Photo: Milwaukee Brewers - Twitter
Josh Hader April 17, 2022
Josh Hader after the April 17, 2022 game.
Josh Hader, the reigning National League Reliever of the Year, is off to a good start in his efforts to win that award for the fourth time in five seasons. Sunday night he notched his eighth save in eight appearances as the Brewers beat the Phillies 1-0 to clinch a series victory. He’s allowed just two hits and two walks across eight innings of work, and his manager recently said he’s having the best start to a career by a reliever in MLB history.
Statistically, Hader is the most unhittable pitcher in MLB history. He’s struck out more than 44% of the batters he’s faced as a big leaguer, 3% more than other elite relievers like Aroldis Chapman or Craig Kimbrel. He also allows hits significantly less often than those two (4.2 per nine innings for Hader, as compared to 5.0 for Kimbrel and 5.1 for Chapman). A change in the way the Brewers use him, however, has led to him seeing the mound less often.
From his MLB debut in 2017 through the 2019 season Hader’s role was part closer and part multi-inning super reliever. During his emergence as one of the game’s elite bullpen arms, the Brewers routinely asked him to get more than three outs at the end of games: In 2018 he recorded seven saves which required him to pitch in multiple innings, and he did it 15 times in 2019. His usage was something of a throwback to an earlier era of relief pitching: The only pitchers in Brewers’ franchise history with more multi-inning saves than Hader (Rollie Fingers, Dan Plesac, Ken Sanders, Chuck Crim and Tom Murphy) all got them 30 or more years ago.
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Following the 2019 season, however, Hader’s usage pattern made a significant shift. He only recorded four outs in one game in the abbreviated 2020 regular season and hasn’t done it a single time since. He’s pitched in a game before the ninth inning just three times in the last year: Once to attempt to close out a seven-inning doubleheader game on July 7 of last season, and twice in tune up outings for his final appearances of the 2021 regular season.
Limit: One Inning
The Brewers have been able to limit Hader to a one inning role at least in part due to the emergence of another dominant reliever: his reduced workload in 2020 correlated with the rise of Devin Williams, whose “airbender” changeup made him the National League Rookie and Reliever of the Year. With Williams dominating the eighth inning, the Brewers were less likely to need Hader early.
In theory, pitching shorter outings should make Hader available more often, but he’s been somewhat limited by game situations: In 2018 and 2019 as a multi-inning reliever and closer he appeared in 55 and 61 games, respectively. In 2021, now pitching exclusively single innings, he worked 60 times. After logging 81 1/3 and 75 2/3 innings in 2018 and 2019, he pitched just 58 2/3 in 2021. He was more dominant in 2021 than he’s ever been before (a 1.23 ERA, as compared to numbers in the mid-2’s in 2018 and 2019), but he also faced about 70 fewer batters.
Meanwhile, the eighth inning hasn’t been locked down for the Brewers in 2022 the way it was in 2020 and 2021. Twice already this season Williams has gotten into trouble and had to be lifted without finishing his inning. In games where fans would previously have seen Hader warming to come in and put out the fire, the Brewers instead turned to Brad Boxberger and Trevor Gott. On Friday the Brewers didn’t go to Williams at all, opting instead to ask for a third inning in relief from Aaron Ashby.
After walking six batters in a span of six outs earlier in April, Williams has since shown signs of being back on track. He logged clean eighth innings in wins on Saturday and Sunday and needed just 21 pitches to record those six outs. If he’s straightened out whatever caused his earlier control issues, then the Brewers’ reluctance to extend Hader’s outings could become something of a moot point. If Williams falters again, however, then the Brewers may be well served to consider asking Hader to occasionally venture outside the ninth inning.
