Brewers Open to Starting Zerpa, Not Just Swinging a Reliever Role
The Brewers completed a three-player swap with the Royals, sending Isaac Collins and Nick Mears to Kansas City in exchange for left-hander Angel Zerpa. Milwaukee baseball operations leader Matt Arnold shared details with Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, revealing an intriguing possibility: Zerpa could be pitched as a starter again, not just as a bullpen piece.
“We have some scouts who believe he can do it. He has done it in the past,” Arnold said, highlighting Zerpa’s prior starting experience and the valuable postseason résumé he brings. “This guy also has postseason experience, which we obviously value a lot. Having a guy with that kind of versatility and big-game experience is something we think will really help us.”
In recent years, teams have grown more comfortable reimagining traditional pitching roles. The idea of stretching a reliever into a starter—sometimes even a career reliever—has gained traction as clubs seek versatility and longer workloads. The underlying goal isn’t necessarily to push a reliever into a seven-inning, dominant-starting role, but to find an effective middle ground: a starter who can handle more innings than a typical opener while remaining adaptable to a bullpen-plus-starting hybrid usage.
Zerpa’s arc fits this narrative. He began his pro career as a starter and appeared in the rotation in three of his first four major league appearances (2021–22). Since 2023, though, he has mostly worked out of the Royals’ bullpen, starting only three of 15 appearances and logging 118 1/3 innings with a 4.03 ERA in 2024–25. His split results show right-handed hitters have had more success against him, even as he largely dominated left-handed batters. His fastball sits around 96 mph, with the four-seamer lacking consistency recently and the sinker serving as his best heater. The slider accounted for nearly 45% of his usage in 2025, followed by the changeup and four-seam usage.
To make the jump back to starting, Zerpa may need to diversify his arsenal—perhaps leaning more on a changeup to complement his fastball and curveball or adjust his sequencing to keep hitters off balance. As Hogg noted, broadening his changeup usage could be key to unlocking more effective innings as a starter.
Even if Zerpa ends up remaining in a bullpen role, Milwaukee’s confidence in his overall potential is meaningful. The Brewers have a track record of converting lesser-known arms into dependable starters or high-leverage relievers, a pattern that has contributed to the franchise’s stability and depth over the past decade. The organization’s coaching staff has a reputation for uncovering hidden upside in pitchers, which makes the Zerpa evaluation feel more promising than it might on the surface.
Arnold emphasized that this move was pursued with purpose: Milwaukee had been targeting Zerpa for some time and viewed him as a strong asset with the right ingredients. “I think that our group felt like this was a really strong arm to access with really, really good ingredients. We’re very excited to get him with our coaches who have done a great job tapping into arms like this for a number of years.”
Financially, Zerpa is arbitration-eligible for the first time this offseason and is controlled through 2028. With an estimated first-year arbitration salary around $1.2 million, he represents a cost-efficient component whether used in the bullpen or converted to a starter. If he makes the leap to a regular rotation role, he could prove to be an excellent value under Milwaukee’s control window.
On the roster front, Milwaukee’s healthy rotation depth is a factor. Freddy Peralta, Brandon Woodruff, and Quinn Priester form a core of potential starters, with additional candidates such as Chad Patrick, Jacob Misiorowski, Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser, Carlos Rodriguez, and Tobias Myers providing further depth. The Brewers’ depth chart suggests a “you can never have too much pitching” philosophy, a hedge against inevitable injuries and the looming contractual dynamics as Woodruff and Peralta approach free agency next winter. With Peralta’s name still circulating in trade discussions, Milwaukee could face a sudden rotation gap if deals emerge during the offseason.
If Zerpa can translate his versatility into consistent effectiveness as a starter, Milwaukee could secure a valuable long-term piece at a favorable price. The trade’s full impact will hinge on how Zerpa adapts in spring training and how the Brewers’ coaching staff integrates him into a rotation plan—or reinforces him as a high-leverage bullpen option depending on how the roster evolves.
