Brewers Place Adrian Houser On Injured List
Sep. 28: The Brewers have made it official, announcing Houser’s placement on the 15-day injured list with a right groin strain. Right-hander Justin Topa was recalled in a corresponding move.
Sep. 27: The Brewers are planning to place starter Adrian Houser on the 15-day injured list, manager Craig Counsell informed reporters (including Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel). The righty left today’s start against the Cardinals in the fourth inning due to what appeared to be a right groin injury.
It’ll be Houser’s second IL stint of the season. He lost around six weeks this summer after suffering a flexor strain in his forearm. Houser returned from that issue around a month ago and reassumed his role in the starting rotation after a couple brief appearances to build up his pitch count. Unfortunately, he’s now done for at least the remainder of the regular season, and it’s possible he won’t throw another pitch at any point this year.
Milwaukee wound up dropping tonight’s contest to St. Louis, officially eliminating them from the NL Central race. They’ve long known they were playing for a Wild Card spot, and they remain a game and a half back of the Phillies with a week to play. The Brew Crew play St. Louis again tomorrow before closing the season with four games against the Marlins and three against the Diamondbacks. Philadelphia has two games against the Cubs, then four with the Nationals and three against the Astros to wrap things up. The Phils hold the tiebreaker over the Brewers, so Milwaukee will need to leapfrog Philadelphia (or, less likely, San Diego) in the standings to earn a playoff berth.
They’ll have to cover one of Houser’s scheduled starts along the way. Rotation injuries have been a major problem for the Brewers, as they’ve also lost Freddy Peralta and Aaron Ashby for extended stretches recently. Both pitchers were reinstated from the injured list last week, but they’ve each been on tight pitch limits without the benefit of a minor league rehab stint. Milwaukee has been left mostly trying to patch things together behind their top duo of Corbin Burnes and Brandon Woodruff, and Houser’s injury only exacerbates the issue.
It hasn’t been a great season for the 29-year-old Houser, who entered tonight’s start with a 4.62 ERA through 99 1/3 innings. He rode an elite 59% ground-ball rate to a 3.22 ERA in 28 outings last season, but that grounder rate has dropped to 47.2% this season. Houser’s strikeout and swing-and-miss rates have also gone in the wrong direction, but Milwaukee has continued to rely upon him as a back-of-the-rotation arm when he’s been healthy enough to take the mound.
Brewers Outright Jonathan Davis
The Brewers have sent Jonathan Davis outright to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. There had not been any public indication that Davis had been designated for assignment but the club evidently quietly slipped him through waivers in recent days.
Davis, 30, was originally drafted by the Blue Jays in 2013 and stayed in that organization through August of 2021, before going to the Yankees on a waiver claim. He made his MLB debut in 2018 and spent the next few years oscillating between the minors and the majors, getting into 134 total games by the end of 2021. Davis has got the life of a speedy outfielder with strong defense but never provided much with the bat in the big leagues. He went from the Jays to the Yankees on a waiver claim before being outrighted, electing free agency and signing a minor league deal with the Brewers for 2022.
He was selected to Milwaukee’s 40-man roster in June and got into 37 games this year. He stole seven bases and was worth four Outs Above Average in center field in that short time, but hit just .224/.344/.237 for a wRC+ of 77. That’s a bit better than his career line of .185/.291/.245 but still below league-average.
Davis was placed on the injured list in late August due to a right elbow effusion and began a rehab assignment on September 9. It seems the club didn’t want Davis to retake his roster spot and outrighted him rather than putting him back in the majors. As a player who has previously been outrighted in his career, Davis can reject the assignment and elect free agency. It’s not clear if he has done so, though even if he accepts, he would have that right again at the end of the season.
Brewers Reinstate Freddy Peralta
The Milwaukee Brewers announced this morning that they reinstated right-hander Freddy Peralta from the 15-day injured list. In a corresponding move, the team has also placed righty Luis Perdomo on the 15-day injured list with a right calf strain. In addition, it was announced that Peralta would start today’s game against the Reds.
Peralta’s return is excellent news for Milwaukee. The Brewers are just 1.5 games behind Philadelphia for the final wild card spot in the NL and are sure to receive a boost from Peralta, who has pitched effectively this year despite being limited to just 15 starts by injuries. In 70 1/3 innings pitched this year, Peralta has posted a 3.45 ERA and a 3.07 FIP.
In addition to their push to make the playoffs, the Brewers will have to figure out how best to round out their rotation ahead of a possible 3 game Wild Card series. Should the Brewers manage to make the postseason, Peralta’s return adds another potential option for a playoff rotation facing a great deal of uncertainty. The Brewers are sure to front their playoff rotation with reigning NL Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes and fellow righty Brandon Woodruff, but it’s an open question as to who may follow them. Peralta joins Aaron Ashby and Eric Lauer as starters who have recently come off the injured list but are not fully stretched out yet; Ashby threw just 41 pitches in his most recent start, with Lauer throwing 66. Even Adrian Houser, who returned from the injured list in late August, has pitched into the sixth inning only once since his reinstatement. With all the uncertainty surrounding who could start a potential Game 3 of a playoff series for Milwaukee, an effective return start from Peralta would provide a significant boost.
This marks the end of the season for Perdomo, who has pitched 23 2/3 innings in 14 games for the Brewers. While he posted a slightly above average 3.80 ERA this year, his 4.80 FIP and significantly reduced strikeout rate from his years with the Padres indicate his success may have some luck baked into it. The Brewers will have a decision to make with Perdomo this offseason, as they can retain him for 2023 through arbitration.
NL Central Notes: Ashby, Lauer, Peralta, Thompson, Newcomb
The Brewers are planning to activate left-hander Aaron Ashby to start tomorrow’s game, tweets Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. Ashby went on the IL August 22 due to shoulder inflammation and will now return after just under a month. The southpaw likely won’t be ticketed for extended duty at first as he hasn’t ventured out onto any kind of rehab assignment. He spoke to McCalvy about the decision, saying that he has been feeling good in recent bullpen sessions, getting up to around 30 pitches.
The Brewers are in a tight postseason race, currently sitting two games behind the Phillies for the final National League Wild Card spot with just over two weeks remaining in the regular season. Given that narrow timeframe, it seems the club has opted to try and get Ashby back on the mound quicker than perhaps they would have under different circumstances. With Eric Lauer and Freddy Peralta also landing on the IL in recent weeks, the club’s rotation has been a bit snakebit recently, which might have also motivated the club to get aggressive with Ashby’s return. Lauer and Peralta could get back into the mix soon as well, with McCalvy relaying that Lauer could return on Friday, though in a short stint similar to Ashby. Peralta might be a bit behind those two, having just started mound work today.
Through 96 1/3 innings on the year, Ashby has a 4.58 ERA with a very strong 27% strikeout rate and 55.6% ground ball rate. However, he’s been held back by a 10% walk rate and a 19.7% HR/FB rate.
Other notes from around the division…
- Just like the Brewers, the Cubs will also be bringing back one of their starters for truncated work down the stretch. Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune relays word from manager David Ross that right-hander Keegan Thompson will be activated in the coming days to pitch out of the bullpen. Thompson has had a solid sophomore effort here in 2022, throwing 104 1/3 innings so far with a 3.97 ERA, 20.5% strikeout rate, 8.3% walk rate and 40% ground ball rate. His campaign was interrupted by low back tightness, sending him to the IL a month ago. With the season winding down and the Cubs well out of contention, they will let Thompson throw a bit more at the big league level before the offseason arrives.
- Left-hander Sean Newcomb, designated for assignment by the Cubs on the weekend, has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A, per Montemurro. That’s hardly surprising, given that Newcomb already cleared waivers earlier this year and has an ERA of 8.78 for the season. Players who have been previously outrighted or those with over three years of MLB service time are eligible to reject outright assignments and elect free agency. Newcomb qualifies on both counts, meaning he could head to the open market if he so chooses, though it’s unclear at this point if he’s made a decision in that regard.
NL Injury Notes: Peralta, Wood, Wheeler, Phillies
Freddy Peralta hasn’t pitched since September 8 due to right shoulder fatigue, but the Brewers right-hander told MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy and other reporters that he believes he’ll be back before the regular season is over, given how well Peralta has felt after preliminary throwing sessions. The next step will be for Peralta to throw off of a mound, but it seems possible that he might not miss much time beyond the 15-day minimum stint on the injured list.
After an All-Star season in 2021, Peralta has pitched only 70 1/3 innings this year due to his current shoulder issue, as well as a posterior strain in that same right shoulder that cost him over two months of action. Even with these health woes, Peralta has still posted a 3.45 ERA, and the Brewers can use all the help they can get as they fight for a playoff berth.
More updates on other injury situations from around the National League…
- One pitcher who won’t be returning in 2022 in Alex Wood, as Giants manager Gabe Kapler told reporters (including Evan Webeck of the Bay Area News Group) that Wood has been shut down for the remainder of the season. Wood went onto the 15-day injured list at the start of September due to a left shoulder impingement, and since he hasn’t yet been cleared to throw, the Giants opted to keep the veteran southpaw on the sidelines. Wood will finish his second season in San Francisco with a disappointing 5.10 ERA over 130 2/3 innings, though that ERA was somewhat inflated by a poor finish — with his shoulder injury hampering his effectiveness, Wood had a 7.89 ERA over his final three outings and 12 1/3 innings. Wood is owed $12.5MM in 2023, the final season of the two-year free agent he signed to rejoin the Giants last winter.
- With Zack Wheeler tentatively slated to return to the Phillies rotation on Wednesday, interim manager Rob Thomson told reporters (including Alex Coffey of the Philadelphia Inquirer) said that the Phils will stick with their same rotation order. This means that rookie left-hander Bailey Falter will retain his starting job, and Noah Syndergaard will be used as a piggyback starter behind Wheeler. Syndergaard’s next actual start is slated for October 1, when the Phillies have a doubleheader against the Nationals.
Injury Notes: Scherzer, Lowe, Cavalli, Ashby
The Mets have been without Max Scherzer for the past ten days, as the three-time Cy Young winner has battled some fatigue in his left oblique. That was a bit of a concern given that a strain in the muscle cost him around two months earlier this season, but Scherzer looks as if he’s on track to be reinstated when first eligible next Monday. He made a rehab start with Triple-A Syracuse tonight, tossing 59 pitches over 3 2/3 innings. After the game, Scherzer told reporters he feels “excellent” and would be ready to rejoin the big league rotation at the beginning of next week (via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com).
Scherzer’s prompt return is obviously a boon for a Mets team battling for a division title down the stretch. At 89-55, New York holds a half-game advantage over the Braves in the NL East. They’re a postseason lock, but securing the division is likely to come with a first-round bye as a top-two seed in the National League. New York is five games clear of the third-seeded Cardinals, who lead the NL Central, putting the East winner in good position to join the Dodgers in earning an immediate trip to the NL Division Series.
Some other injury updates around the game:
- The Rays just placed Brandon Lowe on the 10-day injured list yesterday, the second baseman’s third such stint of the 2022 season. Manager Kevin Cash told reporters (including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times) that an MRI revealed some inflammation in Lowe’s back. He’s headed for further evaluation to determine treatment possibilities, but Cash indicated the club is still hopeful he’ll return to the diamond this season. The Rays look set to mix-and-match at second base while Lowe’s out, giving the last three starts at the position to Taylor Walls, Jonathan Aranda and Isaac Paredes respectively. Walls is the best defender of the group, but he’s not hit well this year. Paredes has only a .293 on-base percentage but has connected on 18 home runs in 92 games. Aranda has only 15 big league games under his belt, but he’s raked at a .318/.394/.521 clip through 465 plate appearances with Triple-A Durham.
- Nationals right-hander Cade Cavalli has been out for the past two weeks after being diagnosed with inflammation in his throwing shoulder. That seems likely to end his season, as manager Dave Martinez told reporters (including Bobby Blanco of MASNsports.com) that Cavalli is unlikely to make it back to game action this year. With three weeks remaining and the Nationals virtual locks for last place, there’s no reason for the club to take any chances with the prized young hurler. Martinez indicated that Cavalli has been cleared to start throwing after a brief shutdown period and the team feels he’ll be able to work from a mound before the season is out, but it seems that’ll be in a bullpen session rather than in-game work. Cavalli, generally regarded as the top pitching prospect in the organization, made his first MLB appearance on August 26. He’s likely to compete for a job in the season-opening rotation as Washington continues their rebuild next year.
- Aaron Ashby returned to a mound for the first time since landing on the injured list three weeks ago, tossing an 18-pitch bullpen session this afternoon (reported by Adam McCalvy of MLB.com). He’s scheduled for another bullpen session over the weekend. The Brewers remain hopeful the southpaw will be able to make it back this season, although he’d work in shorter stints due to the abbreviated ramp-up period. Ashby has started 17 of his 23 appearances this year, but he came out of the bullpen for nine of his 13 outings in 2021. He’s thrived as a reliever in his MLB career, posting a 3.63 ERA with a 36.2% strikeout rate through 34 2/3 innings in that capacity. Ashby has been a bit more erratic when trying to navigate a lineup multiple times as a starter, although he’s still flashed the swing-and-miss and ground-ball combination that made him such a promising pitching prospect. Milwaukee sits two games back of the Padres for the National League’s final Wild Card spot, so they’d surely welcome any contributions they can get from the 24-year-old for the stretch run.
Burnes: No Extension Talks Yet With Brewers
Brewers right-hander Corbin Burnes is getting near the end of a third straight excellent campaign, establishing himself as one of the best pitchers in baseball. Once this season is done, he will have just two years of team control remaining, making him a fairly logical extension candidate. However, Burnes tells Adam McCalvy of MLB.com that no such talks have taken place yet.
“You would think,” Burnes said when asked if this offseason would be a good time to get negotiations started. “You would think maybe there would have been some initial talks last offseason, but nothing.”
Burnes struggled a bit to get acclimated to the majors, especially in 2019. That year, he allowed an incredible 17 home runs in just 49 innings, producing a shocking 38.6% HR/FB rate and 8.82 ERA. However, he righted the ship immaculately in 2020, throwing 59 2/3 innings in the shortened season with a 2.11 ERA, 36.7% strikeout rate and 46.4% ground ball rate. His 10% walk rate was a bit high, but it was still an excellent breakout.
Though some might have written this off as a small sample flash-in-the-pan, Burnes quickly erased those concerns in 2021. He threw 167 innings that year with a 2.43 ERA, 35.6% strikeout rate, 48.8% ground ball rate and cut his walk rate effectively in half to 5.2%. He was awarded the National League Cy Young for that elite season and has been pitching at almost the same level again in 2022.
Though the Brewers are surely delighted to have seen Burnes blossom to this degree, it does mean that he will become expensive. He reached arbitration for the first time last offseason and is earning $6.5MM here in 2022. Since he’s having another excellent season, he’ll be due another hefty raise for 2023 and likely for 2024 as well. For a pitcher of Burnes’ caliber, it will still be incredible value for money, though it does raise the possibility of the team considering a trade. After all, the Brewers did just send out another excellent pitcher who was getting expensive: Josh Hader.
Hader isn’t an exact apples-to-apples comparison to Burnes, as he’s a reliever and also qualified for Super Two status, meaning he would get four trips through arbitration instead of three. There are similarities as well, though. By the time of his trade this year, Hader was making $11MM and had a year and a half of team control remaining. Burnes will likely be making a similar salary next year and will have the same amount of control when the deadline is rolling around. The parallels aren’t lost on Burnes.
“For anyone who isn’t on a long-term deal, once you get into your later years of arbitration, anything can happen,” Burnes said. “We saw it with Hader. We might see it this offseason. I don’t know what route the front office is going to take.” Burnes then added, “Who knows what’s going to happen this offseason. Who knows what’s going to happen at the next Trade Deadline. At this point, there’s a couple of guys remaining from our 2018 and ‘19 postseason teams, and it’s like, this could be maybe the last year. Maybe next year is the last year. Maybe we get two more years. We don’t really know. It’s hard to look at it like that but you don’t know what’s going to happen.”
With most other teams, it would be a no-brainer to keep an ace like Burnes through arbitration and perhaps even extend him. The Brewers have never really been huge spenders, however, and financial concerns will creep into anything they do. They ran an Opening Day payroll of $132MM this year, according to Cot’s Baseball Contracts. That placed them 19th among the 30 teams in the league in that department, spending less than half of teams like the Dodgers and Mets, though it still represented a franchise high.
Lorenzo Cain‘s contract will be off the books following this year, which will open up room for another significant deal beside Christian Yelich on the ledger. However, Burnes isn’t the only player that Milwaukee will have to think about. Brandon Woodruff, Willy Adames, Adrian Houser and Eric Lauer are in the same position as Burnes, going through arbitration with free agency approaching after the 2024 season. If the Brewers have some payroll space to work with, they might want to use it on some of that group instead of Burnes, as they would all likely be slightly behind him on the earnings scale.
An extension for a pitcher of Burnes’ caliber wouldn’t be cheap, after all. Since February of 2014, there have only been six extensions given to starting pitchers between four and five years of service time, which is where Burnes will be this winter. Of those six, one of them was for veteran journeyman Wade LeBlanc, who is not a good comparison for Burnes. Neither is Mike Clevinger, who signed a two-year deal covering his final arbitration seasons while he was about to undergo Tommy John surgery. The Rockies recently gave extensions to Kyle Freeland and German Marquez, who each got five years and over $50MM, despite being nowhere near Burnes’ level. Kyle Hendricks got $55.5MM over four years back in 2019 after years of solid performance, though not quite at the elite tier Burnes has reached so far.
Perhaps the best comparison is Jacob deGrom, who signed a four-year, $120.5MM extension in March of 2019. He had already agreed to a $17MM salary for 2019, with this new extension covering four years beyond that. deGrom had just finished a phenomenal 2018 season wherein he threw 217 innings with a 1.70 ERA, 32.2% strikeout rate, 5.5% walk rate and 46.4% ground ball rate. That season is a notch above what Burnes has done so far, though that was a huge jump over deGrom’s previous two seasons, with the Mets’ righty registering a 3.53 ERA in 2017 and a 3.04 in 2016. deGrom was also going into his age-31 season, reflecting his late-bloomer trajectory. Burnes is turning 28 next month, meaning he could quite reasonably expect a longer commitment than what deGrom got.
Only once have the Brewers gone into nine-figure territory on a contract, which was the nine-year, $188.5MM extension given to Yelich in March of 2020. That deal is still on the books for a good while, paying Yelich $26MM annually from now until the end of the 2028 season. Extending Burnes would require adding another contract with an average annual value in that vicinity, likely even higher. If the club continues running out payrolls similar to this year’s $132MM Opening Day figure, extending Burnes would mean close to half their budget being used up on just two players.
Thanks largely to an excellent pitching staff, the Brewers have been consistently competitive in recent years, despite the modest spending. They’ve qualified for the postseason in each of the previous four seasons, including a pair of division titles. Despite a rough stretch here in late 2022, they’re still in the mix to make the playoffs again, sitting two games behind the Padres for the final Wild Card spot. However, with many of their core players continuing to earn higher salaries, they might have to make some tough decisions about who they want to try to keep and who’s a candidate to follow Hader out of town.
Brewers Place Eric Lauer On 15-Day Injured List
The Brewers placed left-hander Eric Lauer on the 15-day injured list due to elbow inflammation. The placement is retroactive to September 8. Right-hander Trevor Kelley was called up to take Lauer’s spot on the active roster.
Milwaukee has essentially gone all season without its rotation at full strength, and the injuries have now started to mount up as the Brewers chase an NL wild card berth. Lauer joins Freddy Peralta and Aaron Ashby as starters on the IL, leaving the Brew Crew with Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, Adrian Houser, and Jason Alexander as the provisional starting four. No immediate decision needs to be made about a rotation replacement since the Brewers have off-days on both Monday and Thursday, but Triple-A hurler Ethan Small is the only other pitcher currently in the organization who has made a start for Milwaukee this season.
With two solid seasons under his belt now, Lauer has emerged as a stable member of the Brewers rotation. The southpaw has a 3.91 ERA over 145 innings this year, albeit with a below-average 22.8% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate. In fact, Statcast metrics across the board weren’t very favorable to Lauer in either 2021 or 2022, and it seems as though Lauer has benefited from a .257 BABIP. His 3.58 ERA since the start of the 2021 season is over half a run lower than his 4.19 SIERA.
Still, the bottom-line results are more than enough for a fourth or fifth starter, and prior to this elbow problem, Lauer had also been a pretty stable source of innings amidst several other injuries that sidelined Milwaukee starters. Losing Lauer and Peralta will further tax an already-struggling Brewers staff — since August 1, Brewers pitchers have a cumulative 1.2 fWAR, the sixth-lowest total of any pitching corps in baseball. This has contributed to the Brewers’ major slide from NL Central contenders to outside the postseason bracket altogether, 3.5 games behind the Phillies for the last wild card slot.
Brewers Planning To Place Freddy Peralta On Injured List
Brewers starter Freddy Peralta left tonight’s start against the Giants in the third inning. The right-hander’s velocity dipped, and the club announced he’s battling shoulder fatigue. After the game, manager Craig Counsell informed reporters (including Adam McCalvy of MLB.com) that Peralta is likely headed back to the 15-day injured list.
It has to be a frustrating development for the 2021 All-Star, who already lost a good chunk of the year to a lat strain. Since returning from the IL, he’s had some trouble maintaining his strongest form every fifth day. Peralta hadn’t pitched since August 31, as the Brewers pushed his scheduled Monday start back to tonight to buy him a bit more rest. That unfortunately didn’t work out as intended, and it now seems the club will give him at least a couple weeks before he returns to the mound.
While it’s obviously not an ideal situation, both Peralta and Counsell indicated they weren’t especially concerned about his long-term health. Initial evaluations didn’t reveal any structural concerns, and the club is confident the issue is simply one of fatigue. Peralta flatly told reporters (including Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) that he’ll pitch again this season, expressing confidence he just needs some time to rest his arm.
The injuries have prevented Peralta from replicating last year’s form, when he worked to a 2.81 ERA through 144 1/3 innings. He’s still been plenty effective when healthy, carrying a 3.45 ERA with an above-average 26.6% strikeout rate, but he’s only been able to take the ball 15 times. Needless to say, losing roughly half a season’s workload from an arm of that caliber has been a tough blow for a Milwaukee club jockeying for a playoff spot.
The Brewers are already without Aaron Ashby, who’s been out since August 20 with shoulder inflammation. Milwaukee was dealt another scare yesterday when left-hander Eric Lauer left his start early and was diagnosed with an elbow strain. McCalvy relays tonight that an early MRI was encouraging, and Lauer will go for further evaluation tomorrow. Milwaukee hasn’t placed him on the injured list to this point, so it seems there’s still a chance he’ll be able to make his next start.
Despite Peralta’s early departure, the Brewers held on to sweep today’s doubleheader with San Francisco. That pulled them within 2 1/2 games of the Phillies for the National League’s final Wild Card spot with roughly a month left on the schedule.
Angels Acquire Nash Walters From Brewers
The Angels announced a trade with the Brewers today, acquiring right-hander Nash Walters in exchange for cash considerations. Walters has been selected to the 40-man roster and optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake. To make room on the roster, left-hander Jhonathan Diaz was recalled from Salt Lake and placed on the 60-day injured list. Walters was eligible to be traded after the deadline because he had not been on a 40-man roster or been on the Major League injured list all year.
Walters, 25, lands on an MLB roster for the first time, but it hasn’t been an easy ride. He was a third-round selection of the Brewers, getting scooped up 90th overall in 2015 out of Lindale High School in Lindale, Texas. After getting drafted, he pitched in rookie ball in 2015 and again in 2016, but he had his progress paused by Tommy John surgery in 2017. He returned to the mound in 2019, throwing 50 1/3 innings in rookie ball, but then the pandemic wiped out the 2020 season for minor leaguers.
Last year, Walters was able to throw 60 1/3 innings out of the bullpen of the High-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. He put up a 4.33 ERA along with a 29.9% strikeout rate and 41.3% ground ball rate. The 10.6% walk rate was definitely on the high side, though it was an improvement over his rookie ball days. Here in 2022, he’s split his time between Double-A and Triple-A, throwing 48 1/3 innings with a 4.47 ERA, 32.2% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate. A 62.3% strand rate is likely making that ERA look worse than it should be, given that the MLB league average is 72.4%.
As for Diaz, 25, he’s been optioned and recalled for much of the season, splitting his time between the Angels and the Bees. He last pitched in Triple-A on July 16. He has a 2.93 ERA this year in 15 1/3 MLB innings and a 4.98 ERA in 47 Triple-A innings.