Milwaukee Brewers: How much did trade talk affect Josh Hader?

Josh Hader has not been the same force of nature out of the Milwaukee Brewers bullpen. Was this due to trade rumors or something else?

Since his arrival in the majors, Josh Hader has been on a different level. He had quickly ascended to the throne of the best reliever in the game, a throwback to the firemen of yesteryear. With his high octane fastball and devasting slider, Hader was a force to be reckoned with whenever he entered the game.

His dominance was borne out statistically as well. In his 204.2 innings from 2017 through 2019, Hader produced a 2.42 ERA and a 0.850 WHiP, issuing 72 walks while striking out an incredible 349 batters. When he officially took over as the Milwaukee Brewers closer, he instantly became the most dominant arm in the ninth inning in baseball.

But this year has been different. Hader has allowed just two runs in his 10.2 innings without allowing a hit while striking out 17 batters. But he has also issued 10 walks, including five in a disastrous outing on Saturday when only nine of his 32 pitches were strikes.

Hader has not exactly been the same pitcher, even before his outing on Saturday. He had been pitching up in the zone far more than in past years, particularly middle to away to left handed batters. At the same time, the velocity on his fastball and slider have decreased compared to 2018 and 2019.

Given his issues with the strike zone, and his decreased velocity, this would seem to be a mechanical issue. Hader does have a high effort delivery that can be difficult to repeat at times. While this helps his effectiveness, especially considering how he had been throwing his fastball nearly 80% of the time in years past, it can lead to bouts of wildness.

This season, he has also gone away from that formula. Hader’s fastball usage has dropped to 68.02% this season, while he has increased his slider usage by 16.41%. This may be due to how Hader is not generating nearly as many swings and misses on his fastball this season – his whiff percentage has dropped from 24.13% in 2019 to 12.58% this season.

It is also entirely possible that his outing on Saturday was due to the trade rumors. Once the deadline passed and Hader remained in Milwaukee, he was back to his usual self, striking out the side as he recorded the save on Monday. He did throw 18 pitches to those three batters, but the end results were there.

At this point, the Milwaukee Brewers should not be worried about Josh Hader. But his struggles with command should be on their radar.