Milwaukee Brewers place Matt Garza on the disabled list, recall Lewis Brinson

We had a brief #hugwatch last night when Lewis Brinson was pulled from the AAA Sky Sox lineup in the 1st inning of last night’s game. It was reported shortly afterwards that Brinson wasn’t getting traded, but was instead getting called up to the big leagues. That caused most of us to sit around all day and speculate wildly about what possible scenarios could play out in order to open up a spot on the active roster for Brinson. Well, I don’t think anyone predicted that this would be it:

This will be the 2nd stint for Garza on the DL in 2017 after he didn’t make it healthy out of spring training. When he’s been healthy, he’s actually been one of Milwaukee’s more effective starters. In 15 starts and 82.1 innings this season, The Count has put together a 3.83 ERA and 4.41 DRA. He allowed 2 earned runs in 5.0 innings during his last start on Friday in Philadelphia, and up until now there had been no indications that he was ailing physically following that start. Garza was also scheduled to start tomorrow’s series finale against the Nationals. They have yet to announce who will take the ball in his place, though.

Brinson, the Brewers’ #1 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, will now get his 2nd crack at the big leagues. He hit just .097/.200/.161 in 35 plate appearances for Milwaukee in June before getting sent back to AAA. He’s been outstanding at the highest level of the minors this season though, batting .345/.417/.569 (151 wRC+) with 10 homers and 11 steals. He had been ever better since getting sent back down, posting a 1.148 OPS over his last 23 games since his first call-up ended.

Brinson has been inserted right into tonight’s starting lineup:

The Brewers will need to make another move to make way for the activation of Anthony Swarzak, who was acquired from the White Sox yesterday and is expected to join the team tomorrow.

Statistics courtesy of Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus