August Performances and Initial September Call-Ups Clarify Brewers' Playoff Roster Plans

From a sheer fascination and excitement perspective, it would have been cool to see the Brewers call up either Jacob Misiorowski or Craig Yoho for the extra spot created by active rosters expanding on Sept. 1. As recently as a week ago, that might even have been the plan. Since the Brewers have avoided further injury trouble over that span, though, and since they've seen both DL Hall and Aaron Ashby burst back onto the scene, they're going to at least wait a bit before finding a place for a rookie in their bullpen mix.

In a similar vein, perhaps, the team chose the right-handed batter and older, less prospect hype-laden player for the extra position player spot, promoting Brewer Hicklen instead of Tyler Black. That made the most sense anyway, but with the team's lineup clicking nicely and no major role available to a newcomer, it became the obvious choice. Black can continue to get regular playing time and try to turn the corner at Triple-A Nashville, while Hicklen increases the depth of one of baseball's best outfields.

While these are the choices of the moment, they won't necessarily be permanent. Injuries could shake up the picture, but so could furtherance or reversal of some key trends on the pitching staff. The high-leverage sector of the bullpen has not been airtight lately, and if that state of affairs persists, they might decide they need to roll the dice a bit more with Misiorowski or Yoho, each of whom has flashed the kind of stuff to emerge as a relief ace even for a very good team. Should Sal Frelick or Garrett Mitchell get hurt, Black could certainly slot into the mix.

Meanwhile, it would be no great surprise to see Elvis Peguero return to the majors soon. He was only optioned to the minors 11 days ago, so bringing him back now would have come with added complications, but he'll be free and clear to reemerge in less than a week. Nick Mears and Hoby Milner are on the injured list, and neither seems ready to return imminently, but the team still hopes to have them back. 

Because Hall has looked much better since returning from his time on the injured list (and his long, oft-disrupted rehab) and Ashby has found such superb velocity and a devastating changeup, it's just not urgent that the team push their two younger arms yet. They also keep more powder dry this way. To bring up Misiorowski or Yoho, they would have needed to create a place on the 40-man roster. They have clear candidates to be cut--Tyler Jay, Kevin Herget--and could probably slide Rob Zastryzny to the 60-day injured list if needed, but the success of Hall and Ashby has rendered that unnecessary, for now. The team can keep all those players in their organization, and if they feel like they need one more strikeout artist to round out their postseason relief corps come mid-month, they can still add one of the would-be rookies, then.

As has been the case all year, it seems, the Brewers are choosing from a better menu of options than most of the rest of the league. They've experienced their share of adversity, but years of good scouting, player development, and roster construction have set them up so well that they've hardly felt it. They'll easily win the NL Central, and their legs are very much under them as they try to sprint past the Phillies or Dodgers and claim a bye for the first round of the playoffs. Their superb depth and level of comfort shine through nicely in the lack of headline-making changes to the roster at the start of this final month of regular-season play.