Brewers Not Yet Settled On Late-Game Bullpen Roles

The bullpen was again a strength for the Brewers in 2025, and closer Trevor Megill led the way with 30 saves, a 2.49 ERA over 49 innings, and an All-Star nod.  As well as Megill has pitched in the ninth-inning role over the last two seasons, however, manager Pat Murphy was non-committal on the topic of who his closer will be in 2026.

“I feel like we’ll look at the matchups and see what’s best. We’ll look at the health of the pitcher.  You might see other guys in that mix too,” Murphy told Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  While noting that it is still early in Spring Training for such decisions, Murphy hinted at more of a committee approach by saying “I mean, that’s kind of like the message to the whole Milwaukee Brewers team, right?  You have to be uncommon.  That’s an uncommon mindset for us to thread the needle the way we want to.”

Megill’s status might’ve been more secure if it hadn’t been for a right flexor strain that sent him to the injured list late last August.  Megill missed a little over a month of action and was able to return for one regular-season game before the postseason got underway, as well as five playoff appearances.  Megill had a 2.25 ERA over his four postseason innings, but as Rosiak notes, the Brewers used him in non-closing leverage roles.  This even included a perfect inning for Megill as the opener in the winner-take-all Game 5 of the NLDS. which ended up being a 3-1 Brewers victory over the Cubs.

While Megill was on the IL, fellow hard-throwing righty Abner Uribe stepped in to record five saves as the fill-in closer, adding to Uribe’s resume over a dominant season.  Uribe posted a 1.67 ERA, 53.2% grounder rate, 30.2% strikeout rate, and 9.1% strikeout rate over 75 1/3 innings and 75 appearances.  By comparison, Megill had a 2.49 ERA, 39.3% grounder rate, 31.3K%, and 8.9BB% across his 47 frames, and SIERA had the two pitchers as virtually equal — Uribe with a 2.89 and Megill with a 2.93.

Uribe’s 75 appearances tied him for the seventh-most games of any pitcher in 2025.  This durability could mean that Megill ultimately ends up closing more games, if Milwaukee returns to Uribe as a heavily-used reliever for all sorts of leverage or set-up situations.  The Brewers’ projected bullpen is unusually heavy on left-handed pitchers, so the right-handed Uribe and Megill could conceivably be used in more situational high-leverage scenarios, with a southpaw like Jared Koenig or Angel Zerpa deployed to lock down the ninth.

As of last week, Megill said he hadn’t heard anything about his role for the coming season.  While he felt “I think we can probably roll the same way we rolled last year,” Megill stressed that he is happy in whatever job the Brewers see fit, and praised his partnership with his friend Uribe as “a great dynamic.”  On the health front, Megill added that he had a PRP injection during the offseason to help address his right flexor.

The bigger-picture element of bullpen lineup is that Uribe may now be viewed as Milwaukee’s long-term closer of the future, if not the immediate present.  Uribe doesn’t turn 26 until June and he is under team control through the 2030 season.  Megill is entering his age-32 season and has one more year of arbitration eligibility before he hits free agency following the 2027 campaign.

Megill and the Brewers avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $4.7MM salary for the 2026 season.  It’s a healthy raise over the $1.94MM Megill earned in 2024, and reflective of how save totals can quickly boost a pitcher’s earning potential.  Arbitration panels favor traditional counting stats like wins, strikeouts, or (in a reliever’s case) saves ahead of advanced metrics, so consistent ninth-inning work usually leads to bigger paydays through a closer’s arb years.

The Brewers could be looking to curb Megill’s 2027 salary potential by limiting his save totals in 2026, though there is probably a better possibility that Megill’s future salaries will be another team’s problem.  The Brewers tend to trade higher-salaried players as they approach free agency, including past closers as Josh Hader and Devin Williams.  Megill’s first extended taste of closing work came in 2024 when Williams was sidelined with stress fractures in his back, and while Milwaukee was likely always going to be trading Williams during the 2024-25 offseason, Megill’s success as the stopper certainly made the front office’s decision easier.

Megill was involved in some trade rumors of his own this winter, as such teams as the Yankees and Mets were reportedly interested in acquiring the right-hander.  It’s not entirely out of the question that Megill is still dealt, which could be why the Brewers have been hesitant about naming a full-time closer.  While Opening Day is still over a month away, however, the fact that camp has already started probably lowers the chance of a Megill trade.  Moving your closer in Spring Training is far different than moving your closer at the trade deadline a la the Hader deal in 2022, but since trading Hader infamously disrupted the Brewers’ chemistry, the team is certainly more sensitive about how such transactions can shake up a clubhouse.

For Megill, he took the trade speculation in stride, saying “There’s always people calling and seeing what’s what.  I’m sure they’re still doing it.  But just knowing how the team is and the cycle of the closer here, you just see it more as business and it might happen at any time.  Just have to be OK with that and be a good teammate until it happens.”