Milwaukee Brewers call up Jacob Barnes, put Taylor Williams on DL with sore elbow

A day after Junior Guerra gave much of the Brewers’ bullpen the night off, another fresh arm will be at Miller Park tonight. Jacob Barnes will be back from Triple-A Colorado Springs, with Taylor Williams landing on the disabled list following a couple of disappointing weeks.

A sore elbow is especially concerning for Williams, who missed 2 full years due to elbow injuries that eventually ended with Tommy John surgery. He was finally able to return to the mound last season and impressed in camp this year, eventually earning him a longer look than the 5 big league games he appeared in last September.

Williams has been a largely a solid option at the bottom of the Brewers’ bullpen for much of the year, putting up a 2.65 ERA in the first half. But he’s struggled for much of the past three weeks. It started with his first appearance of the second half, when the Dodgers banged out 5 hits and also drew a walk against him in just 1 inning pitched, scoring 2 runs and hanging Williams with the loss. Two days later, LA would rack up 4 hits and a walk, hanging 5 more runs on him (although only 3 were earned). That’s a grand total of 11 baserunners allowed in 2 innings pitched for 7 runs (5 earned).

He rebounded for three straight okay-to-solid outings against the Nationals and Giants before the Dodgers got to him again in Thursday night’s laugher at Dodger Stadium. That outing ended with him giving up 4 more earned runs on 4 hits and a walk.

Williams’ season totals against the Dodgers: 2.2 IP, 13 H, 11 R, 9 ER (36.81 ERA), 3 BB, 2 K.

His season totals against everyone else: 40 IP, 27, 12 R, 11 ER (2.48 ERA), 18 BB, 47 K.

Hopefully the elbow soreness isn’t the sign of another possible flare-up and the DL stint is just a precautionary measure, because outside of facing the Dodgers’ scary lineup, he has been a useful piece in the middle innings.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference