Last season the Brewers were tied for second in the majors with 31 blown saves (Tampa Bay topped the list with 36). Over the past two seasons, the Crew tops the majors with a total of 60 blown saves.
Some off-season moves to address blown saves
It appears that some of the decisions in the off-season have been made to address some of those bullpen issues. Consider this:
- Of the 60 blown saves in the last two seasons, Brad Boxberger and Brent Suter accounted for 20 of those blown saves. Both were not resigned by the Brewers for 2023 (Boxberger signed with the Cubs; Suter with the Rockies).
- Taylor Rogers, who the Brewers received in the Josh Hader deal with San Diego and was expected to shore up the back end of the bullpen, lasted less than a season with Milwaukee. He signed with the San Francisco Giants this off season. He was fourth on the team with three blown saves in 2022.
- Of the 60 blown saves in the last two seasons, pitchers on the Brewers 2023 40-man roster accounted for just 18 of those blown saves. Devin Williams had five blown saves over the past two seasons while Matt Bush had four. Both are still on the Brewers pitching staff. That means that pitchers accounting for 42 of the 60 blown saves in the past two years are no longer with the team.
- In the last two seasons, two of the five players who had the most blown saves in the majors had time with the Brewers: Boxberger and Rogers. St. Louis’ Giovanny Gallegos topped the list with 14 blown saves from 2021-22, tied with Taylor Rogers. Boxberger, Kenley Jansen, and Emilio Pagan were tied for third with 12 blown saves each the last two seasons.
- Seven MLB pitchers had seven or more blown saves last season. Three of the seven spent time with Milwaukee last season: Rogers, who had 10 blown saves to lead the majors last season, Boxberger, and Bush each with seven. Again, Rogers and Boxberger are no longer with the team.
Brewers have second-most blown saves in Counsell’s era
Craig Counsell has been at the helm of the Brewers since 2016. During his tenure with the Brewers, blown saves have been an issue. So much so that from 2016-22, the Brewers bullpen had the second-most blown saves with 168, just one blown save behind the San Francisco Giants.
The flip side of that equation is that Milwaukee also had the most saves from 2016-22 with 309, five more than the Los Angeles Dodgers.
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