Milwaukee Brewers Lose Impressive Pitcher to Free Agency

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Rob Zastryzny has elected free agency, according to the MiLB.com transaction log, closing a short but effective run with the Brewers.

The left-hander cleared waivers after Milwaukee designated him for assignment on September 17 and outrighted him to Triple-A Nashville. Once that assignment was complete, Zastryzny exercised his right to walk.

He had been activated from the 60-day injured list the same day he was designated, coming off a left trapezius strain that, along with intercostal and shoulder trouble, kept him off a major-league mound for the entire 2026 season.

Out of options and turning 35 next spring, he was a roster casualty rather than a performance one.

What he did in a Brewers uniform before the injury year was the argument for keeping him.

After a May 2025 cash deal that brought him over from the Yankees, Zastryzny became a reliable left-handed piece in a bullpen that did not have many of them.

In 2025, he went 2-1 with a 2.45 ERA and 20 strikeouts in 26 appearances. That followed a 2024 cameo in which he allowed one run in nine games and posted a 1.17 ERA.

Combined, the two seasons covered 29⅔ innings and a 2.12 ERA, with a strikeout rate around 20 percent and a walk rate under 10 percent. He was especially tough on left-handed hitters.

None of it was high-leverage dominance in the closer sense, but for a journeyman it was quietly excellent: low damage, usable matchup work, and almost no losses.

The 2026 season never gave him a chance to extend that. He opened on the injured list, bounced through rehab stops, and finished the year with only a short Triple-A sample — Heavy reported 11 games, a 1.93 ERA and nine strikeouts — and no big-league innings.

Milwaukee, already deep in arms and headed into October, chose not to carry the arbitration number.

The broader résumé is the usual minor-league traveler’s map. A second-round pick of the Cubs out of Missouri in 2013, the Edmonton native has appeared in 80 major-league games for Chicago, the Mets, the Angels, the Pirates and the Brewers, with a career record of 6-1 and a 3.84 ERA.

Clubs have claimed him, outrighted him and signed him to non-roster deals more than once.

That is the market he re-enters now: a healthy lefty with a recent sub-2.50 ERA in Milwaukee, looking for a spring-training invite rather than a guaranteed roster spot.

Given how he pitched the last time he was actually available, someone is likely to offer one.