With a month left in the season, why the Brewers sent one of their best relievers to the minor leagues

On Tuesday morning, Brewers manager Pat Murphy had what he called “the most difficult conversation of the year” in his office.

Rookie relief pitcher Bryan Hudson was informed at that meeting that he would be reassigned to Class AAA Nashville, despite being one of the team’s best and most reliable pitchers this season.

The move was part of a series of bullpen transactions ahead of the second game of a three-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals at American Family Field. Bryse Wilson was placed on the 15-day injured list with a strained right oblique muscle, Elvis Peguero was reinstated from Nashville, and Hoby Milner was activated from the injured list.

But the star of the night was Hudson, who has a 1.73 earned run average and has been arguably the team’s most valuable reliever this season in 62 ⅓ innings.

The last part of that sentence, however, is key to deciding on the lineup.

Since becoming a reliever in 2019, Hudson threw a career-high 64 ⅓ innings last season. This year, including his early August rehab appearances, Hudson has thrown 65 ⅓. The big lefty’s velocity has been dropping as his workload has increased; his average fastball velocity was 91.8 mph through late May, but it was 90.2 mph in August, and it dipped to 89.3 mph in Monday’s appearance.

But Hudson has still been pitching well in terms of production lately. He hasn’t allowed a hit in his last four appearances and has allowed just three hits overall in 11 ⅔ innings since returning from an oblique injury that sidelined him for two weeks in late July.

“Bryan played a huge role in that. I think he was a star and he deserved it and I think he played a huge, integral role in that,” Murphy said. “But (the decision was made) because he has options and because we didn’t like everything we saw, the way he was coming out and reacting and things like that. When you just look at what’s going on, hopefully we can freshen him up a little bit and get him back to where he was earlier in the season.

“We thought since we have so many pitchers, it would be a good time to refresh his skills, improve his mechanics (properly) and refresh his game so he can come back as strong as he wants.”

Murphy hinted that Hudson’s plan for Nashville would include some time off, as well as planning outings in advance.

“He’s far outpaced what he was throwing before, and we’re trying to get ahead of him,” Murphy said. “And he’s got options, so that’s a big deal.”

Hudson, who has two minor league options remaining, would not waste either if he were called up by Milwaukee before spending 20 days in the minor leagues.

This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers give Bryan Hudson minor league option; Bryse Wilson placed on IL