The Brewers are deciding how to proceed with righty Jimmy Nelson after he completed his fourth rehab appearance at Triple-A today. Skipper Craig Counsell has suggested the club would reach its decision on how to utilize Nelson after today’s outing, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel notes on Twitter.
Nelson didn’t exactly finish with a bang. As Jerry Briggs of MiLB.com tweets, the rehabbing righty pitched fine until he was undone by a sloppy fifth inning. In total, Nelson has thrown 19 innings at Triple-A, allowing ten earned runs while compiling 22 strikeouts against nine walks. That certainly isn’t a dominant performance, but it’s encouraging to see that he has been generally effective against high-level competition.
It seems likely that Nelson will celebrate his upcoming thirtieth birthday in the majors. Though he still has time on his rehab clock — having begun his assignment on May 5th, his thirty days won’t expire until June 3rd — Counsell says the time has come for a decision after a long road back. The next pitch Nelson throws in the big leagues will be his first since late in the 2017 season, as he has been working back from labrum surgery since going down with injury late in what had been a stellar campaign.
Whether Nelson will work as a starter or reliever remains to be seen. The Milwaukee rotation isn’t desperate for reinforcement but also doesn’t have much in the way of roadblocks. Chase Anderson and Jhoulys Chacin appear to be most at risk among the current starters, but there are reasons also to keep both in a starting capacity.
In a sense, the decision seems to be more about Nelson than it is the rest of the staff. If the club thinks he’s back to anything approaching his former self and can handle a starter’s workload (even a reduced version thereof), then there’s little doubt the space can be found. Anderson hasn’t worked deep in games and could be moved back to a long relief capacity, joining a few other converted starters in an interesting bullpen mix.
Utilizing Nelson as a reliever would be something else entirely. Whether the lack of routine would be problematic is tough to guess, but he’d obviously be tasked with throwing fewer innings after a lengthy layoff.
No matter the initial decision, the Brewers will surely keep their options open over the course of the season and beyond. Nelson is earning $3.7MM this year with one final season of arbitration eligibility still to come thereafter.
Why not keep him in rehab a week or two more? He was the best MIL pitcher before he was injured. Whatever it takes to return to that.
Good luck, that’s not happening. People thinking he will be anywhere close to what he was have no idea what a labral repair is and how it completely changes the entire operating mechanism of the shoulder.
Nobody on these boards or any rationale Brewers fans is saying he’s going to be Nelson 2017. Nobody. If he approaches a 3 or even 4 level starter that’s perfectly fine. Keep living in your delusional world where you’re clearly an orthopedic surgeon.
Thankfully we have a medical genius like you to set us straight.
Thank you doctor for that expert analysis on Jimmy’s shoulder. Where should I make my payment to?
Pitchers may remain on a minor league rehab placement for up to 30 days.
His 30-day rehab stint is probably almost up. Can’t be on a rehab assignment longer than that unless you get shut down again with another injury
Go to a 6 man rotation or have him and another starter piggyback each other. It keeps his innings down, keeps him on a set routine, and would help save the bullpen a bit.
Trade him and a low prospect for a PTNL.., Let him ease into a rotation at his own pace.
if he does well, he is the PTNL. The team that traded for him helped his rehab and they gained a low prospect. Milwaukee gives up a low prospect in order to get him rehabbed properly.
Huh? Trade him so he can rehab properly somewhere else?
Pretty sure you can’t be the PTBNL in a trade for yourself. And what motivation would said team have to return Nelson if he’s pitching well?
Harry Chiti, Dickie Noles, Brad Gulden, and John McDonald were all traded for themselves. The PTNL is usually decided ahead of time. It’s usually withheld because of PR and the other player hasn’t met limits on being traded.
Is that legal?
Well Jimbo, it’s time for you to be DESICGNATED FOR ASSIGNMENT.
Can’t be any worse than Jolly’s or Corbin has been this year. Bring him up, if he gets lit up like a pinball machine, then move him to the pen til he figures it out.
Use him as an “opener?”
You too many people are worrying about big country. He was already learning to be a pitcher and not a thrower, he is going to be just fine. It’s all going to workout and the guys that have been waiting for this pitching staff to completely fall apart will once again going to be proven wrong. Yes we will have our hiccups like all squads do but the coaching staff puts these men in the right situations. I’m going to say it here first Nelson will have 10 wins this year while Cub fans say there pitchers are superior as they sit at home watching us in the playoffs saying we just got lucky lol