The Brewers Are Getting Healthy: What Are They Going to Do?

Despite the ever-growing number of their players hitting the injured list, the Brewers are still in first place. It seems like every player on this team is contributing. As a group, the Brewers have a .258 batting average (3rd in MLB), .760 OPS (3^rd), 58 home runs (4^th), 224 RBIs (3^rd), and a 3.80 bullpen ERA (12^th). It makes you wonder how impressive these numbers would be with a completely healthy organization.

We could be seeing that sooner rather than later, however, as we have been hearing positive injury reports like Devin Williams starting to throw; Garrett Mitchell finally getting the splint off his hand and expecting to see live pitching soon; and DL Hall starting a rehab assignment recently. When these guys come back, the organization will have some difficult decisions to make.

Granted, baseball transactions aren't as simple as swapping out one player for another. There's a 40-man roster to balance, the limited number of times a player can be sent down in the middle of a season, and the number of minor-league options a player has. Moves can be unpredictable.

The Brewers have 10 players on their injured list. We know Brandon Woodruff and Wade Miley will be done for the rest of the season, so the Brewers will have to send down eight players once everyone else is good to go. With four of these pitchers coming off the 60-day injured list, four players will have to be removed from the 40-man roster. 

With that in mind, let’s take a look what the Brewers could do as each player gets healthy, barring any other injuries occurring--although, of course, they will, as we were reminded when Joe Ross landed on the injured list after Monday's game. Let’s get into it.

Mitch White Designated for Assignment Once DL Hall Returns
This could be simply recency bias, but Mitch White looks like the odd man out. Regardless of how you see it, it’s hard to make a case for White to stay beyond the return of Hall.

Hall has a lot of promising stuff, be it as a starter or out of the pen. The team might lean toward the latter, though, after Hall struggled mightily before landing on the IL last month. In four starts, he has allowed 14 runs, all within the first three innings, and has only pitched beyond the fourth inning once. His ERA currently sits at 7.71, and has a WHIP over 2.20.

Hall recently had a rehab assignment for the Brewers' minor-league High-A affiliate in Appleton, where he pitched a clean inning, striking out one. His fastball was in the mid-90s topping off at 95 MPH. According to our very own Jack Stern, Hall’s next assignment will be part of the Nashville Sounds, in hopes his velocity remains the same.

If Hall becomes a starter again, Bryse Wilson would likely go back to the bullpen and be used in spot starts. Perhaps he’ll even back up Hall if he has a rocky start.

Whether he’s a starter or not, the Brewers will have to send down a pitcher. Seeing as Robert Gasser has been impressive thus far, you can’t send him down yet. Jared Koenig has also put up decent numbers (3.12 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 12 G, 17 1/3 IP) in more stressful situations. The Brewers will likely send down a player who only is used in garbage time, or who has been least effective in close game situations.

After White threw two innings on Sunday afternoon, his ERA ballooned up to 7.71 on the season (7.94 as a Brewer). While his WHIP as a Brewer sits at 1.24, he was only brought in when the game seemed out of hand or a blowout. Sunday against the Astros was his first test, and it didn’t really go well. Monday night, they turned to him purely out of desperation, and he couldn't meet the challenge.

The Brewers acquired White in a trade with the Giants after he was designated for assignment (DFA). It might not be too long before he is DFAed again, which would bring the Brewers' 40-man roster down to 38.

Joey Wiemer's Return Ends Shortly Upon Mitchell's Return
Because the 40-man roster sits at 39, the Brewers won’t have to remove anyone from the 40-man roster to reinstate Mitchell (unless they need to add someone between now and then). However, one player has to go to keep the MLB roster at 26.

Joey Wiemer’s season has been up and down, literally and figuratively. While he took time this offseason to adjust his swing, he hasn’t found a ton of success just yet.

When he was called up in Mid-April, he struggled, only getting on base in three out of 16 games. He has four hits this season, but he also has a 33.3% strikeout rate. He was placed on the injured list with a knee injury and returned this week, but without any kind of thunderous revelation.

Weimer just got reinstated to the roster, so time will tell if anything has changed, but how long of a leash will they give him? 

With Mitchell making his way back and Christian Yelich, Jackson Chourio, Sal Frelick, and Blake Perkins all getting playing time, there is just no time for Weimer to play. Now, granted, Perkins hasn’t been doing the best (.157/.200/.235 in the last 15 games). But sending down Perkins will use one of his minor-league options, whereas Wiemer has already been optioned this season.

It’s fair to say Weimer still hasn’t found the same magic he had in the high minors in 2022, or that he occasionally showed last year in MLB. To be fair, he's hasn't had a ton of games this season to prove us wrong. It might be best to send Wiemer down to Triple-A to try to figure something out with his hitting.

As for Mitchell, he will be coming off a hand injury, so there is a good chance his swing will take some time to get back to 100%. He had a .319 batting average during spring training and was starting to look like the player everyone remembered prior to his shoulder injury in 2023. Who’s to say how much of that he can reclaim, in the wake of the injury?

If Perkins doesn’t get out of the funk he is in, we might see Wiemer with a larger role with the team. But for now, the organization (and even some members of the fanbase) are high on Perkins. He’s just going to have a longer leash, at least for now. His superb defense is too valuable to lose.

Owen Miller Back to Nashville, Home Run Leader Returns
After hurting his hamstring while running to first base earlier this month, Brewers free-agent addition and home run leader Rhys Hoskins found himself on the injured list. However, Pat Murphy believes it will be a shorter stint on the list, according to Todd Rosiak.

Of the position players who can be sent down but whom we haven't already discussed in this piece, the Brewers have two struggling infielders: Andruw Monasterio and Owen Miller. You can take your pick on either one, as they have a combined eight hits in 56 plate appearances.,

Monasterio has the same amount of hits as Miller (4). If you want to look into minor league stats, Monasterio is hitting .243/.362/.297, compared to Miller’s .352/.410/.477. These two are one and the same person. They both started hitting again in the Marlins series, mostly because they finally got to see the left-handed pitching that keeps them above water as big-league bats.

Should one of them get sent down, we might see Frelick getting more time in the infield. Though it is going to be hard to take the hot-hitting Brice Turang and Joey Ortiz out of the lineup, moving Frelick around would give more opportunities to the other outfielders on the roster, while preserving Frelick's own role.

When they get back their slugging first baseman, the lineup will get better, regardless of what else they decide to do.

Bradley Blalock Sent Down as Pitchers Return
The Brewers acquired Blalock in the Luis Urías trade with the Boston Red Sox last season. He was added to the 40-man roster in November, to keep him out of the Rule 5 Draft.

Blalock has been a solid starter for the Biloxi Shuckers this season. In seven starts, he has a 2.27 ERA, a 1.04 WHIP and a .226 opponent batting average in 35 2/3 innings.

He has bounced back well from his Tommy John surgery in 2022, as he's continued to throw in the mid-90s with his fastball. According to MLB.com, the Brewers love his power curveball, along with other off-speed pitches. He is probably seen as a platoon pitcher, however, as he struggles pitching against lefty hitters.

It's not just DL Hall who could be returning from the injured list. Their two time All-Star closer, Devin Williams, should be back by the end of July, barring any setbacks.

Since the beginning of the season, Wiliams was designated to miss at least half of the campaign, with hopes that he would be back by the All-Star break. However, it seems like things have progressed nicely, as we saw Williams starting to play catch in Houston over the weekend.

Once he does come back, Williams will reassume his closer role; Trevor Megill will probably become the eighth-inning setup man; and everyone else takes a step back in the bullpen. With Williams's activation, they won't necessarily need to take a player off the 40-man roster, but they will need to send a player down to Triple-A. Blalock may not have even made his MLB debut as of the time of this writing, but he seems like the only option.

Blalock was called up from Double-A, skipping over the Nashville Sounds to the big leagues. The Brewers must see a lot of good things in him. But a returning Williams (or Ross, should he be back sooner) will likely bounce him from the mix. As a consolation prize, he figures to return to the minors by going to Nashville, rather than back to Biloxi.

Even if Blalock has a decent debut, is it going to be better than Jakob Junis, J.B. Bukauskas, or Ross, who are all on the injured list and could come back later this season? That has yet to be seen.

This is more of a wait-and-see transaction. Barring incredible leaps and bounds from Blalock, this seems like the likely move.

The "Next Man Up" vs. The Veterans
We haven’t heard a lot about either Junis or Bukauskas recently. What we do know is that Bukauskas can’t return from the 60-day IL until mid-June at the earliest, and Junis was progressing into his throwing program when he got struck in the neck with a batting practice ball. He can come back sooner than Bukauskas, but still not until next month.

Junis only had one start for the Brewers, allowing one run in four innings. Bukauskas was called up to the Brewers when Megill was placed on the injured list due to a concussion. In his six appearances, he's allowed one run, one walk, and three hits, while striking out six batters. He was shelved with a strained lat, but was transferred to the 60-day IL after getting a second opinion.

Because of the little information, we can’t put a timetable on when we could see either of these guys again. But should they both come back before Williams, the Brewers will have to have to say goodbye to two players on the 40-man. The simplest option is to send down the guys who took over for the injured, but that decision could be hard if players like Robert Gasser, Tobias Myers, and a starting Bryse Wilson are performing at a high level.

This could result in veteran players like Joel Payamps or Joe Ross having an unceremonious exit from the Brewers roster, especially if they continue to struggle a bit.

Payamps had a career season in 2023. As the setup man, he recorded a 2.55 ERA, a 3.48 FIP, and a 1.05 WHIP in 69 appearances. His 27 holds were tied for 8th-most in MLB. This season, however, doesn't have that same type of magic.

He still has a decent WHIP (1.10) and opponent batting average (.219), but he has allowed eight runs in 16 1/3 innings blossoming his ERA to 4.41. He's pitched in the eighth inning in six separate appearances, and has a 5.06 ERA and a .304/.360/.882 opponent slash line,

Thanks to two rough outings in May, his ERA once rose up to as high as 5.54. He has settled down in his last few games, but his role has bounced around the entire bullpen. He's trending in the right direction, but successes from Koenig (2.70 ERA, 0 ER in the eighth) and Megill (1.98 ERA, 7 saves) could put his job in jeopardy.

Ross, on the other hand, has garnered a lot of praise from the skipper since the very beginning. He may have not pitched in the big leagues since 2021, before this year, but he has done a decent job as a back-of-the-rotation starter. He has a 4.50 ERA, a 1.38 WHIP and just 1.8 walks per nine innings.

Ross is the recent addition to the injured list, opening the door for the next man up in Tobias Myers. In his debut, Myers went five strong innings, allowing one home run in a losing effort against the Pirates. Since then, it has been kind of rocky. He reached the five-inning mark one other time, but allowed four runs. After four starts, he was sent back down to Triple-A.

Myers was called back up on May 21, and was immediately put to work out of the bullpen. In one inning, he struck out two batters and allowed one hit, leading to his first career win. We don't exactly know if he will be part of the rotation, but as of this writing, the Brewers have yet to determine the starter for their Sun., May 26 game against the Red Sox.

Then there is Gasser, a top prospect in the Brewers system who was acquired in the Josh Hader trade back in 2022. He has made an immediate impact on the rotation, allowing only one run in his first two starts. He is the first Brewer in team history to earn a win in his first two career starts.

His first blemish came in sixth inning in the May 21 game, wherein he allowed three runs. Despite that, Gasser has a 2.65 ERA with six strikeouts and a 1.12 WHIP. His spot in the rotation comes up again on Memorial Day against the Cubs. If he continues to perform, the Brewers' $7-million investment in Junis could be transitioned to the bullpen, or even take over Ross's role in the rotation. It's hard to make a decision when there are so many options at the team's disposal. 

Whatever the Brewers decide to do with these injured players (or any active player on the bubble), they are going to try their best to keep as many talented individuals in their organization as possible.

Who do you think will be cut from the roster? What players are you excited to see return from the injured list? How soon do you think these players will be back to 100%? Let us know.