As an all-star closer in 2025 and having saved 51 games over the previous two seasons, Trevor Megill has understandably become accustomed to and comfortable with pitching for the Milwaukee Brewers with the game on the line.
Imagine the change in perspective, then, when the right-hander entered in the sixth inning against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park on April 21.
Megill did his job, needing only eight pitches to log a 1-2-3 frame, an effort that also earned him his second hold.
Still …
“It’s definitely a different feeling,” Megill said. “It’s been a minute since I’ve done that.”
More than a minute, in fact.
Not counting the time he pitched the fourth inning in Milwaukee’s regular-season finale in 2025 – it was his first appearance after a month-long stint on the injured list – or the playoffs, where bullpen roles generally go out the window, Megill hadn’t pitched earlier than the seventh since the Brewers’ last regular-season game in 2023. That was his first year with the club and helped him revive his career.
It’s the situation Megill finds himself in as he continues to attempt to right the ship following a couple ugly ninth-inning blowups in the first few weeks.
It’s also the situation the Brewers bullpen finds itself in with roles no longer cemented as fellow high-leverage options Abner Uribe and Angel Zerpa have experienced some costly hiccups along the way as well.
“You get your little tests here and there, different situations for trust or whatever you want to call it,” Megill said. “So, it just kind of seems like we’re just running through some of these tests but also just trying to help the team win.
“So, I mean, it is what it is. And you can either be a little baby about it or just continue to get your work in.
“There’s money everywhere in the bullpen.”
Megill focused on putting up a zero
Since that April 21 outing Megill has pitched twice more, both times in the seventh inning, while running his string of consecutive appearances without an earned run allowed to five.
In Sunday’s 5-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates, Megill dug himself into a hole by surrendering a leadoff double and walking the next batter but extricated himself with a pair of strikeouts sandwiched around a weak fly ball.
Most noticeable? His fastball looked more like it did in 2024 and 2025, topping out at 99.1 mph with six more registering at least 98 in a 26-pitch outing that also featured six swings and misses.
“He doesn’t want to be in there in that inning,” manager Pat Murphy said. “You know what he wants. He’s earning his way back to it.”
What Megill wants, of course, is to get back to the ninth inning, where last year he saved a career-high 30 games while going 6-3 with a 2.49 earned run average, 1.13 WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) and 60 strikeouts over 47 innings (50 appearances).
In 2024 Megill saved the Brewers’ bacon, quite frankly, by saving 21 games in 24 opportunities when his decorated predecessor, Devin Williams, missed the first four months of the season with an injury.
For a guy who’d saved exactly zero games before 2024, and had bounced from the Chicago Cubs to the Minnesota Twins and then the Brewers since breaking into the majors in 2021, it was a heck of a two-year run to be sure.
“I feel like it’s people that can treat it like any other inning [who succeed]’,” Megill said. “That’s what’s helped me. Like, yes, it’s the ninth, but how do we put a zero up? That’s the main goal. It’s just being focused on a zero. And then you have the thought process of where not to leave baseballs.
“It’s that and the long ball are your two thoughts with closing.”
With Megill’s salary more than doubling to $4.7 million this past winter, the fact he was coming off a forearm strain that cost him a month at the end of the season and his turning 32 in December, it stood to reason the Brewers would shop him in the offseason – especially considering their future closer, Uribe, had just turned in an all-star-caliber year as a setup man.
But Megill was in Arizona when pitchers and catchers reported and exited camp once again as the primary closer. He converted his first save opportunity three games in, lost his first game a night later when he failed to maintain a tie in the ninth, then saved games on consecutive days in Kansas City before things went askew.
First, bad bunt defense was at the heart of a Megill meltdown in another tie game in the ninth, resulting in a loss to the Washington Nationals. Then, four days later he allowed three runs in the ninth to blow the save in an eventual 10-inning loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.
Both losses came at home, which predictably led to boos. That didn’t sit well with Murphy, who pointed to Megill’s track record but also opened the door to relying more on closer by committee.
Since then, Megill has pitched just once in a save situation and locked it down in a 10-inning win at Miami. Over his last five outings he’s locked up three holds and struck out seven while allowing only two hits, one unearned run and a walk in five innings.
“It is what you make it, to be honest,” Megill said of shifting in the bullpen pecking order. “Done it a few times in my career. So, it’s just wherever the work is, man. Just got to get the work in and pass the baton. Just kind of just doing what they’re telling me.
“I think all my stuff’s good. Everything feels just down a tick, but it’s all coming out how it should.”
Fastball velocity is down, but curveball is Megill’s wipeout pitch
Indeed, the drop in velocity on Megill’s fastball has caught everyone’s attention. After averaging a career-high 99.2 mph in 2025 he was sitting at 97.3, the lowest since his first year in the majors in 2021 but still in the 90th percentile in the majors.
“I don’t question his intent,” Murphy said about it. “His actual stuff isn’t as good as it’s been in the past, but I trust him. I’ve got no problem giving him the ball.”
“I think he’s thinking too much,” catcher William Contreras offered. “Trying to throw 100 again. But it’s a month. This is only the start. He’s doing his job. I think he’s going to be back soon.”
What does Megill say about it?
“I’m not concerned about the velo. Throughout the season it was 97-99, the whole season,” he said, referring to 2025. “I’d have ‘TV 100s’ because they round up .7s to 100. I mean, 98 is plenty to get it done. You’re also trying to throw 50-60 times a year, so being able to throw hard but also stay within yourself and not completely [expend] all your energy.
“In outing one of four in a week, there’s definitely a little bit of an art to that, too, with the reliever game.”
Murphy is fond of saying that major league hitters can time up a jet plane with a little bit of time, an adage Megill cosigns.
“Throwing 100 is cool and everything. But people can legitimately hit 110 up here if they saw it five times in a row,” he said. “I like the curveball. Just keep throwing it in good spots. A lot of what I didn’t like two weeks ago was my count leverage was not great – a lot of 2-1, 2-2, 1-0 counts.
“Just getting back to being 0-1, 1-2 has helped a lot.”
It’s interesting to note that while Megill’s fastball has drawn the lion’s share of discussion over the years, it’s his curveball that he considers to be the go-to offering of his two-pitch arsenal. This season he’s thrown his bender a career-high 42.9% of the time.
“I think the curveball’s probably always been my best pitch, since the second half of ’23,” he said. “I’ve been able to locate it pretty well this year and stretch it when I need to. We had the rough patch with Toronto but that’s pretty much the only time anything’s gotten weird.”
Otherwise, Megill has been good at getting chase (77th percentile) and whiff (82nd percentile) while inducing ground balls at a career-best 48.1% rate while hitters have been barreling him up frequently (23rd percentile) and hitting him hard even more so (28th percentile).
“I have total confidence in him,” Murphy said. “It’s about pitching, and I think he’s in a good spot.”
Megill, who’s as blunt as they come, knows it’s on him to continue to improve if he wants back in the ninth inning regularly.
“Just got to keep pitching well,” he said. “That’s how it is. You don’t like it, play better, right?”
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: ‘You don’t like it? Play better’. Trevor Megill working way back from ugly outings
Reporting by Todd Rosiak, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
