Paolo Espino will start for the Milwaukee Brewers on Thursday

We learned yesterday that Matt Garza wouldn’t be making his previously scheduled start for tomorrow, and earlier today the club made that official by placing Garza on the 10-day disabled list and activating Travis Shaw. There was some speculation about who would take Garza’s turn in the rotation, and this afternoon the club announced that it would be Paolo Espino making his return to the big leagues:

This will be Espino’s second big league start for the Brewers this season, as the 30 year old right-hander made his major league debut against the Cubs on May 19th. He worked 4 innings and allowed two earned runs that day, but has been stellar in the minor leagues this season. Espino has thrown 49.2 innings for the AAA Sky Sox while authoring a 3.26 ERA/1.23 DRA with 48 strikeouts and just 8 walks. He had been scheduled to start for Colorado Springs on Monday, but was scratched in case this exact scenario played out pending Garza’s first bullpen after he collided with Jesus Aguilar last weekend.

The club will likely wait until tomorrow to officially recall Espino, and they will have to make a corresponding move on the 25 man roster. The easiest solution would probably be to option Brett Phillips back to AAA, but there also is a possibility we could see someone like Nick Franklin or a struggling reliever (Feliz? Torres? Scahill?) jettisoned to clear space instead.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball Prospectus