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Brewers Place Zach Davies On 10-Day DL, Recall Ji-Man Choi, Outright Jett Bandy

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The Brewers announced a slate of roster moves today. Righty Zach Davies is headed to the 10-day DL with rotator cuff inflammation. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by first baseman/outfielder Ji-Man Choi.

In other news, the Milwaukee organization has outrighted catcher Jett Bandy. He had been designated for assignment recently and will now head to Triple-A after clearing waivers.

Davies, 25, spent nearly a month on the DL already and has struggled in two starts since returning. On the year, he carries a 5.23 ERA with 6.5 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9 in 43 innings over eight starts.

While he has been a solid rotation piece over the past two seasons with less-than-exciting K/BB numbers, Davies has been easier to square up so far in 2018. He has already surrendered seven home runs and has allowed opposing hitters to make hard contact at a hefty 43.8% clip. Still, measures such as fastball velocity, swinging-strike rate, and groundball rate indicate that Davies is still much the same hurler as before.

With Davies on the shelf, the Brewers will need another starter in a few days. For the time being, though, they’ll go with an extra man on the bench. Choi has impressed consistently of late with the bat. in his 154 plate appearances at Triple-A, he has posted a .290/.416/.452 slash with four home runs and 28 walks against 31 strikeouts.

Bandy, meanwhile, will remain available if a need arises behind the dish. The 28-year-old has struggled at the plate, with a .218/.282/.365 slash in his 492 career plate appearances at the game’s highest level. Still, the Milwaukee organization will be glad to retain Bandy, particularly since Stephen Vogt is already likely out for the year and the team’s current MLB duo of Manny Pina and Erik Kratz does not exactly make for an imposing unit.

Brewers Acquire Erik Kratz, Designate Jett Bandy, Option Orlando Arcia

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The Brewers made a significant series of roster moves on Friday, acquiring veteran backstop Erik Kratz from the Yankees in exchange for cash and designating Jett Bandy for assignment to clear a spot on the roster. Both teams have announced the trade. Additionally, Milwaukee announced that shortstop Orlando Arcia and righty Jorge Lopez have been optioned to Triple-A Colorado Springs in favor of veteran infielder Eric Sogard and right-hander Adrian Houser.

Set to turn 38 in June, Kratz is off to a .269/.356/.538 start with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate. While he doesn’t have a lengthy track record at the big league level, he’s shown throughout parts of eight big league seasons that he possess some pop, homering 24 times in 649 plate appearances and notching a .163 ISO. Of course, Kratz’s overall .203/.250/.366 slash line in that time has been sub-par and serves to illustrate why his time in the Majors has been sporadic. To his credit, he’s halted 34 percent of stolen-base attempts against him in the Majors and has been similarly effective throughout his minor league career (32 percent).

As for Bandy, the Brewers will have a week to trade him, Ttry to pass him through outright waivers or release him. The 28-year-old showed a bit of promise early in his career with the Angels but has struggled in two seasons with Milwaukee, hitting just .202/.282/.326. While Milwaukee GM David Stearns has made his share of shrewd moves since taking over the team’s baseball operations department, the decision to flip Martin Maldonado to the Angels in exchange for Bandy likely ranks among his most regrettable swaps, as Maldonado has provided more with the bat and also took home an AL Gold Glove last season in his first year with the Halos.

Arcia, meanwhile, looked to have gone a long way toward establishing himself as a regular in the Milwaukee infield last season. After struggling as a 21-year-old in his debut back in 2016, the longtime top prospect hit .277/.324/.407 with 15 home runs and 14 stolen bases last season. The 2018 season, however, has proven to be a full course reversal at the dish.

Through 146 trips to the dish this season, Arcia has mustered a feeble .194/.233/.273 slash with two homers and five doubles. His walk rate is down two percent, his strikeout rate is up five percent, and his 28.6 percent hard-contact rate is considerably south of the league average. Arcia has contributed quality glovework, to be sure, but that apparently wasn’t deemed enough to salvage his spot on the roster for the time being.

Tyler Saladino figures to be the primary beneficiary of the Brewers’ decision to offer Arcia a mental reset of sorts, as he’s hit well in his brief time since being acquired from the White Sox and offers a solid glove in his own right. While the 28-year-old certainly doesn’t possess the same upside as Arcia, who once ranked as one of the game’s 10 to 15 top overall prospects, he’ll serve as a stopgap while Arcia seeks to remedy his swing and improve upon his plate discipline in a lower-pressure setting.

Brewers Activate Chase Anderson, Option Freddy Peralta

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  • The Brewers activated righty Chase Anderson from the DL to take the ball yesterday, optioning Freddy Peralta to open a roster spot. It’s certainly good news for Milwaukee that Anderson was able to bounce back quickly from illness; now, the 30-year-old will look go get back on track after a messy start to the year. He has managed a 3.86 ERA in 51 1/3 frames, but has showing worrying trends in his peripherals that have fielding-independent pitching metrics raising red flags (6.02 FIP; 5.36 xFIP; 5.16 SIERA). The brief respite for Anderson may not have been the worst thing for all involved. In addition to giving him a chance to get sorted, the team surely now feels like it has a better sense of Peralta’s potential to help at the MLB level in the near term. His second outing wasn’t quite as stirring as his first, to be sure, but Peralta impressed overall by allowing just four earned runs on four hits while recording 18 strikeouts against eight walks in 9 2/3 innings.

Brewers Transactions: Pennington, Betancourt

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  • Brewers righty Josh Pennington has retired, Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweets. The 22-year-old made the decision after suffering a shoulder injury, per Rosiak. Pennington, a 29th-round pick of the Red Sox in 2014, joined the Brewers in December 2016 as part of a trade that featured more prominent names in Travis Shaw, Tyler Thornburg and Mauricio Dubon. He opened 2018 at the Single-A level, concluding his career with a pair of scoreless innings.
  • More from Rosiak, who reports that the Brewers have released infielder Javier Betancourt. He also came to the Brewers in a trade – a 2015 swap in which they sent reliever Francisco Rodriguez to Detroit. Betancourt was a promising prospect at the time, but he struggled to produce from 2016-17 as a member of the Brewers’ Double-A affiliate, with whom he hit .233/.286/.344 in 744 plate appearances. The 23-year-old then suffered a gunshot wound to the arm in his native Venezuela last November, but fortunately, he avoided any life-threatening injuries.

Latest On Jimmy Nelson's Recovery

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Greg Holland’s short tenure with the Cardinals took another disastrous turn Saturday when the once-dominant reliever got the loss against the Phillies, who scored twice on him in 2/3 of an inning. Holland, whom the Cards guaranteed $14MM after he went through spring training unemployed, has now pitched to a sky-high 7.30 ERA with astoundingly poor strikeout and walk rates (6.57 K/9, 10.22 BB/9) across 12 1/3 innings this season. Nevertheless, there’s no indication the the Cardinals will ask him to head to the minors to work through his issues, Joe Trezza of MLB.com tweets. Even if the Redbirds were interested in demoting Holland, they’d need the 32-year-old’s consent to do so. It doesn’t appear they’d receive it, though, as Holland “flatly denounced the idea” of going down, Trezza writes.

  • In better news for the Cardinals, ace Carlos Martinez received “encouraging” results on the right shoulder MRI he underwent this week, according to president John Mozeliak (Twitter link via Rob Rains of STLSportsPage). Martinez is on track to begin a throwing program Monday and return to the Cards’ rotation within one or two weeks, Rains adds. The fireballer has been out since May 8, before which he notched a 1.62 ERA/3.38 FIP across 50 innings.
  • Although the Royals own the majors’ second-worst record (14-31) and look like sellers in the making, they’re not yet focused on trades, general manager Dayton Moore tells Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com. “It all depends on where we’re at when that time comes,” Moore said. “Honestly, we’ve never been a team that has traded many guys off the 25-man roster. We’ll see where we are. There’s no reason to make advance decisions on that.” For now, the Moore-led Royals are more concerned about June’s draft, in which they own five of the first 58 picks, Flanagan points out. Once the draft’s in the rearview mirror, the Royals may have at least a few potential trade chips in contract-year veterans Mike Moustakas, Kelvin Herrera, Jon Jay, Lucas Duda and Alcides Escobar; speculatively, though, quality returns may be hard to come by in most of those cases.
  • The Pirates plan to activate second baseman Josh Harrison from the disabled list Sunday, manager Clint Hurdle told Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and other reporters Saturday. Harrison has been out since mid-April with a fractured left hand, and fellow second base options Sean Rodriguez, Max Moroff and Adam Frazier haven’t been particularly productive in his absence. The club optioned Moroff to Triple-A on Saturday.
  • As is the case with Martinez, the outlook for Brewers righty Jimmy Nelson is also positive. Nelson, who’s working back from the right shoulder surgery he underwent last September, got good news after his visit with Dr. Neal ElAttrache this week, per Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He’s now at the beginning of a 10-day rest period, Rosiak reports.

Brewers Place Ryan Braun On Disabled List

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  • The Brewers announced that Ryan Braun has been placed on the 10-day DL, retroactive to Monday, with tightness in his back. They’ll announce a corresponding move tomorrow. The injury doesn’t sound to be especially serious at present, but Braun has been battling the discomfort for some time now and performing poorly as a result, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel writes. Taking even the minimum 10 days off could help to get him back on track. The 34-year-old Braun hit .258/.304/.473 in April, but his bat cratered with a .121/.167/.242 slash thus far in the month of May.

Stephen Vogt To Undergo Shoulder Surgery

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Brewers catcher Stephen Vogt met with Dr. Neal ElAttrache to have another examination of his ailing shoulder and received an unfortunate but largely expected diagnosis, reports Adam McCalvy of MLB.com (Twitter links). He’ll require season-ending shoulder surgery that could threaten his career.

The 33-year-old Vogt was emotional last week when talking to reporters about the injury, which he sustained when making a throw to third base on a recent minor league rehab assignment. Vogt’s shoulder is said to have damage in each of the rotator cuff, labrum and anterior capsule, making the surgical procedure he’ll require extremely complex.

It’ll be the second major shoulder surgery of Vogt’s career, and the veteran backstop acknowledged last week that having been through a similar process before, there are “big implications” he’s being forced to think about. “I felt everything go wrong that could go wrong with a shoulder,” Vogt said at the time.

Vogt, commonly cited as a significant clubhouse fixture for both the Athletics and the Brewers (who acquired him last summer) is by all accounts beloved by both teammates and fans, as evidenced by the popular “I believe in Stephen Vogt” chants at O.Co Coliseum and the corresponding t-shirts created by fans. A two-time All-Star, Vogt is a career .251/.310/.416 hitter in parts of six big league seasons and slashed .254/.281/.508 with eight homers in just 129 plate appearances for the Brewers down the stretch last season.

[Related: Milwaukee Brewers depth chart]

With Vogt now decidedly out of the catching mix in Milwaukee, the Brewers will continue to rely on Manny Pina and Jett Bandy behind the plate. However, neither player has produced much offensively this season, which could push the Brewers to eventually give a longer look to either Jacob Nottingham or Christian Bethancourt. Giving Bethancourt a look would require a 40-man roster move for the Brewers. Vogt is already on the 60-day DL, so he couldn’t be transferred there as a means of clearing room.

Brewers To Place Chase Anderson On DL

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The Brewers will place right-hander Chase Anderson on the 10-day disabled list because of a stomach illness, according to a team announcement. His roster spot will go to righty Freddy Peralta, who’s coming up from Triple-A to make his major league debut Sunday.

Anderson was scheduled to take the ball Saturday in Colorado, but he was physically unable to pitch, leaving the Brewers to plug in lefty Brent Suter for a spot start. Suter struggled over five innings, and the Brewers dropped a 4-0 decision to fall to a still-solid 23-17 on the season. Some of Milwaukee’s success in 2018 has come thanks to Anderson, who leads the team in innings pitched (45.1) and ranks second among its starters in ERA (3.97).

While Anderson has prevented runs at a palatable clip, his other numbers aren’t particularly encouraging. Anderson’s strikeout (5.96 K/9) and walk (3.18 BB/9) rates have gone in the wrong direction since a breakout 2017, when he managed 8.47 and 2.61 in those categories, and he has only induced ground balls at a 36.4 percent clip. Thanks partially to his fly ball tendencies, Anderson has allowed 1.99 home runs per nine – up from .89 last season.

Anderson may well regress toward his subpar 6.02 FIP when he returns from the DL, but this is still an unfortunate development for the Brewers. They now have four established starters on the DL, with Jimmy Nelson, Zach Davies and Wade Miley being the others. Their injuries have opened the door for the 21-year-old Peralta, acquired as part of a 2015 trade with the Mariners centering on first baseman Adam Lind.

Peralta, who began his Brewers tenure at the Single-A level, now ranks as the club’s ninth-best prospect at MLB.com. He opened the year at Triple-A Colorado Springs, a difficult environment for pitchers, and posted a 3.63 ERA/3.12 FIP with 11.94 K/9, 4.41 BB/9 and a 53.6 percent grounder rate over 34 2/3 innings (seven starts).

Brewers Select Alec Asher, Wade Miley To 60-Day DL

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The Brewers have selected the contract of 26-year-old right-hander Alec Asher from Triple-A Colorado Springs. They’ve optioned right-hander Jacob Barnes to Triple-A while transferring lefty Wade Miley to the 60-Day DL to make room for Asher on the 25- and 40-man rosters, respectively.

Asher will be making both his 2018 debut and his Brewers debut if and when he pitches for the club. While he sports a very low career K/9 (5.86) across 116 2/3 career innings, he’s also somewhat stingy with walks (2.85 BB/9). Asher’s also pitched in the majors for the Phillies and Orioles, and has spent time in the farm systems of the Dodgers and Rangers.

The news of Miley going to the 60-day DL isn’t earth-shattering. Reports yesterday surfaced saying that the lefty’s updated timetable to return from an oblique strain involved a late-June target, despite an earlier rough estimate that he’d only be out four to six weeks. Miley opened the season rehabbing a groin injury, so he’s already taking his second trip to the DL since signing a minors deal with the Brew Crew in the offseason.

Brewers Add Darren Seferina On Minors Deal

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  • The Brewers announced late Thursday that they’ve signed second baseman Darren Seferina to a minor league deal. The former Cardinals’ farmhand was a fifth-round pick back in 2014 and opened the 2018 season in Double-A, where he struggled considerably. But Seferina, 24, split the 2017 season between Class-A Advanced and Double-A, faring well at both levels and hitting a combined .278/.357/.409 with seven homers, 17 doubles, 10 triples and 19 stolen bases. He’s never been considered one of the Cardinals’ premium prospects, but he’s hit fairly well throughout his minor league tenure with the exception of the first few weeks of the 2018 season.
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