The Brewers have optioned struggling right-hander Corbin Burnes to Triple-A, as Toby Harrmann of Brewerfan.net first reported on Twitter. Also heading down is reliever Jake Petricka, with Alex Wilson and Donnie Hart added to the active roster to take the openings.
Burnes, 24, impressed in a relief role last year after earning a mid-season call-up. But the hope was (and remains) that he’d be a quality starter in the long run. The Brewers decided to entrust a rotation spot to him to open the current campaign. After 17 2/3 innings of 10.70 ERA pitching, though, it was clear a change was in order.
In some ways, Burnes’s first four starts in the majors showed promise. He maintained mid-nineties velocity and a 14.1% swinging-strike rate while racking up 12.2 K/9 against 4.1 BB/9. Trouble is, opponents did quite a lot of damage when they did make contact. Burnes was tagged for eleven home runs (that’s an eye-watering 5.6 per nine) and a 51.7% hard contact rate.
The Brewers will hope that Burnes can sort things out at Triple-A. In the meantime, there are rotation questions to be answered. Freddy Peralta has had his own struggles and also hit the injured list, leaving two spots unspoken for.
Chase Anderson and Aaron Wilkerson are already up in the bullpen and could step into the rotation, though both have plenty left to prove. Perhaps Adrian Houser could be tapped for his first MLB start after a few prior relief appearances; he has thrown well in three Triple-A starts to begin the year. It’s also conceivable the team could pursue a reunion with Gio Gonzalez, who’s said to be triggering an opt-out clause in his deal with the Yankees, though there’ll be other organizations in on Gonzalez and that would mean freeing a 40-man spot.
Looking at the longer-term implications, Burnes will now need to earn his way back to the majors in order to push forward his service clock. Perhaps he’ll have a chance to do so, with paths available both in the rotation and relief corps. He’s sitting on 108 days of service at this point. That means he can spend only 100 days on optional assignment before he’d miss a chance at topping a full year of service by the end of the current campaign.
hmm, well i guess its not a question of Wilkerson or Anderson now then.
Disappointing. A lot of hype this preseason and he did a lot of good things but wasn’t getting good results. There still should be hope for him being a productive major leaguer though
Dude was filthy out of the pen last year, complete opposite in the rotation this year. I thought he was gonna be a lot better. Still young, still can end up being a decent starter.
Early enough in the year and now that they are out of Colorado Springs get some confidence back.
Gio heading back to Milwaukee? Jimmy Nelson allegedly coming back in the next few weeks as well.
Jimmy is a 3 at best
Sneaky good twins troll
Not going to happen, Nelson is finished even if he does throw another MLB aiming. The Brewers pitching staff is a mess. Pixie dust never carries over….
Go cubbies. Loser
Brewers should have signed Gio in the offseason….could have started as long reliever and moved into starting rotation once someone fell out….too much trust in burns and peralta was a failure.
At very least with Burnes being sent down is it kept my wife from yelling at me buying cows because now she is complaining they should have done it sooner. But in all honesty this isnt the worse thing for him. He gets back on track and comes back up .
Cows?
I’m a farmer
So her issue is that you already have enough cows and don’t need to buy anymore? I thought it was a typo at first but now I’m just interested, why would she not want you to buy more cows? Is it the same as how mine yells at me for buying more music records or cds?
This became more interesting than the article lmao
And I’m not even joking, I just wanted to know, I live in Wisconsin too, there’s a lot of cows. Doesn’t seem unreasonable to want to get more.
If the Jays aren’t extending their pitchers they should definitely give them a call.
They have plenty of below average starters as it is. Back to openers and bullpen, it is working too well and this failure was pretty big
Huh?
Burnes has amazing stuff can be absolutely filthy, just needs to put it all together. He’lol hopefully figure it out.
He’s a two-pitch pitcher with suspect command. A max-out bullpen guy only.
Does anything other than hot garbage spew out of your mouth? It’s been well documented that Burnes has two above average pitches (fastball and slider) along with three average offers (cutter, change up and curveball). So to say a young pitcher with 5 average or better pitches is a “max-out bullpen guy only” just proves your nothing more than a troll.
Go cubbies
Go cubs
Was he one of the guys y’all didn’t want to let go of for Madbum?
their rotation is trash
Stearns, just call Keuchel and get it over with. With the questions now on Burnes and Perallta, you can go back to using them from the pen. Not to mention, one of them can be the replacement for Knebel this year and probably half of next year.
He even checks their boxes of having pitchers give different looks with arm angles and stuff, and being the one lefty in the rotation, on a one year deal it needs to be done.
Don’t look now but other than Hader, that staff is not good. At all.
We can’t all have darkish and chatwood on our rosters
Odd dude Watched him mow down the Red Birds in his first start, before he ran into trouble in the middle innings. His mistakes seem to get crushed, otherwise can dominate. Has upsize for sure.
Also pitching in Miller Park is tough. Hitters say background is awesome. Certainly Yellich and crew love it. That said, must also be a challenge for the staff. Lights out guys like Hader can excel but not any others on the Brew Crew that fit into that category.