel and whoever is up next (Peralta?) now has to carry the weight.
His 2020 season had the highest K% in baseball history.
Beyond that, how many guys have ever had WHIP+ERA that is less than 1? Possibly nobody.
OK, I had to look. The closest I could find in the last 100 years was Jobba Chamberlain’s rookie year. He had 1.13 (WHIP+ERA), but he pitched in even fewer games and fewer innings than Williams did in 2020.
The closest full season is Dennis Eckersley’s 1990 season in which he had a 0.61 ERA and 0.614 WHIP for a combined total of 1.22.
So Williams is the first player in baseball history with 25+ IP and WHIP+ERA less than 1. I realize it’s not a great metric, since ERA for a reliever is not the greatest measure and at this level it’s so granular. But still… it seemed cool to me.
Brewers should trade Hader for a massive haul and make Williams the closer next year
This is a huge break for the Dodgers. That bullpen is what made me nervous about this series.
Hader to Yankees for Judge, Sanchez, Andujar.
no
Hader to the cardinals for a country fried steak?…
Absolutely. Their top two in the rotation isn’t exactly shabby either. The Brewers would have been dangerous in the irregular season if they could score some runs.
This has nothing to do with DW, but MLB has this format all screwed up and WRONG. So if the Dodgers beat MIL, they only get credit for being the top seed for this series only. They automatically have to play the winner of 4-5 series instead of playing the lowest seed left may it be Cincy or Miami. That’s BS.
Although I am not opposed by this idea, MLB seeded the postseason like the NCAA tourney does and many other postseasons. You are talking about reseeding after each or at least the first round which doesn’t happen in many post season tournaments.
I don’t care what other sports do, it’s still wrong to penalize the higher seeds. They’re all going to basically the same areas of the country for the next rounds. It’s just stupid on whoever set it up this way when it’s simple to do it right.
Brewpack don’t get greedy trade him now or get nothing significant for him. Don’t be like the Rangers demanding so much for Lynn.
who is “him”, Williams? Why on earth would they trade Williams? Or do you mean Hader?
well they can suck it up. if they’re really WS caliber then it shouldnt matter who they face.
Ok so with a short series and if Williams was able to go would anyone consider using Hader as an opener ?
I wouldn’t use him as an opener, but I’d consider using him second out of the pen if it was game three and he could go three innings. You go with a starter and hope he can go three or four and shorten the game for the relief, I wouldn’t just go straight to Hader.
Wow what a blow to the Brewers. Lost their best SP and RP.