MILWAUKEE -- No, the Brewers don¡¯t grow relief pitchers on trees.
It only seems that way sometimes.
The latest out-of-nowhere fireman to emerge for Milwaukee is 27-year-old, sidearming right-hander Grant Anderson, who has ascended to high-leverage work in a bullpen that recently has ranked among baseball¡¯s best. Last year, it produced Jared Koenig and Bryan Hudson when nobody saw them coming. Before that, Trevor Megill and Hoby Milner.
This year, it¡¯s Anderson who has grabbed an opportunity and ran with it the way he did in Saturday¡¯s 3-1 loss to the A¡¯s at American Family Field, when he needed only 12 pitches to breeze through a scoreless seventh inning, even with a walk mixed in. The regularity of outings like that, even in close-and-late situations, has been to the surprise of many, including manager Pat Murphy.
¡°Honestly, I didn¡¯t have him on any piece of paper I was writing on out of Spring Training,¡± said Murphy, who is known for filling his desk calendar, his portable day planner and 5x7 index cards with copious notes as ideas fill his head.
¡°I know I didn¡¯t impress Pat at all,¡± Anderson said.
Barely three weeks into the regular season, all of that has changed.
¡°I was wrong,¡± Murphy said. ¡°And I love being wrong in these situations because this is what our organization does. It goes out and gets these people who -- you might not see it right away -- but you¡¯ve got a guy that I trust to put in there any time.¡±
In Anderson, Murphy definitely didn¡¯t see it right away. A onetime catcher who converted to sidearm pitcher at McNeese State University in Louisiana, Anderson had a 6.35 ERA over two seasons with Texas before the Brewers acquired him in a January trade for Minor Leaguer Mason Molina after Anderson had been designated for assignment.
He reported to Spring Training as a project for Milwaukee¡¯s vaunted pitching development system, learned a new slider grip and changed the position of his feet on the mound. And then he struggled to command the new movement on his pitches.
It didn¡¯t look good early on. Anderson walked seven batters in 6 2/3 Cactus League innings and gave up six runs on seven hits including a pair of home runs. But in a live batting practice session on a back field one day, he finally corralled his new stuff.
¡°I know camp wasn¡¯t the best for me,¡± Anderson said, ¡°but they set me up with the tools to be successful. Credit to Pat, he puts me in situations to be successful.¡±
¡°You can¡¯t help but have confidence in him,¡± Murphy said. ¡°He throws strikes, he moves quickly, he¡¯s getting out lefties.¡±
As a result, Anderson is pitching a lot. On Saturday, in a mostly forgettable game for the Brewers thanks to the dominance of A¡¯s starter Luis Severino (eight innings, three hits, one run) and Mason Miller (sixth save, 0.00 ERA), Anderson pitched for the fifth time in seven days.
As Anderson sees it, a higher power put him in the right place to unlock something new in his eighth professional season. He loved working with pitching coach Mike Maddux in Texas and they remain close ¨C Maddux sent Anderson a text on Saturday ¨C but that staff was populated by veteran pitchers like Jacob deGrom and Nathan Eovaldi, who know what they need to do mechanically. With the Brewers, Anderson says he found a fresh start.
At first, Anderson was hesitant to the changes being suggested. For a pitcher who has just been DFA¡¯d, making wholesale mechanical changes can be daunting, because ¡°you either have to ¡®show up¡¯ or go home,¡± Anderson said. It was his wife, Kristan, who pointed to some of the Brewers¡¯ recent pitching success stories and convinced him to go for it. The result is a slider that ranks in the 94th percentile of run value, according to Statcast.
¡°God put me in front of these guys, put me where I needed to be,¡± Anderson said.
On the other end of the spectrum is veteran right-hander Joel Payamps, who has been a mainstay of Milwaukee¡¯s late-inning mix since he came to the Brewers from the A¡¯s in the three-team trade that also landed catcher William Contreras from the Braves. With Payamps pitching for the first time in a week on Saturday, A¡¯s catcher Shea Langeliers greeted him with a home run.
With Payamps sitting on a 17.55 ERA through nine outings and Hudson struggling recently to find the strike zone, the Brewers essentially are down two high-leverage options at the moment.
¡°His confidence is shaken,¡± Murphy said about Payamps. ¡°We thought this was a good confidence-builder for him. He gave up a big hit again. That¡¯s concerning.¡±