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Brewers Place Corbin Burnes, Zack Godley On IL

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The Brewers placed right-handers Corbin Burnes and Zack Godley on the injured list Thursday, the team announced. Manager Craig Counsell was unable to discuss why Burnes went on the IL, which suggests the hurler tested positive for COVID-19, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweets. Meanwhile, Godley landed on the 10-day IL with a right index finger contusion. Milwaukee recalled righty Alec Bettinger and lefty Eric Lauer in corresponding moves.

While it’s unclear how much time Burnes will miss, the Brewers can ill afford to go without him for long. The flamethrowing 26-year-old broke through as one of the game’s premier starters last season and has continued to roll in 2021. Burnes has pitched to 1.53 ERA with even more impressive fielding-independent numbers (0.50 FIP, 1.18 xFIP, 1.24 SIERA), and he has somehow managed to avoid walking anyone over the first 29 1/3 innings of his season. Not only that, but Burnes has fanned a whopping 49 hitters – putting him two strikeouts away from tying Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen’s 51:0 K:BB ratio for the all-time record to begin a season.

The loss of Godley is much less troubling for the Brewers, though it does further subtract from their starting depth. Milwaukee, which is also without injured starter Brett Anderson, selected Godley’s contract before its game against the Marlins on Wednesday. Godley threw just three innings of three-run ball in a 6-2 loss before exiting with his injury.

Lauer, who made 54 starts between San Diego and Milwaukee from 2018-20, will slot into the Brewers’ rotation for the time being. Although Lauer faced a daunting opponent, the Dodgers, on Thursday, he rose to the occasion with five shutout innings in a 2-1 victory.

Brewers Select Jordan Zimmermann

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The Brewers have selected right-hander Jordan Zimmermann and optioned fellow righty Patrick Weigel to their alternate site, the team announced.

Zimmermann’s promotion comes with the Brewers dealing with a rash of health problems, including in their rotation. Left-hander Brett Anderson went on the 10-day injured list with a strained hamstring last week, while replacement Zack Godley landed on the 10-day IL after one start because of a finger issue. Worst of all, the Brewers placed star righty Corbin Burnes on the IL on Wednesday, likely on account of a positive COVID-19 test.

Zimmermann was a standout in his own right earlier in his career, though his production has tanked since he left the Nationals for the Tigers on a five-year, $110MM contract prior to the 2016 campaign. The former workhorse threw 514 1/3 innings with Detroit, including just 5 2/3 last year, and pitched to a woeful 5.63 ERA. As a result of that miserable stretch, Zimmermann was unable to land a guaranteed contract during his trip to free agency this past offseason. The 34-year-old sat on the open market for a few months before signing a minor league deal with the Brewers in February.

Brewers To Place Zack Godley On Injured List With Bruised Finger

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  • Brewers starter Zack Godley is headed to the injured list with a bruised finger, per Todd Rosiak and Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The right-hander left this afternoon’s game against the Marlins in the fourth inning after sustaining the injury on a bunt attempt the frame before. Today’s outing marked Godley’s first appearance of the season, as the 31-year-old was only selected to the 40-man roster earlier in the day. With Godley out, Eric Lauer will start tomorrow against the Dodgers and could be in line to join Brandon Woodruff, Corbin Burnes, Freddy Peralta and Adrian Houser in the rotation.

Mariners Claim Jacob Nottingham, Designate Brandon Brennan

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The Mariners announced that they have claimed catcher Jacob Nottingham off waivers from the Brewers. To make room for Nottingham, the Mariners designated right-hander Brandon Brennan for assignment.

Nottingham, whom the Brewers designated last week, will now join his fourth major league organization. He entered the pro ranks as a fourth-round pick of the Astros in 2013 and has also spent time with the Athletics. The 26-year-old was a prospect of some note in his younger days, but he hasn’t gotten an extended look in the bigs. Nottingham has so far amassed 85 plate appearances, all from 2018-20, and batted a playable .203/.306/.432 with five home runs. He’s out of minor league options, so he’ll have to stick on a Seattle roster that has received bottom-of-the-barrel production from catchers Luis Torrens and Tom Murphy in 2021.

The soon-to-be 30-year-old Brennan became a Mariner in December 2018 when they took him from the Rockies in the Rule 5 Draft. Brennan appeared with the Mariners from 2019-20, during which he dealt with oblique and shoulder issues and combined for 54 2/3 innings of 4.45 ERA/4.52 SIERA pitching with a 23.6 percent strikeout rate against a 12.7 percent walk rate. He still has three minor league options left.

Brewers Designate Phil Bickford For Assignment

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The Brewers have designated right-hander Phil Bickford for assignment, per a club announcement. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to right-hander Zack Godley, whose contract has been selected from the team’s alternate training site. Manager Craig Counsell indicated last night that Godley’s contract would be selected, and outfielder Corey Ray would be optioned, but the corresponding 40-man move was only revealed this morning.

Bickford, 25, was the No. 10 overall pick by the Blue Jays back in 2013. He opted to attend college rather than sign, but he was again a first-rounder once eligible, going to the Giants with the No. 18 overall selection. San Francisco traded Bickford and catching prospect to Milwaukee in exchange for lefty Will Smith back in 2016, but Bickford has yet to establish himself as a viable big league arm. He’s tossed just two innings in the Majors — one in 2020 and one in 2021 — allowing a total of six runs.

Bickford’s path to the big leagues hasn’t exactly been a straightforward one. He served a 50-game suspension after a second positive test for a drug of abuse in 2017. Upon returning, he was struck in the hand by a batted ball, fracturing both the pinkie and ring finger in his pitching hand, which required surgery to repair. Because of that suspension and surgery, Bickford totaled just 51 2/3 innings from 2017-18.

A return to the mound in a bullpen role in 2019 proved quite fruitful, when Bickford notched a 2.48 ERA and a whopping 41.1 percent strikeout rate in Class-A Advanced, but the lack of minor league games in 2020 and so far in 2021 hasn’t done any favors for his development. All in all, he sports a 2.98 ERA in 226 2/3 frames, but Bickford will also turn 26 this summer and hasn’t pitched above High-A with the exception of those two MLB innings.

The Brewers will have a week to trade Bickford or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. Given his former pedigree, a solid minor league track record and a pair of minor league options remaining, it’s possible that another club will look at him as an intriguing project.

Brewers To Select Zack Godley

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The Brewers will select right-hander Zack Godley’s contract prior to their game against the Marlins on Wednesday, manager Craig Counsell told Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other reporters. Godley is not on the Brewers’ 40-man roster, which is full, so they will have to clear a spot before he makes the start in Miami.

Godley, whom the Brewers signed to a minor league contract last month, will earn at an $800K rate now that he’s back in the majors. The 31-year-old will also temporarily take over in the Brewers’ rotation for left-hander Brett Anderson, who’s on the 10-day injured list with a strained hamstring.

Godley brings a fair amount of experience in teams’ rotations, having started in 88 of 136 appearances since he debuted with the Diamondbacks in 2015. He put together impressive numbers during his best season, 2017, when he threw 155 innings of 3.37 ERA/3.67 SIERA ball with a 55.3 percent groundball rate. Godley has not approached that type of success since then, however, and is now coming off an especially difficult two-year stretch divided among the D-backs, Blue Jays and Red Sox.

Last season in Boston, opposing offenses lit up Godley for 42 hits and nine home runs in 28 2/3 innings, which helped lead to a career-worst 8.16 ERA. Godley, who averaged just under 90 mph on his fastball, also registered a personal-low grounder rate (40.8) and a below-average strikeout percentage (19.6).

Brewers Select Pablo Reyes

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The Brewers have selected the contract of utility player Pablo Reyes and optioned outfielder Corey Ray, the team announced.

A member of the Pittsburgh organization from 2012-20, Reyes joined the Brewers on a minor league deal this past winter. An 80-game suspension for performance-enhancing drugs wiped out Reyes’ 2020 season, but he did see major league action in each of the previous two campaigns. The 27-year-old made an impressive debut over 63 plate appearances in 2018, but his production plummeted across a much larger sample size (157 PA) the next season. Overall, Reyes has batted .229/.295/.368 with five home runs in 220 trips to the plate at the game’s highest level.

Defensively, Reyes has played both middle infield positions, third base and all three outfield spots in the majors. Even if Reyes doesn’t hit well, he’ll at least give the Brewers a defensively versatile option off their bench.

Latest On Christian Yelich

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TODAY: The Brewers are hopeful that Yelich may be able to return to the roster before the end of the week, per Jon Morosi of the MLB Network (via Twitter). That would be a pretty sizable pickup for the Brewers, who sit atop the NL Central despite numerous injuries on the offensive side of the ball.

APRIL 25: Yelich’s MRI didn’t reveal any structural damage, Counsell told Tom Haudricourt (Twitter link) and other reporters.  The MRI “was to rule out anything and get another piece of information.  We ruled out anything significant,” Counsell said.

APRIL 24: Christian Yelich hasn’t played since April 11 due to a lower back strain that eventually led to an injured list placement on April 17.  Since that placement was backdated to April 14, Yelich was eligible to be activated today, though Brewers manager Craig Counsell said yesterday that Yelich wouldn’t make an immediate return.

Counsell’s latest update today is a little more concerning, as the skipper told Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Twitter links) and other reporters that Yelich would receive an MRI on his ailing back.  Yelich has “hit a plateau” in his recovery process, as Counsell put it, and the MRI will allow all parties “to get more information” on the outfielder’s condition.

Yelich has been dealing with lingering back issues for a few years, including a minor bout of soreness during Spring Training that caused him to miss a few Cactus League games.  The fact that Yelich’s back is still bothering him after close to two weeks is certainly cause for further examination, and the hope is that the MRI won’t reveal a more longer-term problem.

Plagued by minor injuries and just a lack of timing in 2020, even the “off-year” version of Yelich was still good enough to contribute a 111 OPS+/113 wRC+ and a .205/.356/.430 slash line over 247 plate appearances last season.  While not back to his MVP-level form of the 2018-19 seasons, Yelich was showing some improvement (though a lack of power) over 2020’s numbers in his first few games this year, hitting .333/.459/.367 over his first 37 PA.

Avisail Garcia also isn’t playing today due to a sore back, adding to the Brewers’ injury woes in the outfield with Yelich, Lorenzo Cain, Derek Fisher, and utilitymen Jace Peterson and Tim Lopes all on the 10-day IL.  Jackie Bradley Jr. is the only regular left for Milwaukee, with Billy McKinney and Tyrone Taylor picking up the slack for their sidelined teammates.

Brewers Place Brett Anderson, Josh Lindblom On 10-Day IL

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The Brewers announced that left-hander Brett Anderson (strained right hamstring) and right-hander Josh Lindblom (right knee effusion) have been on the 10-day injured list.  Right-hander Phil Bickford and outfielder Corey Ray were called up from the alternate training site to fill the spots on the active roster, and Ray is now in line to make his Major League debut.

Anderson threw only 11 pitches Friday before being removed from his start against the Cubs, resulting in an unexpected bullpen game for Milwaukee and a 15-2 loss.  Lindblom was the next pitcher in to replace Anderson, and the two hurlers combined to allow 11 earned runs over four innings of work.

With Anderson out of action, the Brewers could lean on their bullpen to cover his next start or two, or turn to one of multiple starters working at the team’s alternate site.  Jordan Zimmermann, Zack Godley, and Eric Lauer are all candidates, with Patrick Weigel perhaps the top option among the more inexperienced candidates (Weigel has only two-thirds of an inning as a big leaguer).

Ray was the fifth overall pick of the 2016 draft, and he is getting his first taste of the majors at age 26.  As a pro, Ray has shown only flashes of the potential he showed at the University of Louisville, battling injuries and hitting .235/.311/.406 over 1665 plate appearances in the Milwaukee farm system.  MLB Pipeline still ranks Ray 24th among all Brewers prospects, noting the plus speed and plus glovework and throwing arm that make him a viable center fielder, but Ray’s hitting ability is has been held back by a lot of strikeouts.  Given that the Brewers are dealing with several outfield injuries, Ray should get a pretty immediate opportunity for playing time.

Brewers Notes: Yelich, Anderson

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  • Brewers star Christian Yelich won’t be activated from the injured list when he is first eligible Saturday, manager Craig Counsell tells reporters (Twitter link via Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Counsell didn’t offer a potential return date for Yelich, who hasn’t played since April 11 because of a back ailment. Billy McKinney has been the Brewers’ main left field fill-in since Yelich went down, and though he hasn’t gotten on base much, his .275/.293/.550 line through 41 plate appearances is 25 percent above the league-average mark, according to FanGraphs’ wRC+ metric.
  • McKinney hit his third homer of the season Friday, but the Brewers still took a 15-2 beating at the hands of the division-rival Cubs. The game started inauspiciously for Milwaukee, which saw starter Brett Anderson exit with an injury in the first inning after facing four batters and surrendering three earned runs on three hits. Anderson said after the game that he’s dealing with a hamstring issue and will undergo an MRI, Adam McCalvy of MLB.com tweets. The Brewers will know Saturday whether the 33-year-old southpaw will require an IL stint.
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