The Brewers announced that outfielder Jesse Winker has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 28, with a cervical strain. Infielder Abraham Toro has been recalled in a corresponding move.
Winker’s neck started bothering him a few days ago, per Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and the hope is that he’ll feel better after the IL stint. That would seem to suggest the issue is mild and won’t require a significant absence, though there are some reasons for concern. One is that Winker’s performance has been nose-diving in recent years. He hit a tremendous .288/.385/.504 with the Reds from 2017 through 2021 for a wRC+ of 132. After getting traded to Seattle, he hit .219/.344/.344 last year, 108 wRC+, and has fallen even further this year after getting dealt to Milwaukee. He’s hit no home runs in 127 plate appearances and is slashing .204/.315/.231 for a wRC+ of just 60.
Furthermore, this isn’t the first time that neck issues have held him back. He also went on the injured list due to a cervical strain with the Reds in August of 2019, missing over a month. In October of last year, the Mariners put him on the IL due to a cervical disc bulge and he eventually required surgery. That makes this the third time in the past four years that a neck issue has put him out of action.
Whether the neck injury is the culprit or not, the Brewers were obviously hoping for more when they acquired Winker this past offseason when they sent second baseman Kolten Wong to Seattle with both Winker and Toro coming to Milwaukee. The deal hasn’t worked out for either club so far, as Wong is hitting a dismal .160/.250/.189 for the Mariners. Toro has spent the entire season in Triple-A so far, hitting .258/.344/.352 for a wRC+ of 80.
Winker has been serving as Milwaukee’s designated hitter most of the time, which only made his struggles more glaring, given the offensive expectations of that position. With Luke Voit having been designated for assignment yesterday, the Brewers are now without two of their primary options for that spot, perhaps freeing them up to rotate playing time around to various players on the roster.
Winker isn’t slugging much this year: singles & walks only. I guess the Kolten Wong trade was a wash.
A wash indeed. Can’t remember another trade that has been so bad for both teams!
You know both players have their respective teams thinking DFA if things don’t turn around soon. Both have been in a downward spiral at the plate going on 2 years now, and neither can play the field worth a damn.
I just looked up Abraham Toro’s stats and found out that he’s Canadian. How about that, eh?
Great info buddy!
yah hey der
Get yourself an Iron Neck, Wink
JonathonLucroyStan Bro just call up Hiura
Hard too with him on the minors IL unless recently removed.
I thought I read he’d be out til mid-june or later. But hey, everyone on the big club is injured too, so why not?
The problem with doing that is if Hiura gets into the same ruts he’s gotten into every time they’ve had him up previously, they’ll have to DFA him again. With the recent majors signings of Sanchez and Hicks paired with the fact that Billy Hamilton and Yu Chang are currently employed at the major league level, teams are scraping bottom for players, and Hiura might just get claimed.
If he gets into yet another one of those ruts I think they’ll be fine with letting him be claimed by another team. There’s no point keeping him stashed in the minors at this point in his career, especially when the major league team is starved for offense. Given the production they’ve gotten from Winker, Voit, and Ruf, I would expect they’d be thrilled if Hiura could just repeat his production from last year (.226/.316/.449).
I guess he got whiplash swinging and missing so much.
He is the next one they will DFA.
Winked is all neck kind of reminds of “baby giraffe” Brandon belt.
Brewers might wanna think about changing their hitting philosophy within the organization. They been struggling for 3 years now and whoever they bring isn’t helping either. Not to mention their prospects all look to hit a wall in development. Turang is good in the field but his back in lacking with ops under 700 and Wiemer needs more time in AAA to figure things out at the plate.
Pretty sure Hiura is on the IL right now…. In my opinion here is the the thing with Hiura, he overachieved his rookie year, then he came in and had a down Covid year like many people did in 2020, they get Wong and move him to first plus his mom gets sick , last year they rotated him between 1B, DH, 2B and LF. The organization has not helped his growth. I would love to seem him play DH for the rest of the year and concentrate on just hitting right now , give him a solid chance of hitting everyday.
What is so frustrating, as a brewers fan, is our lack of continuity within the lineup. Hitters might have a good day or two (Contreras right now) but instead of keeping them slotted near/at the same spot in the order for multiple games we continually play musical chairs. We don’t have great hitters to begin with but the lack of lineup continuity is another factor that can’t be overlooked. Any given day Yelich could be slotted 1 through 4. Tellez can be cleanup one day, 6th the next. I get the righty/lefty matchups but continuity doesn’t even exist when that is taken into consideration. You dont do that with bullpen guys so why the lineup? Been following the rays lineups all year and the continuity amongst 5 of the 9 is incredible. Maybe counsell needs to try this to build up better consistency.
Exactly this. I’ve been saying this to my dad for years. We call our manager Craig Carousel. It’s ridiculous.