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Brewers Select Joel Kuhnel

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The Brewers announced today that they have selected the contract of right-hander Joel Kuhnel. In corresponding moves, right-hander Carlos Rodríguez was optioned to Triple-A Nashville while left-hander Robert Gasser was transferred to the 60-day injured list. The Brewers also announced their previously-reported deal to acquire Dallas Keuchel from the Mariners.

Kuhnel, 29, has bounced around the league this year. He signed a minor league deal with the Astros in the offseason and made that club’s roster in mid-April. He was later designated for assignment and flipped to the Blue Jays in a cash deal, though that club kept him on optional assignment before eventually designated him for assignment again. He cleared waivers and elected free agency, which led to his minor league deal with the Brewers a couple of weeks back.

Around those transactions, he has tossed 25 Triple-A innings between three different organizations with a 2.52 earned run average, 14.3% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate and a lot of ground balls. Those peripherals are fairly in line with his major league track record, which consists of 85 2/3 innings dating back to his 2019 debut with the Reds. In that time, he has a 6.30 ERA, 19% strikeout rate, 6.3% walk rate and 52.2% ground ball rate.

He’ll give the club a fresh arm in their bullpen for the time being. He is in his final option season and can be easily sent back to Nashville at some point if the Brewers would like. He has not yet reached arbitration and could be retained beyond this season if he holds his 40-man spot all year, though he’ll be out of options next year.

Rodríguez was recently promoted for a rotation audition but currently has a 7.30 ERA through three starts. His optioning perhaps suggests that Keuchel will be added to the club’s roster to take that spot shortly. As noted by Adam McCalvy of MLB.com on X, the club lists tomorrow’s starter as TBA, with Colin Rea having previously been in that spot. That perhaps suggests that Keuchel will take the ball tomorrow and Rea will get an extra day of rest, though more information will undoubtedly be forthcoming between now and then.

As for Gasser, it was reported last week that he will require UCL surgery and is done for the year, so this transfer was an inevitable formality.

Elieser Hernandez Elects Free Agency

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Right-hander Elieser Hernandez rejected an outright assignment from the Brewers after clearing waivers and is now a free agent, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. Milwaukee had designated him for assignment last week.

The 29-year-old Hernandez allowed a pair of runs in six innings with the Brew Crew and also tossed 9 2/3 innings for the Dodgers earlier in the year. He was tagged for nine runs in his time with L.A. and is currently sitting on an unsightly 6.32 ERA in this season’s 15 2/3 frames. That’s near-identical match with the 6.35 ERA he logged in 62 1/3 innings with the Marlins during his most recent MLB stint, in 2022. Hernandez spent the bulk of the 2023 season on the minor league injured list with the Mets.

While the past few years have been tough, Hernandez looked like an interesting arm with Miami as recently as 2020-21, when he pitched a combined 159 2/3 innings with a 4.45 ERA (4.10 SIERA), a 25.1% strikeout rate and a 6.6% walk rate. Home runs have long been an issue though, as is often the case with relatively undersized right-handers. The 6’0″ Hernandez sits in the low 90s with a four-seamer that doesn’t offer premium spin, leaving his primary quite susceptible to extra-base damage. He’s surrendered 73 homers in 303 1/3 career innings (2.17 HR/9);

Hernandez has good command and has regularly missed bats at a high clip with his slider (and, to a lesser extent, his changeup). Opponents have posted a bleak .189/.226/.436 slash against his slider and a .204/.268/.409 line against his changeup in his career. His heater, however, has been pummeled for a .299/.375/.562 line.

Though he’s struggled in the big leagues, Hernandez touts a career 2.87 ERA, 31.7% strikeout rate and 6.9% walk rate in parts of six Triple-A seasons. That track record, plus his interesting blend of secondary pitches, could get him another look from a club seeking some additional pitching depth. Hernandez has a starter’s background and made five starts with the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate this season, though it’s fair to wonder what his repertoire would look like in a full-time bullpen role where his pedestrian fastball velocity might tick up a bit.

Robert Gasser To Undergo UCL Surgery

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June 21: Milwaukee indeed reinstated Junis from the 60-day IL this evening. The Brewers optioned Bradley Blalock to Triple-A Nashville to open a spot on the active roster. Their 40-man roster is at capacity.

June 20: Brewers rookie left-hander Robert Gasser will undergo surgery to fix the UCL in his throwing elbow, he told reporters this evening (X link via Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel). It won’t be clear until the operation whether he requires a full Tommy John reconstruction or a modified ligament repair. Even in the better scenario of a slightly less significant procedure like the internal brace surgery, Gasser said he expects to miss at least a full calendar year.

The 25-year-old southpaw made his major league debut last month. Gasser found immediate success, working 28 innings of 2.57 ERA ball through his first five starts. The University of Houston product only walked one of the 114 hitters he faced. While he certainly wouldn’t have maintained that level of control, Gasser has been a solid strike-thrower whom most scouts expect to stick in the rotation. Baseball America ranked him the #5 prospect in the Milwaukee system and slotted him among the sport’s top 100 minor league talents entering the season.

Gasser’s initial MLB success might have increased his stock a little bit, even though his 14% strikeout percentage was well below the swing-and-miss rates he’d shown in the minor leagues. He’d certainly performed well enough to continue taking the ball every fifth day in a patchwork Milwaukee rotation. Freddy Peralta and Colin Rea have been the constants. Peralta is the unquestioned staff ace, while Rea has stepped up with a 3.29 ERA over 76 2/3 innings despite a modest 16.7% strikeout rate.

Milwaukee has otherwise cycled through a number of starters as they’ve navigated various injuries. They have lost an entire rotation to extended absences. Wade Miley underwent Tommy John surgery after two starts. Jakob Junis has pitched once all season. DL Hall has been sidelined since April. Joe Ross went down in May with a lower back strain; he suffered a setback a couple weeks ago. Gasser is now also out for the season. That’s not even counting Brandon Woodruff, whom the Brewers knew would miss all of 2024 after he underwent shoulder surgery last October.

Bryse Wilson and Tobias Myers have stepped into the third and fourth rotation spots. While they’ve each managed decent run prevention numbers, neither pitcher is without question marks. Wilson opened the season as a reliever and has an unimpressive strikeout and walk profile as a starter. Myers is a former minor league signee on the sixth organization of his professional career. His 21.7% strikeout rate and 8.7% walk percentage are fine, but he’s had to work around an elevated home run rate.

The fifth rotation spot has recently fallen to Carlos Rodriguez, a rookie who has allowed seven runs in 8 1/3 innings over his first two starts. Junis is nearing a return from the 60-day injured list — MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets that he could be reinstated as soon as tomorrow — but he isn’t expected to immediately step back into a rotation spot. Junis has only made two abbreviated rehab appearances for Triple-A Nashville. The Brewers have suggested he’s likely to work out of the bullpen initially as they try to expedite his return to the major league staff.

In that context, it’s remarkable that the Brewers have managed a 44-30 record and pulled out to a fairly comfortable 7.5 game lead in the NL Central. They’ll almost certainly bring in at least one starting pitcher before the July 30 trade deadline. There’s a reasonable argument for GM Matt Arnold and his staff to land multiple rotation pickups. Losing Gasser should only add to the urgency to address what was the team’s biggest question mark well before their last couple months of terrible injury news.

Gasser is on the MLB injured list and will collect service time and be paid at the league minimum rate for whatever time he spends on the IL. Milwaukee can move him to the 60-day IL to open a 40-man roster spot whenever that need arises. (They already have a vacancy for Junis’ reinstatement after designating Elieser Hernández for assignment last night.) Gasser will not get to a full service year and remains controllable for six seasons beyond this one.

Brewers Designate Elieser Hernández For Assignment

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The Brewers announced a few roster moves before tonight’s game in Anaheim. Milwaukee recalled rookie infielder Tyler Black and right-hander Bradley Blalock. They optioned infielder Oliver Dunn to Triple-A Nashville and designated righty Elieser Hernández to open spots on the active roster. The Hernández DFA drops the 40-man roster tally to 39.

It’s the first major league call for Blalock, whom Milwaukee added to the 40-man last offseason. Blalock was drafted by the Red Sox out of high school five years ago. Milwaukee acquired his at last summer’s trade deadline in the deal sending struggling infielder Luis Urías to Boston. Blalock finished the season in High-A, yet the Brewers were still concerned another team would pluck him away in the Rule 5 draft.

Milwaukee optioned the 6’2″ righty to Double-A Biloxi to start this year. Working from the rotation, he has pitched to a 4.24 ERA through 51 innings. Blalock’s 18.9% strikeout rate is modest, though he has only walked 7.8% of batters faced. The Georgia native has shown advanced control in his minor league career. Baseball America ranked him as the #22 prospect in the Milwaukee organization heading into the season, while he checked in 15th in the system on Keith Law’s list at The Athletic. Both outlets suggest he has a chance to stick in the rotation behind a low-mid 90s fastball and decent secondary offerings.

For the time being, Blalock could step into the long relief role which Hernández had filled. Milwaukee has enough rotation questions to potentially give the 23-year-old a starting look at some point. The recently promoted Carlos Rodríguez has allowed seven runs in 8 1/3 innings over his first two big league starts.

Hernández spent less than two weeks in Milwaukee. The Brewers signed him to a major league contract on June 8, two days after he elected free agency upon being outrighted by the Dodgers. The Venezuelan-born righty pitched four times, tossing six innings of two-run ball with a pair of strikeouts and walks apiece. Hernández had made five appearances with Los Angeles and owns a 6.32 ERA in 15 2/3 big league frames this year. The former Marlins starter will probably end up on waivers in the next few days and could return to free agency if he again goes unclaimed.

Black, one of the game’s better offensive prospects, steps back into the MLB infield mix. The Brewers called up the Wright State product for the first time in late April. Black only got into seven games before being optioned back to Nashville. He has turned in strong numbers there, hitting .275/.374/.483 with nine homers in 243 plate appearances.

Brewers Notes: Contreras, Bukauskas

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William Contreras underwent concussion testing following the Brewers’ 5-4 win over the Reds today, after the star catcher was involved with a collision with Stuart Fairchild on the game’s final play.  Fairchild was thrown out at home plate trying to score from second base on a Santiago Espinal single, and Contreras was down on the ground for a few moments after being clipped by Fairchild’s forearm.

Placement on the concussion-related injured list would keep Contreras out of action for a minimum of seven days, though it isn’t yet clear if an IL stint is under consideration.  It probably seems likely that he won’t be in Monday’s lineup for precautionary reasons, and the Brewers can only hope that the star catcher has avoided any kind of head injury.  Contreras had two more hits today to raise his season-long slash line to .305/.367/.467 over 316 plate appearances, for an outstanding 137 wRC+ and 2.6 fWAR (17th in all of baseball).

  • Circling back to the Brewers for the final item, manager Pat Murphy told reporters (including Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) that JB Bukauskas will undergo an MRI after suffering a setback.  Bukauskas has been out since mid-April due to a lat strain, and pitched in his first rehab outing last Thursday but emerged with continued soreness.  Bukauskas has been in the Brewers’ organization since being claimed off the Mariners’ waiver wire in April 2023, though he has battled multiple injuries during his time in Milwaukee.

Brewers Outright James Meeker

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TODAY: Meeker has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A, according to Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

June 11: The Brewers announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Carlos Rodriguez, a move that was reported last week. To get him onto the active roster, righty Kevin Herget was optioned to Triple-A Nashville. To open a 40-man spot, righty James Meeker was designated for assignment.

Meeker, 29, was just added to the club’s roster on Friday. He made his major league debut that night, tossing one scoreless inning before getting optioned the next day when the club signed Elieser Hernández.

Though it’s surely tough to lose his roster spot so quickly, the fact that he even made it at all is something for Meeker to be proud of, given his long and unusual path to the majors. He went undrafted in 2018 and then spent a few years in Indy Ball. He got a minor league deal with the Brewers in 2021 when he was already 26 years old.

He spent the past few years climbing up the ladder, including 27 innings between Double-A and Triple-A this year. He has a 2.67 earned run average on the farm so far this year with a 27.3% strikeout rate and 10.9% walk rate. He’s generally been a ground ball pitcher throughout his time in the minors, keeping batted balls on the dirt roughly half the time.

The Brewers will now have a week to trade Meeker or pass him through waivers. Players with three years of service time or a previous career outright can reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, but Meeker doesn’t meet either of those requirements. If he passes through waivers unclaimed, he’ll stick with the Brewers as a depth arm without taking up a roster spot.

Brewers’ Abner Uribe To Undergo Knee Surgery

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Right-hander Abner Uribe was placed on Triple-A Nashville’s injured list last week with an unspecified knee problem, and will now undergo surgery to fix a right lateral meniscus tear, Brewers president of baseball operations Matt Arnold told MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy.  The severity of the injury won’t be fully known until doctors begin the operation, and thus Arnold indicated that the outcome could be anything from “a light cleanup” to a more intensive procedure that could threaten the rest of Uribe’s season.

The injury continues what has already been a tough season for Uribe, who posted a 6.91 ERA over 14 1/3 innings out of Milwaukee’s bullpen before he was optioned to Triple-A at the start of May.  His most notable on-field moment of 2024 was an altercation with Jose Siri in a brawl between the Brewers and Rays on April 30.  Uribe was issued a six-game suspension that was lowered to four games on appeal, though he has yet to serve any of that suspension (which applies to MLB games only) since he has been in the minors.

The move back to Triple-A seemed to get Uribe on track, as he had posted a 1.04 ERA over 8 2/3 innings and seven appearances with Nashville.  Another call-up to the big leagues seemed likely at some point, though now Uribe’s development has been interrupted and perhaps stalled altogether by this knee injury.  The righty is unfortunately quite familiar with meniscus injuries, as a torn left meniscus cost him virtually the entire 2022 season with Double-A Biloxi.

Uribe rebounded from that lost year by pitching well in the minors in 2023, and then excelling in his first taste of MLB action.  The hard-throwing reliever averaged 100.7 mph on his fastball over his 30 2/3 innings with Milwaukee last season, en route to a 1.76 ERA, 30.7% strikeout rate, and a 53% grounder rate.  However, Uribe did enjoy a .239 BABIP, and his 15.7% walk rate continued the control issues that plagued him throughout his minor league career.  Those problems worsened this season, as Uribe’s walk rate rose to 18.2% while his strikeout rate plummeted to 21.2%, resulting in that inflated 6.91 ERA.  (His 4.94 SIERA is almost two full runs better, though still uninspiring.)

The surgery stands out as a lousy birthday gift for a pitcher who turns 24 later this week.  Uribe’s young age means that there is plenty of time for him to figure out his control issues and perhaps emerge as a dangerous bullpen weapon, yet Uribe has already amassed a lengthy injury history at an early stage in his career.  Because the injury occurred in Triple-A ball, Uribe won’t amass any big league service time while he is on the minor league IL, unless the Brewers at some point promote him and place him on the MLB version of the 60-day IL as a means to create 40-man roster space.

Brewers Sign Joel Kuhnel To Minor League Deal

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The Brewers signed righty Joel Kuhnel to a minor league contract yesterday, as first indicated on the transaction log at MLB.com. He got to work quickly, making his first appearance for the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate in Nashville last night. Kuhnel pitched an inning and allowed a pair of runs on two hits and a walk with two strikeouts.

The Brewers organization is the third stop of the season for Kuhnel, who’s also been with the Astros and Blue Jays this season. He allowed four runs in two big league frames for Houston, but the bulk of Kuhnel’s time has been spent in Triple-A. Between Sugar Land, Buffalo and now Nashville, he’s pitched a combined 21 innings of Triple-A ball with a 3.00 earned run average. Kuhnel has only struck out 10.1% of his opponents in Triple-A but also sports a strong 6.7% walk rate and a massive 60.3% ground-ball rate.

This year’s brief look with the ’Stros was the fifth season in which Kuhnel has seen work at the MLB level. In 85 2/3 innings, all spent with the Reds or Astros, the 6’5″ righty has a 6.30 ERA with a 19% strikeout rate, 6.3% walk rate and 52.5% grounder rate. He’s averaged just under 96 mph on both his four-seamer and sinker in the majors, typically pairing those two fastballs with a mid-80s slider and a changeup that’s averaged 90 mph.

Milwaukee has a slew of pitchers on the injured list, although they’ve been hit hardest in the rotation. That’s taken an indirect toll on the relief corps, however. The mountain of injuries has pushed reliever Bryse Wilson back into a starting role, and it’s also prompted the Brewers to use their relievers more heavily than any team in the sport. Brewers starting pitchers have the fewest innings of any team in MLB (316 1/3), while their 277 innings from the bullpen are naturally the most in MLB. Add in that star closer Devin Williams has yet to pitch this season due to a back injury, and stockpiling bullpen depth becomes all the more critical.

Kuhnel will give the Brewers another experienced option the next time they need to pull a fresh arm up from Nashville on the back of a bullpen day or short start from their patchwork rotation.

Garrett Mitchell Begins Rehab Assignment

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Brewers outfielder Garrett Mitchell began a rehab assignment with the team’s Arizona Complex League affiliate tonight, tweets Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. It’s the 25-year-old’s first official game action of the 2024 season and opens a 20-day window for his return to the major league roster.

Mitchell broke his left hand late in Spring Training and has been shelved all season. It’s his second consecutive year with a notable early-season injury. The UCLA product missed the vast majority of the 2023 campaign after sustaining a left shoulder subluxation that required surgery. He was out between mid-April and the end of September, only returning for three games at the tail end of the season. Milwaukee left him off their playoff roster, presumably because of concern he’d be rusty after the extended layoff.

After a normal offseason, Mitchell entered camp as the likeliest option to take the center field job. Milwaukee moved Jackson Chourio to the corners and at least considered giving Sal Frelick run at third base. It might be tougher for Mitchell to crack the everyday lineup now.

Frelick has played all of four regular season innings at the hot corner, where Joey Ortiz has established himself as a productive player. Frelick is hitting at a league average level (.254/.333/.328) while playing all three outfield spots. Blake Perkins has earned the majority of the center field work by playing plus defense while turning in a solid .254/.327/.386 slash line over 211 plate appearances. Christian Yelich is having a fantastic season in left field.

Short of optioning Chourio, the Brewers could be hard-pressed to open everyday at-bats in the outfield. The 20-year-old has had a rocky first couple months in the big leagues, hitting .220/.263/.363 over 195 plate appearances. Owner Mark Attanasio nevertheless shot down the idea of demoting Chourio to the minors a couple weeks ago. “I don’t see where he’s going to learn anything at Triple-A,” the owner told reporters in late May (link via MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy).

Mitchell is more than five years Chourio’s senior, but he’s perhaps even less established at the MLB level. Thanks to his background as a college draftee and the recent injuries, Mitchell only has 141 big league plate appearances under his belt. His .278/.343/.452 slash line is well above-average, but that’s driven by a .441 batting average on balls in play. While Mitchell’s speed and all-fields approach should translate to a high BABIP, a .441 mark is essentially impossible for any hitter to maintain. He’ll need to cut down on his 38.3% career strikeout rate to compensate for that forthcoming batted ball regression.

In less promising injury news, manager Pat Murphy told reporters this evening that starter Joe Ross had a setback in his recovery from a lower back strain (X link via Todd Rosiak of the Journal-Sentinel). Murphy didn’t provide specifics beyond noting that the right-hander won’t be ready to return next week as initially hoped. Ross has been out since May 21. He made nine starts before hitting the IL, turning in a 4.50 ERA over 42 innings.

Brewers’ Robert Gasser Weighing Elbow Surgery

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4:25pm: Manager Pat Murphy said he’s assuming that Gasser is done for the year, although that’s not yet confirmed, per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com on X. “I hope I’m wrong,” Murphy said. “I really do.”

10:54am: Brewers lefty Robert Gasser has already received a pair of opinions — one from the team’s medical staff, another from renowned surgeon Dr. Neal ElAttrache — on his ailing left elbow and is headed to meet with Dr. Keith Meister to receive a third opinion, per Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Gasser told the Brewers beat this weekend that his ulnar collateral ligament is “not as strong as it should be” but is also not “broken.” ElAttrache recommended surgery, Gasser explained, but more for durability concerns than to repair immediate damage. ElAttrache also told Gasser that non-surgical rehab could be a viable option because the ligament is not currently ruptured.

Understandably, it seems Gasser would prefer to avoid going under the knife if at all possible. Surgery is a last resort in these cases, and as Gasser himself said of the two opinions he’s received thus far: “They both said I can rehab. I’m just trying to figure out what the best move is.”

Any form of UCL surgery — be it Tommy John surgery, an internal brace procedure or a hybrid of the two — would wipe out the remainder of Gasser’s season. A full Tommy John or a Tommy John/internal brace hybrid would keep Gasser out of action late into the 2025 season at least. A strict internal brace without a full UCL reconstruction could have him back on the mound earlier than that.

Given that we’re now into mid-June, there’s perhaps some extra merit the non-surgical route — depending on the type of surgery being considered. Recovery from either Tommy John surgery or that hybrid procedure would come with a 12- to 16-month rehab window in all likelihood, with most cases erring toward the later end of that spectrum. Speculatively speaking, if the most realistic rehab scenario has Gasser returning in mid-to-late August next season anyhow, he could view the rest-and-rehab route as effectively risking the final six weeks of next year for a chance at pitching a whole season in 2025.

Whichever path Gasser takes, he’s in for an extended absence from the Milwaukee rotation. That’s a crucial hit, given both the left-hander’s strong results so far in his debut campaign and the wave of other injuries Milwaukee has incurred. In his first five starts, the 25-year-old Gasser pitched to a 2.57 ERA in 28 innings of work.

Gasser, acquired from the Padres in the 2022 Josh Hader trade, entered the season ranked among the Brewers organization’s best pitching prospects. His 14% strikeout rate in the majors is problematically low, but he’s offset that to this point with Maddux-esque precision, issuing a walk to just one the 114 batters he’s faced. Both of those rate stats are likely to change over a larger sample; the southpaw fanned 28% of his Triple-A opponents and walked 8.4% of them in 135 innings in 2023.

From a team perspective, the Brewers will be without Brandon Woodruff for the entire season while he recovers from last October’s shoulder surgery. Left-hander Wade Miley is done for the year after undergoing Tommy John surgery last month. Each of Jakob Junis, Joe Ross and DL Hall is also on the injured list at the moment. That’s left the Brewers with Freddy Peralta, Colin Rea, Bryse Wilson and Tobias Myers in the rotation. Milwaukee could turn to pitching prospect Carlos Rodriguez to take the ball tomorrow.

Regardless of what happens with Gasser, starting pitching will likely be a focus for Milwaukee as next month’s trade deadline approaches. Their depth has already been stretched exceptionally thin, and any further injuries would prove difficult to overcome. Despite all their injuries, the Brewers are the only NL Central club with a winning record and currently hold a 6.5-game lead over the Reds and Cubs (both tied at 32-34 on the season). Even if the division looks quite winnable right now, they’ll still need reinforcements for a potential postseason rotation.

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