It's been a fascinating Milwaukee Brewers season for a litany of reasons, which have shifted dramatically over 150+ games. For most of the season, Milwaukee was an elite defensive team with one of the most dominant bullpens in the league, smothering opposing teams and squeaking by with wins in low-scoring affairs through the merits of their defense and pitching.
As of late, the winning formula has turned in the complete opposite direction, with the bullpen starting to fall apart between injuries, wear-and-tear, waning confidence, and more, while the offense is operating at a level we haven't seen yet this year.
Although the season-long stats tell us that Milwaukee remains elite both offensively and defensively, the Brewers only have two remaining starting pitchers whom they can undoubtedly rely on: the whiz kid himself, Jacob Misiorowski, and rising star Logan Henderson. Now that Kyle Harrison's season has officially fallen apart and Dustin May is having a hard time finding his footing, the starting rotation for the Brewers is as unsure of itself as we've seen yet this year.
And yet through it all, the Brewers' stars on offense are picking up the slack and pushing the franchise closer to the most wins they've ever had in a regular season, leaving Milwaukee with an influx of confidence and a puzzling conundrum all at once.
The Milwaukee Brewers are still a legitimate force in the MLB Playoffs, but it might look a little different from what we expected.
Through their first 12 games of September, the Brewers are yielding five runs per game to opposing teams — the most of any month this season, after giving up about 3.8 runs per game in August. Their 4.75 ERA in September would rank as the fourth-worst ERA of any team this season, and the bullpen rotation doesn't seem any closer to being solidified with 12 games left in the slate.
On the flip side of the same coin, Milwaukee is having its best offensive stretch of the 2026 campaign, averaging seven runs per game in September to the tune of an 8-4 record thus far. Their offense has come alive, led largely by a superstar-caliber month from outfielder Jackson Chourio, along with All-Star-level output from William Contreras and a full lineup of firepower locked in for the postseason push.
The Milwaukee Brewers are not a perfect team, and despite holding the best record in baseball for most of the year, they never have been. This is part of what makes them so charming and makes Pat Murphy such an obvious contender for a record-setting third straight Manager of the Year honor in 2026.
Regardless, it's rare that the makeup of a team can change so swiftly, but if the Brewers can just manage to figure out their bullpen rotation before it's too late, there's still hope that this team can go all the way for the first time in franchise history, and that's not a responsibility they'll take lightly.
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