Jimmy Nelson

Today, 1:00 pm: Nelson will indeed move to the bullpen, per mlb.com’s Adam McCalvy. The team has not yet announced a replacement.

Friday, 8:00 pm: Brewers right-hander Jimmy Nelson is back in action for the first time since undergoing shoulder surgery in 2017, but it hasn’t been a storybook return to this point. The team’s now discussing whether to keep Nelson in its starting rotation, according to manager Craig Counsell (via Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).

Nelson came back June 5 and has since endured a difficult three starts, all of which lasted between three and five innings and ended in defeat for the Brewers. The 30-year-old has thus far yielded 13 earned runs on 16 hits and 10 walks (against 13 strikeouts) in 12 frames during his major league comeback. Adding to the bad news, Nelson’s velocity is down across the board since 2017. He has lost around 3 mph on his four-seam fastball, slider and curve.

An emotional Nelson called his early season performance “frustrating, upsetting and disappointing” when speaking with Haudricourt and other reporters, though he’s still confident he’ll return to form. Nelson blossomed into a front-end starter two years ago, when he turned in 175 1/3 innings of 3.49 ERA/3.05 FIP ball with 10.21 K/9, 2.46 BB/9 and a 50.3 percent groundball rate. It’s far too soon to say that version of Nelson won’t reappear eventually. However, given that Milwaukee’s pushing for a playoff spot, it may not be in position to keep running Nelson out there.

The problem for the Brewers is that they might not have an obvious solution to replace Nelson. Brandon Woodruff, Zach Davies, Gio Gonzalez and Chase Anderson have been useful members of their rotation, though Gonzalez has been on the injured list for three weeks and may not return until July. Meanwhile, Jhoulys Chacin, Freddy Peralta, Corbin Burnes and Adrian Houser have each posted unattractive numbers as starters this year. Chacin’s the lone member of the group who remains in the Brewers’ rotation. The rest are in their bullpen.

With the Brewers not getting enough from their starting staff, the reigning NL Central champions have stumbled of late. Although they’ve lost six of seven, the Brewers are 40-35, in wild-card position and only a game behind the Cubs in their division. Still, barring an in-house fix, Milwaukee may have to address its rotation before the July 31 trade deadline in order to clinch another playoff spot.

In something of a surprise move, the Brewers announced today that they have reinstated Jimmy Nelson from the injured list and optioned him to Triple-A. He is finally back to health after a long layoff but won’t come straight up to the majors.

It seems that Nelson wasn’t deemed quite ready for the MLB rotation. It could be that the team also prefers to option him to maintain roster flexibility, though it’s tough to imagine they’d hold him down if he looked to be in top form. Nelson allowed ten earned in 19 rehab frames at Triple-A, posting a 22:9 K/BB ratio.

There had been some suggestion that Nelson could be brought back in a relief capacity if the club decided not to plug him in as a starter. Instead, he’ll keep working at the club’s top affiliate — presumably as a starter, though that’s not yet clear.

It’s surely a tough pill to swallow for the soon-to-be-30-year-old pitcher, who was closing in on a return to the big leagues after missing all of 2018 following labrum surgery. Before his injury, he had turned in a breakout 2017 effort, with 175 1/3 innings of 3.49 ERA ball on the back of 10.2 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9.

Nelson entered the present season with 4.107 years of MLB service and has accrued 57 days this year while working back. That leaves him shy of topping five full years of service, which occurs at 172 days, though he’ll pass that bar rather quickly if and when he is called up.

That’s not to suggest that the Brewers are acting with service-time motivations. The club spent $3.7MM last year and this year to retain the rights to Nelson and would surely prefer to see that investment turn into MLB results.

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.

Brewers right-hander Jimmy Nelson is closing in on his long-awaited return to a major league mound. Nelson, still on the mend from September 2017 surgery on a partially torn labrum, tossed 5 1/3 shutout innings of eight-strikeout, 86-pitch ball in a rehab start for Triple-A San Antonio on Friday, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel relays. Having thrown 14 1/3 effective frames at the Triple-A level this year, it appears Nelson will rejoin the Brewers after one more minor league outing on Thursday.

““It’s just time. It’s four Triple-A starts, close to 30 innings with spring training and extended (spring training). He should be ready and healthy for us to make a decision,” said manager Craig Counsell.

Nelson was the leader of the Brewers’ rotation in 2017, a 175 1/3-frame showing in which he notched an impressive 3.49 ERA/3.05 FIP with 10.21 K/9, 2.46 BB/9 and a 50.3 percent groundball rate. But the shoulder injury, which Nelson suffered on the base paths, knocked his career off the rails and robbed the Brewers of a potential front-end starter. Now, after a recovery process that has included some setbacks, Nelson’s not a lock to immediately slot back into Milwaukee’s rotation. Counsell noted the Brewers haven’t determined whether Nelson will start or relieve when he comes back.

Though the Brewers boast the majors’ eighth-best record (27-21), they’ve done it despite lacking a lights-out starting staff. Zach Davies, Brandon Woodruff and in-season pickup Gio Gonzalez have succeeded over a combined 22 starts, helping keep the team in ontention thus far. Chase Anderson has also done well to limit runs as both a starter and a reliever, but he has walked too many hitters and hasn’t exceeded the five-inning mark in any appearance. The team’s other current starter, Jhoulys Chacin, has come up short after a strong 2018. Meanwhile, youngsters Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta have endured disastrous campaigns and are currently part of a bullpen that could add Nelson if the Brewers don’t think he’s ready to reclaim a starting job.