Brewers To Add Wade Miley To Roster

The Brewers will add left-hander Wade Miley to their roster, according to a team announcement. He’ll start Wednesday’s game in Cincinnati, thus sending fellow southpaw Brent Suter to the bullpen. Milwaukee will have to make corresponding 40- and 25-man moves by then.

The Brewers had been facing a weekend deadline to either promote Miley to their roster or release him back into free agency. The decision was supposed to come back in late March, but the team was able to put it off after Miley went to the disabled list with a slight groin tear. The 31-year-old, who inked a minors pact in the offseason and will now earn a $2.5MM salary in the majors, looked like a decent bet to earn a rotation spot before his injury. He’ll now do so at the expense of Suter, who made six starts prior to Sunday and registered a 5.34 ERA/3.81 FIP, 6.53 K/9 against 2.08 BB/9, and a 32 percent groundball rate during that 30 1/3-inning span.

Like Suter this year, Miley has struggled to prevent runs recently. He posted ERAs in the fives over the previous two seasons – one divided between Seattle and Baltimore, the other solely with the Orioles – leading to an inability to secure a major league contract over the winter. At his best, Miley was a capable workhorse with the Diamondbacks and Red Sox from 2012-16, a period in which he ranked 14th in the majors in innings (958 1/3) and logged a 4.17 ERA/3.86 FIP with 7.12 K/9, 2.73 BB/9 and a 48.5 percent grounder mark.

Miley will now join a Brewers rotation that has managed the game’s eighth-best ERA (3.64), though the unit ranks a far less encouraging 18th in fWAR. Regardless, the hopeful playoff contenders have fared nicely in the early going (16-12) despite not having their 2017 ace, Jimmy Nelson, who’s working back from September shoulder surgery.