Brewers Select James Meeker

The Brewers announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander James Meeker. Left-hander Aaron Ashby was optioned to Triple-A Nashville in a corresponding move. The club already had a vacancy on its 40-man roster, which is now full.

Meeker makes it to the big leagues for the first time at an unusually old age, as he turned 29 in March. That’s a reflection of his unusual path to get to the majors. He pitched for the University of Delaware through 2018 but didn’t get drafted and headed to the Indy Ball circuit. He bounced around for a few years but impressed the Brewers enough to get a minor league deal late in 2021.

In 2022, he tossed 64 1/3 innings between High-A and Double-A, allowing just 2.38 earned runs per nine frames. He only struck out 21.3% of batters faced but limited walks to a 6.3% clip and got grounders on roughly half the balls that opponents put in play.

Last year, the results were fairly similar. He tossed 93 innings over 36 appearances in Double-A and Triple-A, including eight starts in an ill-fated move to the rotation. Despite some poor results in those starts, he still finished the year with a 3.39 ERA, 20.6% strikeout rate, 3.8% walk rate and lots of grounders again.

Here in 2024, he has again split his time between Double-A and Triple-A. He has 27 innings on the year between those two levels with a 2.67 ERA. His walk rate has jumped to 10.9% but he’s also getting more punchouts, up to 27.3%, while still keeping the ball on the ground. He’ll give the club an extra arm in the bullpen and will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.

The Brewers have placed Joe Ross and Robert Gasser on the injured list in the past few weeks, thinning their rotation depth. Ashby was recalled a couple of days ago to make a spot start but has quickly been sent down to get a fresh arm onto the big league staff.

Tobias Myers is taking the ball tonight with Freddy Peralta, Bryse Wilson and Colin Rea likely to follow in the days to come. They would need a fifth starter by Tuesday, unless they plan to do some kind of bullpen game. Janson Junk was just optioned recently and there’s a 15-day minimum before he’s allowed to return, unless directly replacing a player going on the IL. Ashby is now in a similar position. Jakob Junis is on a rehab assignment but only tossed two innings in his first outing and may be built up further before being reinstated. Prospect Jacob Misiorowski is pitching well in the minors but hasn’t yet reached Triple-A and isn’t on the 40-man roster.