Another Elbow Gives Out: Shelby Miller's Season is Over, and Somehow, Some Way, Joel Payamps Rides Again

Not long after having to shelve Trevor Megill due to a flexor strain, the Brewers hold out hope that they'll get their closer back—but they'll have to survive without the services of one prized reinforcement, until they do. Shelby Miller landed on the 60-day injured list Wednesday afternoon with a sprain in his ulnar collateral ligament, and it sounds as though Miller could undergo a second Tommy John surgery soon. Either way, his season is over.

Milwaukee spent (almost) only money to acquire Miller right at the July 31 trade deadline, taking on the contract of fellow injured hurler Jordan Montgomery to get Miller from the Diamondbacks. They didn't have an apparent need on the pitching staff at the time, which is why they also shipped out Nestor Cortes in a trade with the Padres that day. Not wanting to spend an undue share of their resources to bolster an already strong corps, the front office merely dealt for an extra middle-relief arm. Five weeks later, everything feels a bit more tenuous. Megill is down. Logan Henderson is down for the year, in his own right. Miller's absence leaves the team stretched near its limit, given the huge number of quality innings they need between here and their hoped-for endpoint, the World Series.

That's not to say that this pitching staff isn't good, or relatively deep, for this time of year. They have Freddy Peralta, Brandon Woodruff, Quinn Priester, Jose Quintana and Jacob Misiorowski in their starting rotation, with Chad Patrick and Robert Gasser available in support for those roles. Even without Megill, Miller or DL Hall, they have a deep bullpen, led by Abner Uribe, Aaron Ashby, Nick Mears, Jared Koenig and Grant Anderson. Misiorowski and Patrick are candidates to slide into short relief roles, to stop the gaps left by Megill and Miller. It's just that, at their best, the team had what felt like superb depth. Now, they look much more human.

Miller made 11 appearances with Milwaukee. Only four of them came in high-leverage situations, but even when the game situation gave much greater margin for error, it often felt like Miller was performing an essential duty: protecting the rest of the staff from overuse. Now, that protective layer is gone. Pat Murphy has the luxury of a comfortable division lead and a clear path to the top seed in the National League; he can ease off the gas pedal between now and the end of the regular season. Even so, it'll be hard to keep everyone on his staff fresh as the team gears up for October without one more key contributor. 

Remarkably, though, the exit of Miller facilitates the reentry of an exceptionally familiar face: Joel Payamps. The erstwhile setup man's Brewers career looked to be over in late May, when the team designated him for assignment. Instead, he cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Nashville. He made 27 appearances there, and the results could not be more hilariously characteristic of Payamps.

In 21 of his 27 games, he held the opponents scoreless. He only issued six walks and allowed two homers the entire time, and struck out 30 of the 110 batters he faced. On the other hand, when he did allow runs, he often blew up, allowing multiple tallies four times—including six runs (and both of those homers) in one inning on August 23. Payamps has always been a guy equally capable of dominating or imploding, and that has remained true with Nashville. As he now returns to the majors, Payamps will be a fascinating player to watch down the stretch. It would be one of the most wildly improbable storylines of the team's improbable season, but it's not beyond the real of possibility that Payamps will end up as the setup man for yet another Brewers team come October.