Brewers Injury Updates: Cain, Shaw okay after scares; Jeffress gaining strength

As if being terrorized by Paul Goldschmidt wasn’t enough, the Milwaukee Brewers also got a couple of injury scares two a pair of key players Friday night.

Lorenzo Cain appeared to jam his thumb on a steal attempt in the 5th inning but stayed in the game for a couple innings before being double-switched out of the game. Travis Shaw was hit by a pitch from Andrew Miller in the 8th inning and had it wrapped after the game, but both players say they should be able to go Saturday.

We’ll see if both are in the lineup for tonight’s game later today, or if we start to see Craig Counsell work in a bench option with another right-hander due on the mound tonight for St. Louis in Dakota Hudson.

Something else that’s likely on the mind of a few Brewers fans is the status of Jeremy Jeffress, especially after Taylor Williams and Jacob Barnes had rocky first outings on Friday night. Jeffress is due to throw today as part of an every-three-days schedule while he continues to build up strength.

His agent, Joshua Kusnick, provided some more insight into what the issue with Jeffress has been this spring, clarifying that it’s not necessarily an injury that caused the alarmingly low velocity readings this spring, but a flaw in his offseason training program that caused a muscle group to lose strength.

While the fact something like that was overlooked in Jeffress’ offseason training is concerning it its own ways, at least we know the problem isn’t something structural in his shoulder or arm, as was feared initially.

Kusnick says Jeffress could be ready as soon as mid-April, which would be a welcome development for the Brewers — and possibly why David Stearns doesn’t seem like someone who’s about to panic-sign Craig Kimbrel following the news that Corey Knebel would be choosing Tommy John surgery. The Brewers were able to get through much of 2018 without Knebel pitching like he did in September (it’s easy to forget that before September, there wasn’t a lot separating the performance of Knebel from, say, Dan Jennings).

Jeffress played a big part of that, of course, but if the Brewers can weather the next couple of weeks without him and Jeffress is feeling strong upon his return, they should be in pretty good shape for the rest of the season.