Brewers' postseason bullpen dominance must teach Yankees a lesson they already should know

In the wake of the Milwaukee Brewers' World Series victory, the baseball world is going to analyze what parts of the small-market club's strategy they can replicate moving forward. While the New York Yankees have a much larger budget, they'd be wise to break out their notebooks and learn some lessons, too.

One lesson that becomes readily apparent is just how valuable a dominant bullpen is. Miwaukee relievers combined for a 1.38 ERA and .173 batting against, the second-lowest marks in any single postseason, ever. The trio of Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby, and Trevor Megill were especially dominant, with Ashby logging an astonishing 18 scoreless innings throughout October after tossing 87 innings during the regular season, which was the second-highest innings total among all MLB relievers.

During the regular season, the Brewers' bullpen finished with the third-best ERA in the league at 3.40, directly behind the Yankees on the leaderboard. The difference is that Milwaukee relievers threw significantly more innings, 640 2/3 versus 574 1/3.

Having a back-end trio like what the Brewers had and having high-end relievers who can throw more than an inning at a time is a huge benefit. It shortens games. And it used to be New York's recipe for success during the dynasty years.

Once the Yankees' bridge to Mariano Rivera got shaky, the rings stopped coming. That clearly hasn't been the only issue over the past two decades, and there have been times since then when New York has had a solid bullpen, but there's no denying that shortening games helps a club win in the playoffs.

The Yankees need to take a page out of the Brewers' book and combine two strategies to fortify the bullpen

The way the Brewers built their 'pen has been through shrewd moves and an analytics-heavy approach. Ashby was a failed starter who they converted into a dominant relief ace. Abner Uribe signed for just $85,000 out of the Dominican Republic. Megill was waived by the Chicago Cubs, picked up by the Minnesota Twins, and then traded for minor league pitcher Taylor Floyd in 2023. Floyd is 28 and has yet to pitch above Double-A in his career.

There was a lot of coaching up done with this group, and it worked. The Yankees fortunately have a strong pitching program, headed by Matt Blake. The pitching part of the team has bought into analytics. The hitters, not so much.

New York has a couple of Brewers-like success stories under its belt with Paul Blackburn and Brent Headrick, but for every Blackburn or Headrick, there's a Camilo Doval or Jake Bird. There are still intriguing arms like Angel Chivilli that the Yankees can try to morph into high-leverage demons, but that can't be the only play. Even relying on Carlos Lagrange to come up and be Dellin Betances reincarnated isn't enough.

Blackburn is a free agent. So, too, is David Bednar. Those two must be retained, but more is needed. The Yankees saw Tim Hill turn into a pumpkin, and they'll be without Fernando Cruz, who couldn't iron-man it through a torn UCL. Even though the bullpen never completely fell apart in 2026, it was on the verge of crumbling multiple times, just as it had in 2025.

The Yankees aren't the Brewers. They have actual money they can spend, and they should invest heavily in the bullpen. That doesn't mean that they can't also follow the Brewers' lead and find intriguing arms, utilize data, and coach them up to maximize their full potential. By being analytically inclined but also fully leveraging their big-market advantage, New York can get back to being the premier team in MLB. Doing one or the other, though, will only result in getting beat.

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