Brewers starter Quinn Priester may be facing a season-opening injured list stint. Manager Pat Murphy told reporters that the righty is slightly behind schedule in his buildup and isn’t a lock for Opening Day (link via Curt Hogg of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).
Priester battled wrist soreness at the end of last season. He avoided an IL stint and was healthy enough to make two playoff appearances (albeit with poor results). The team and pitcher decided to take things a little slower than usual over the offseason to reduce the risk of the wrist flaring back up. He’s throwing but hasn’t made any appearances this spring.
There’s minimal concern about this being a long-term issue. Priester seems likely to get some game reps before camp is finished. He might not have time to build into a starter’s workload within the next three weeks, though. A season-opening injured list stint would allow them to send him to the minors for a rehab start or two if he’s not completely ready. He’d only miss two turns through the rotation if he has a minimal IL stay.
Milwaukee acquired Priester in a mid-April trade with the Red Sox a year ago. The former first-round pick had fallen down Boston’s depth chart. Milwaukee plugged him directly into a big league rotation that was struggling with injury. Priester ran with the opportunity, pitching to a 3.32 ERA across 157 1/3 innings. His strikeout and walk profile was more solid than great, but the sinkerballer got grounders at a 56.1% clip. He allowed three runs or fewer in all but four of his 29 appearances.
Brandon Woodruff is also questionable for the start of the regular season after last year’s lat strain. The two-time All-Star has a better shot of starting the season on the active roster than Priester does. Woodruff has thrown batting practice and is scheduled to make his Cactus League debut on Saturday, Hogg writes.
Woodruff would be the obvious choice to start on Opening Day if he’s sufficiently stretched out. Jacob Misiorowski is the only other pitcher who seems locked into the season-opening rotation. The flamethrower made his Spring Training debut this afternoon against Great Britain in a World Baseball Classic exhibition; he tossed 38 pitches and struck out five over two innings.
Logan Henderson, Robert Gasser, Chad Patrick and trade pickups Brandon Sproat and Kyle Harrison are all competing for rotation roles. Milwaukee will rely heavily on one of the deeper bullpens in the league and should be aggressive in shuttling pitchers back and forth from the minors. Woodruff and lefty reliever Rob Zastryzny are their only pitchers who can’t be optioned.
