Much to the dismay of the Milwaukee Brewers players and fans, Josh Hader is now a San Diego Padre. Despite his departure from the team, Hader leaves behind a legacy as one of the most dominant relief pitchers in the 50+ year history of the team. Granted, there have not been many as the Brewers were one of the worst teams in all baseball for a few decades. That being said, the past 30 years have seen the Brewers develop some pretty good relief pitchers. Here, we will examine where Josh Hader ranks among them.
*Note: This is a list of how various relief pitchers played while with the Brewers. If it were a list of the best ever to appear with the Brewers, players like Trevor Hoffman and Eric Gagne would be on the list. As Hoffman was only effective for one of his two seasons with the team and Gagne was not that good at all as a Brewer, neither will be ranked here.
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How were the rankings determined?
It is easy to point to the number of years a player spent with a franchise and use that as a determining factor. However, for relief pitchers, a better metric is the number of games they pitched. The reason for this is that one can see how often any given pitcher contributed to the team’s success. Additionally, saves are not going to be held as big of a factor because not all relief pitchers are closers. All of the pitchers on this list were closers at one point, but some spent a great deal of their time with the Brewers as a middle reliever or set up man.
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1. Josh Hader is the best relief pitcher the Brewers have ever had
It was tough not to put Dan Plesac in this number one position. However, Hader spent one less season with the team, and while he appeared in far less games, his sheer dominance over the past five seasons is too hard to ignore.
As a member of the Milwaukee Brewers, Hader appeared in 270 games. He compiled a record of 18-17 and 125 saves, the second most in team history. Hader also ended his Brewers tenure with a 2.47 ERA and 0.89 WHIP. Of course, he also racked up three National League Reliever of the Year Awards and four All-Star appearances.
After owner Mark Attanasio told reporters that moving Hader had nothing to do with finances, one has to wonder why they moved him at all.
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2. Dan Plesac has the most saves in Brewers history
There are many who may want to place Dan Plesac in the top spot on this list. To be fair, it is tough to argue. Plesac was a relief pitcher/closer/starter on some pretty bad Milwaukee Brewers teams and does not get the recognition he deserves.
In seven seasons with the Brewers, Plesac appeared in 365 games and saved 133 them, the franchise record. He also compiled a record of 29-37 with an ERA of 3.21 and a WHIP of 1.23. Plesac made three straight All-Star games as a Brewer from 1987-1989. His most dominant stretch for the team was 1986-89 when he had a 19-19 record and 100 saves. In those four seasons, he also had a ERA of 2.63 and a WHIP of 1.12.
After two seasons with an ERA north of 4.00 in 1990 and 1991, Plesac settled nicely into a middle relief/spot starter role in 1992. That year, his last with the Brew Crew, he appeared in 44 games (four starts). Plesac finished the season with a 5-4 record, one save, an ERA of 2.96 and a WHIP of 1.25.
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3. Rollie Fingers is the only Brewers pitcher with his number retired
Of course, Rollie Fingers is best known for his days with the Oakland Athletics. However, the Hall of Fame reliever spent the last five seasons of his career with the Milwaukee Brewers. Many in Milwaukee (and outside of it) believe that had he not gotten hurt in 1982, the Brewers may have prevailed against the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.
Fingers first pitched for the Brewers in 1981 and had, arguably, the best season of his Hall of Fame career. That season, Fingers was 6-3, led all of MLB with 28 saves, and had a miniscule 1.04 ERA. He won both the American League Cy Young and MVP Award that season.
Overall, Fingers appeared in 177 games for the Milwaukee Brewers. Unfortunately, he missed the entire 1983 season due to the injury he suffered in 1982. In the four seasons in which he did pitch for Milwaukee, Fingers compiled a record of 13-17 and 97 saves. He also had an ERA of 2.54 and a WHIP of 1.08.
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4. Francisco “K-Rod” Rodriguez
While Francisco Rodriguez spent the prime years of his career with the Los Angeles Angels and New York Mets, his career saw a renaissance when he came to Milwaukee (both times). K-Rod first came to Milwaukee via trade with the New York Mets in 2011 as the Brewers made a deep playoff run for the first time since 1982.
In his first half season with the Brewers, K-Rod served as the setup man for closer John Axford, who had a 1.95 ERA and 46 saves that season. For his part, K-Rod had 4-0 record and 1.86 ERA in 31 games with the Brewers that season.
Overall, in parts of five seasons with Milwaukee, Rodriguez appeared in 263 games and recorded 95 saves. After departing Milwaukee via a trade to Baltimore in 2013, his production dwindled. At the time of the trade, K-Rod sported a 1.09 ERA and 10 saves in 25 games for the 2013 Brewers. After the trade, he posted a 4.50 ERA in 22 games with the Orioles.
As a result, K-Rod elected to come back to the Brewers as a free agent in 2014. 2014-2015 saw K-Rod set the franchise record for most saves in consecutive seasons with 82. He had 44 in 2014 and 38 in 2015. Rodriguez was named an All-Star in each season. The Brewers enshrined K-Rod on their Wall of Honor in September of 2021.
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5. Mike Fetters is the most underrated reliever in Brewers history
Talk about a pitcher who shined on bad teams! The Brewers of the early-min 1990s were, in a word, bad. They had just one winning season in Mike Fetters’ time with the team, and that was his first season in 1992 when they went 92-70. In the rest of his five seasons with Milwaukee, the team averaged 69 wins per season.
In six seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers, Fetters appeared in 289 games and recorded 79 saves. He had an overall record of 13-19 and 2.99 ERA to go with a 1.37 WHIP. To give an idea of how underrated he is in franchise history, Fetters finished his time in Milwaukee with an ERA+ of 155. This is a better ERA+ than Francisco Rodriguez (136), Rollie Fingers (150), and Dan Plesac (128) all had with the Brewers. Josh Hader, by the way, had an ERA+ of 173 with the Brewers.
While he made no All-Star teams and pitched on some really bad teams, Mike Fetters deserves a place on this list.
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