The Brewers are at a difficult point with Kyle Harrison. The postseason is just two weeks away and one of their most trusted arms for the majority of the season is going through a rough patch that has weakened the team’s ability to trust him when he’s out on the mound.
In the first half, Kyle Harrison looked untouchable, and was maybe even on pace to earn some Cy Young votes, though still well behind the ace of this Brewers staff, Jacob Misiorowski. Harrison had a 3.01 ERA and it was looking like
the Brewers had once again fleeced the Boston Red Sox for a quality starting pitcher.
Then, right before the All Star Break, Harrison landed on the IL with a bout of forearm tightness. He missed nearly a month and returned on August 5. Ever since returning, Harrison has not been the same.
The fastball, which generated elite movement and traits, lost some velocity but more importantly lost the vertical break and movement that made it so difficult for hitters to pick up. That has made him more reliant on secondary pitches, but those, especially his slurve, are most effective playing off the fastball. That combination has led to a lot of hard contact.
Over his last 7.1 IP, covering his last three outings, Harrison has allowed 23 hits and 17 earned runs. His ERA has jumped from 2.79 up to 3.98 for the season, more than a full run increase in just three games.
The Brewers, sensing that Harrison’s stuff had fallen off and he was not the same pitcher he was prior to the IL stint, tried to move him to the bullpen to keep him in shorter stints, protect him, and perhaps help the stuff tick up knowing he didn’t have to empty the tank for 80-100 pitches.
At least for the first bullpen outing, that plan didn’t work. On Saturday against the Reds, Harrison came out of the bullpen for the 8th inning with a 13-5 lead, a more than comfortable lead and low-leverage situation that should build confidence and give him some runway to work through problems. However, Harrison ran out of runway quickly.
The velocity ticked back up and was sitting 96-97 MPH for most of his outing, but the location and movement was still lacking and Harrison left a couple fastballs right down the middle and they were hit hard. He was able to generate some soft contact, but those balls fell and in four batters faced, all four batters reached base. Pat Murphy had to pull the plug.
“Look, Harry, we’ll get this straight. This will happen. You’re going through a rough patch, we’ll get it straight. I mean, he gave up two balls off the fist, he did give up two hard contacts with misplaced pitches, but we’ll get it straight.” Pat Murphy said of what he told Harrison after the outing.
Murphy still has confidence in Harrison, and pitchers certainly do go through rough patches. Though this is certainly a tough time to be going through one as Murphy has to evaluate his trust tree as he gets ready for a postseason run. Having one less pitcher you can trust puts the Brewers in a far more difficult position.
They do have some time to get him through this rough patch and figure things out, but not a lot of time. The move to the bullpen signifies that he’s not likely to be a length starter when it comes to a postseason series, nor should he be at this point. It’s hard to fathom almost considering how he looked in the first half of the season.
“It could point to a little bit of fatigue. It could be a delivery issue. It’s hard. It’s very, very, very hard. A basketball 3-point shooter, if all of a sudden he’s not hitting a shot, everybody goes into like ‘what is it?’ And then you find a little thing in the mechanics and maybe that’s really not it, but it’s an outgrowth of maybe a lack of confidence, and it affects your physical a little bit. So I think you got to suggest some things, you got to work through some things, and he’s got to get himself through it.” Murphy said.
As for where the Brewers go from here, an option down to Triple-A to figure things out appears to be off the table. The minor league season is ending soon and Harrison is in a far different situation than Brandon Sproat, who also struggled out of the bullpen when the Brewers were trying to find a way to make him effective. Plus Murph’s vote of confidence that they’ll straighten things out would lead one to believe they will stick with him.
The most likely answer is that Harrison continues in the bullpen, trying to find him some mop up duty in low leverage to build some confidence, especially while Bryse Wilson is still trying to come back from his back strain. Perhaps there could be some shorter starts, working in tandem with someone like Chad Patrick to make it through six innings or so with those two guys.
Pitching coaches Chris Hook and Jim Henderson will continue to work with him and suggest some things and try to straighten things out. Even if they can’t get his fastball back to what it looked like pre-injury during this final stretch run, they can try to come up with some way to mix and match his arsenal to make him more effective. There’s two weeks left for the Brewers to determine how much they can trust Harrison before October comes around. If he can’t prove he’s trustworthy heading into October, there’s a good chance Harrison will get left off the postseason roster(s).
