Here's how Ashby has become the Brewers' new 'vulture'

This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy’s Brewers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

MILWAUKEE -- Not since the days of Brent Suter has a Brewers pitcher heard so many bird calls when he steps foot in the clubhouse.

“The vulture, Aaron Ashby,” said teammate Chad Patrick, breaking into a smile.

A quarter of the regular season will be in the books by the middle of this week, and Ashby leads Major League Baseball with seven wins. That’s a surprise, considering that Ashby is a relief pitcher, and no pitcher who has made at least 80 percent of his appearances in relief has ever led MLB in wins. Of the pitchers who have led the league since the Modern Era began in 1901, the most reliever-ish was Ernie Broglio, who tied the Milwaukee Braves’ Warren Spahn for the MLB lead with 21 wins in 1960 while making 28 relief appearances and 24 starts.

The true king of relief wins never led the league, though he came close. Elroy Face went 18-1 for the 1959 Pirates without a single start, setting the modern single-season record for victories in relief. He preceded the original vulture, Phil “The Vulture” Regan, who was bestowed that nickname by teammate Sandy Koufax while Regan was going 14-1 with 21 saves for the 1966 Dodgers. The Brewers’ king vulture -- aka the club record-holder for relief wins -- is Jim Slaton, who was 14-6 with 46 appearances, zero starts, in 1983.

Vultures, all of them.

“I really don’t know how to describe it. It’s just one of those things,” Ashby said. “I think I feel good that I haven’t come in with the lead, given up the lead, and then we take the lead [back]. Like, taking a win away from the starter. That’s a really [lousy] way to get a win. …

“It’s a weird thing. I’m sure people are maybe paying attention, but it doesn’t feel like something worth paying attention to.”

Suter was similarly “aw, shucks” about it, and actually pushed against the “vulture” label when he went 12-5 in nine starts and 52 relief outings for the 2011 Brewers, and was the first pitcher on the team to reach double-digit victories that year. But he couldn’t fight it forever. At some point, Suter started wearing a T-shirt bearing the image of the bird.

Ashby, who is 7-0 with a 2.08 ERA in 19 appearances including one start as an opener, has come a long way to become the Brewers’ most durable reliever. After making his Major League debut in 2021, he signed a five-year, $20.5 million contract extension in July 2022 that runs through the ‘27 season and includes club options for ‘28 and ‘29. But a shoulder injury altered his trajectory, and instead of becoming a mainstay of Milwaukee’s rotation, he has bounced between roles since re-emerging healthy in 2024.

Two years later, he is manager Pat Murphy’s most dependably available arm. That’s no small feat.

Murphy remembers being at the Brewers’ Spring Training complex early in 2024, between the end of fantasy camp and the start of big league camp. Through the windows of the dining hall, he saw someone playing catch in the farthest corner of the agility field.

“I watched this guy, a left-hander, kind of barely getting it out,” Murphy said. “I thought, ‘Why would they let the fantasy campers still work out here? Fantasy camp is over.’

“But it was Ashby. I professed this: ‘He will never help us this year.’ And he did, and he was extremely valuable last year. It’s a testament to the kid. He’s an incredible human.”

If Ashby stays healthy and all goes to plan, he is aiming to pitch 110 innings. It would be the most for a Brewers pitcher who worked more than 80 percent of his games as a reliever since Carlos Villanueva logged 114 1/3 innings in 2007.

(The unofficial club record for that kind of high-volume reliever, incidentally, belongs to right-hander Eduardo Rodriguez, who pitched 142 2/3 innings for the 1977 Brewers while starting just five of his 42 games.)

“I spent so much time not contributing to this team,” Ashby said, referring to the time lost to injury. “After being out of the big leagues for a year and a half or longer, I just kind of realized how sweet it is to be here and the value of contributing in really effective ways.”

Incidentally, Ashby doesn’t think he should be leading the league in wins. He’s a proponent of changing the way the win is determined by official scorers, so more starters are rewarded during what pitching coach Chris Hook refers to as the “drag race” era of pitching, when outings are getting shorter and more electric.

Maybe Ashby can play a role in that.

“I can almost guarantee there will be a rules change if I come out of this thing with the Major League lead in wins,” Ashby said. “That would be the best way to fast track this thing.”

Until then, the clubhouse ribbing will continue.

“He’s like one of them vultures, up in the air waiting to attack, to steal it,” Patrick said. “He’s getting in those situations and the boys are coming through, which is good. That means he’s in winning ballgames. You can’t stress enough how good he’s been this year.”