Decision Time Looms on DL Hall, Others, But Brewers Have None But Champagne Problems

It could be that, when the Brewers return home Friday to face the Reds and try to oust the last gasps of hope Cincinnati retains to come back in the NL Central, they have at their disposal yet another impressive left-handed hurler. DL Hall has made a number of rehab appearances, on a stop-and-start basis, and it's decision time for the team when it comes to reinstating him from the injured list.

Unless someone is nursing an unmentioned injury, adding Hall to the rotation would mean stretching that unit to six members. That's plausible, and perhaps even advisable, given that it's clear they'll need to pitch into October and that each current starter has some manner of workload concern worth monitoring. If the team does go that route, though, managing the bullpen quickly becomes a difficult juggling act for Pat Murphy, because he'd be down to seven relievers working behind a corps of starters who tend not to work very deep into games.

One alternative is to bring Hall back in a relief role, which worked well for him with Baltimore last fall. However, in addition to whatever developmental setbacks that might cause, it would surely squeeze either Joe Ross or Bryse Wilson off the roster. Hall is on the 60-day injured list, which means that whenever he comes back, the team has to create a spot on the 40-man roster for him, as well as one on the active roster. Losing either Ross or Wilson would be a bitter pill to swallow, though, because of what Wilson has meant to the team and the clubhouse over the last year and a half and because cutting either would reduce the team's stock of starting pitching depth, in case of an injury.

For that second reason, especially, it might make more sense to option Hall and have him to continue to work as a starter, stretched out at Nashville and ready to fill in if injury strikes. His performances in his rehab outings--especially a persistent lack of swing-and-miss and a persistent problem finding the fastball shape that made him such a prized acquisition over the winter--leave plenty of room to wonder whether he's as valuable to the current team as Ross or Wilson, even before accounting for the fact that he can be sent to the minors and they can't be.

The downside of sending down Hall would be that the team couldn't do it again next year. All his minor-league outings so far this season have officially been rehab appearances. The team hasn't used up an option on him yet, and if they do, it will be his last season of eligibility to be thus treated. If the Brewers still see potential in him but worry he might need further polishing in 2025, there would be some value in retaining that option year heading into this winter.

For me, though, that's a picayune little thought. The team should move beyond it. Either Hall will figure things out, and it will be clear by the end of spring training next year that he's a vital cog in their pitching staff, or he won't, and it will be clear by the end of spring training next year that the team needs to move on. He's not as young as his lack of big-league experience would suggest. He's had myriad injury issues. He's shown only inconsistent ability to succeed as a starter. The team should just option him and keep working to prepare him for the possibility of high-leverage spot starts or an emergency bullpen transition at the end of the season.

Even if they do so, though, they won't be out of the woods, roster-wise. Bryan Hudson has made multiple rehab appearances for Nashville already, and his stuff looks pretty much normal. Jared Koenig worked through some rocky patches coming back off the injured list after the All-Star break, but is back to full strength and mowed down Atlanta batters Wednesday night. The returns of Devin Williams and Ross and the trades the team made for Frankie Montas and Nick Mears have loaded the roster with hurlers whom they can't option, and whom they probably wouldn't consider demoting, anyway.

The optionable pitchers on the active roster are Williams, Tobias Myers, Koenig, Elvis Peguero, and Hoby Milner. It's unthinkable that Williams or Myers would be sent down, of course. Koenig has been too good, and while we all wait to see how much of Hudson's velocity comes back with him when he rejoins the roster, it's Koenig who offers the highest-octane stuff from the left side. Milner is such a rubber arm, and such a quiet but steady clubhouse presence, that sending him down feels unlikely, too. That leaves Peguero.

It's a little surprising how immune to being optioned Peguero has seemed to be, despite often being an apparent candidate during the team's roster shifts over the last two seasons. Since he came up from Nashville in mid-April 2023, Peguero has not gone back, despite inconsistent (though often brilliant) work out of the pen. It's hard to figure out how he'd avoid getting sent down or shelved for at least a short period this time, though. In addition to Hall and Hudson, Trevor Megill is perhaps a week away from a return; he could pitch for Nashville this weekend.

Again, Hall's move requires a 40-man swap somewhere, so it could involve jettisoning either Wilson or Ross. The easier move would be to dump Tyler Jay, who was recently optioned, especially if Hall himself is then optioned and stays in Nashville. Hudson's return will force someone from the group of Peguero, Milner, Wilson and Ross to go, though, and then Megill's will force another. Optioning Peguero, and maybe even Milner if no one else gets hurt in the process of these players marching back through the clubhouse doors, makes more sense than losing valuable pitching depth at this stage of the game, given the way the last two seasons have played out for the Crew.

Jacob Misiorowski is not on the 40-man roster, but he is on the radar for some late-season and postseason secret weapon work. Ditto for Craig Yoho. There's a crunch coming even after the crunch, then, although those two pose less of a problem. If the team wants to add either to the 40-man, they still have Aaron Ashby and Kevin Herget to drop therefrom, and as part of a bigger reorganization of the pitching staff in the very last days of the season, it would make more sense to cut Wilson or Ross, or one of them could be placed on the injured list to allow the team to make Misiorowski or Yoho eligible to pitch in the playoffs.

Whatever choices they make, the Brewers have an embarrassment of riches. They're six games up in the division, as pages keep tearing off the calendar, and they have more useful, healthy or healing pitchers than they can roster. They're not only surviving, but thriving--the envy of, perhaps, every other team in baseball. A bye to the DIvision Series is within reach, and a pitching staff more formidable than anyone else's come October is a remote but real possibility. They just need to spend some time sifting through their options.