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Brewers Place Omar Narvaez On Injured List

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3:08 pm: Narváez is expected to miss about two weeks, manager Craig Counsell told reporters (including Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel).

2:02 pm: The Brewers announced they’ve placed catcher Omar Narváez on the 10-day injured list with a left hamstring strain. Fellow backstop Mario Feliciano is up from the alternate training site to take his place on the roster.

Narváez left last night’s game in the seventh inning with hamstring tightness, and testing this morning revealed the strain. His loss will be another blow to a Milwaukee offense that has already been one of the league’s worst. Brewers’ hitters have managed just a .215/.297/.368 cumulative slash, which ranks twenty-eighth in park-adjusted offense (ahead of only the Rockies and Tigers).

While the team hasn’t hit much, Narváez has been on a tear. The 29-year-old is raking at a .368/.443/.529 clip through 79 plate appearances. Obviously, that level of production wasn’t sustainable, but Narváez has rather incredibly slashed his strikeout rate from 31% during a dreadful 2020 campaign to 12.7% over this season’s first month. That suggests he might’ve again found the form that made him a quality offensive player with the White Sox and Mariners from 2018-19.

Narváez has rated as an above-average pitch framer since moving to Milwaukee and has cut down six of thirteen attempted base stealers in the early going. He’s also guided a pitching staff that has more than offset the club’s offensive issues, with the Brewers sporting an NL Central-leading 16-10 record. With Narváez joining Manny Piña on the IL, Milwaukee is set to lean primarily on the light-hitting Luke Maile behind the dish.

Maile will be backed up by Feliciano, who’s in line to make his MLB debut. The 22-year-old is one of the sport’s more promising catching prospects but will be forced to make quite a leap to the game’s highest level. Feliciano spent most of the 2019 minor-league season at High-A, where he hit a strong .273/.324/.477. Other than three Double-A games to close out that year, Feliciano has no high minors experience. He and Maile are the only healthy catchers remaining on Milwaukee’s 40-man roster.

Brewers Add 3 To 40-Man Roster

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Catcher Mario Feliciano and right-handers Alec Bettinger and Dylan File are now on the Brewers’ 40-man roster, Will Sammon of The Athletic tweets. Their roster stands at 39 players.

All three of Feliciano (No. 4), Bettinger (24) and File (25) rank among the Brewers’ highest-regarded prospects at MLB.com. Feliciano is an offensive-minded catcher, though MLB.com writes that “his defense should be good enough to allow his bat-first profile to play at the highest level.”

Bettinger and File seem to profile as back-end starters/relievers, but they were rather effective in their most recent minor league experience in 2019. Bettinger threw 169 1/3 innings of 3.44 ERA/3.13 FIP in Double-A ball then, while File amassed 80 2/3 frames of 2.79 ERA/3.04 FIP pitching at the same level.

Brewers Announce 12 Additions To Player Pool

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The Brewers announced Thursday that they’ve added a dozen minor leaguers to their 60-man player pool. In addition to the previously reported addition of righty Dylan File, Milwaukee has added the following players:

Many of the prospects added today are viewed a key future pieces for the Brewers but shouldn’t be expected to contribute at the MLB level this coming season. Turang, the team’s top pick from 2018, is considered the organization’s best prospect but hasn’t above Class-A Advanced yet. Lutz, Small, Feliciano, Dillard, Bickford and Kelly have all yet to log any notable time even at the Double-A level.

The others in the bunch, though, could potentially reach the Majors for the first time in 2020. File’s quick rise through the system was already touched upon here. Perdomo, who has a strong minor league track record, tested positive for COVID-19 recently but could be a lefty option for the ’pen assuming a full recovery. Andrews, a two-way star in college who also logged some time in center field this past season, reached Double-A in 2019 and fared well (2.59 ERA, 3.97 FIP, 9.5 K/9, 4.3 BB/9 in 31 1 /3 frames).

Supak, 24, breezed through 122 2/3 innings of Double-A ball in 2019, pitching to a 2.20 ERA and 3.14 FIP with 6.7 K/9, 1.7 BB/9, 0.44 HR/9 and a 44.8 percent ground-ball rate before struggling in a much briefer run in Triple-A (30 innings). He could be a multi-inning relief piece or make some starts should the need arise. Supak’s 152 2/3 total innings last year were the 13th-most of any pitcher in minor league baseball.

As for Ray, the Brewers have had high hopes for him since selecting him with the No. 5 pick back in 2016. He’s coming off a brutal 2019 season but posted a 124 wRC+ in Double-A a season prior, hitting .239/.323/.477. Strikeouts are a significant issue for Ray, who has whiffed in 29.7 percent of his professional plate appearances (including an alarming 36.6 percent clip in 2019). But Ray also belted 27 homers in a pitcher-friendly Double-A setting in 2018 — a season that also saw him swipe 37 bases. The contact issues probably aren’t going to improve dramatically, but there’s still some intrigue surrounding someone with that blend of power and speed — particularly when they can play any of the three outfield slots.

With today’s moves now set, the Brewers have filled 58 of the 60 possible slots in their 2020 player pool. Team can still make additions once all 60 spots are filled, but doing so requires removing a current player via a transaction (e.g. trade, release, outright waivers).

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