Brewers left-hander Angel Zerpa will undergo Tommy John surgery on Monday, a procedure that will end his season and knock him out for part of 2027 as well. Milwaukee will move him to the 60-day injured list whenever it needs the roster spot.
Zerpa was already on the 15-day injured list after leaving about a week ago with forearm tightness, and manager Pat Murphy said at the time that the injury was fairly concerning and that he would be going for further testing. Tommy John surgery emerged as a possibility in the days that followed, and the worst-case outcome is now the reality.
The loss matters because Milwaukee had acquired Zerpa from Kansas City in an offseason two-for-one deal involving Isaac Collins and Nick Mears, and the club had reason to think he could take a step forward. From 2021 to 2025, Zerpa gave the Royals 177 innings and allowed 3.97 earned runs per nine innings, with a 19.7% strikeout rate, a 7% walk rate and a 57.1% ground ball rate. He reached three years of big league service in 2025, qualified for arbitration for the first time going into 2026 and agreed with the Brewers to a $1.095 million salary for next season.
That optimism has been dented by what happened on the mound this year. Zerpa posted a 6.39 ERA in 12 appearances to start the season, then joined a growing list of Milwaukee left-handers on the shelf. Zerpa, Jared Koenig and Rob Zastryzny are all on the injured list, while Aaron Ashby, DL Hall, Shane Drohan and Brian Fitzpatrick are taking up four of the Brewers’ eight relief spots.
The surgery leaves Milwaukee with another roster decision to juggle in the middle of the season, and it delays any chance of seeing whether Zerpa can be part of the answer this year. He will remain under club control beyond that, with arbitration eligibility again for 2027 and 2028, but the Brewers will now have to wait through a long recovery before finding out what they have.
