Milwaukee Brewers: Addition of Alex Wilson is paying off

At the end of Spring Training, the Milwaukee Brewers signed relief pitcher Alex Wilson and while it is still early in the season, it has paid off up to this point.

As Spring Training was winding down, it became quite evident that the Milwaukee Brewers were going to need to make a move or two to add to their bullpen. While bringing in Alex Wilson wasn’t the relief pitcher fans were waiting for, he has pitched well during his short time as a Brewer.

Wilson was acquired about a week before Opening Day after he was cut by the Cleveland Indians. The Milwaukee Brewers signed him to a one year, $750,000 deal, with bonuses based on performance. With little time to adjust to his new team, Wilson has been thrown into the fire and has shown that he can play an important role for the Brewers.

He began his big league career back in 2013 with the Boston Red Sox but has spent most of it in Detroit before he was let go after the 2018 season and eventually joined Cleveland for Spring Training. Over his career, Wilson has accumulated a 3.32 ERA in 328.1 innings pitched and a 1.200 WHIP.

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For a relief pitcher, Wilson has a large repertoire of five pitches that he uses, but he relies primarily on his four-seam fastball that tops out around 93 mph, a slider with glove side cut, and a cutter with heavy sinking action. After struggling through portions of the 2018 season, Wilson and the Tigers’ staff decided that he should utilize his cutter much more, ala Wade Miley and he has been much more successful.

If you’re checking box scores, Wilson’s numbers aren’t going to impress you this season. In just 8.2 innings pitched, Wilson has an 8.31 ERA, a WHIP of 1.96 and has allowed eight earned runs. However, this doesn’t tell the whole story. Six of the eight runs given up came in one outing against the Chicago Cubs, otherwise, he has seven scoreless appearances and has allowed just two runs in the other 8.1 innings of work. Wilson has also struck out 12 batters this year already, which is at a much higher rate than he has done over his career.

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With Corey Knebel out for the season and Jeremy Jeffress injured and a bit of an unknown at this point, this Brewers’ bullpen isn’t going to be the same force that it was in 2018. So others are going to have to step up and successfully fill the relief pitcher role in high leverage situations. And while his time in Milwaukee has been short, Wilson has shown that he can be that guy.

Wilson isn’t going to overpower anyone and he may not be the next member of the “Electric Dudes”, but he will do his job.

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