Brewers option Eric Lauer, place Justin Grimm on IL; call up Drew Rasmussen and Angel Perdomo

When Eric Lauer got lit up for a second straight start, manager Craig Counsell said they would have to make a decision soon on whether he’d continue in the team’s rotation.

It looks like that decision was made fairly quickly.

The Brewers announced this afternoon that Lauer would be headed back to the alternate training site in Appleton after giving up 7 earned runs against Minnesota and 13 overall in his first 2 starts. Justin Grimm, who has also had a rough go of it to start the season, is headed to the Injured List.

This is where things start to get exciting, though. Replacing those two on the roster are a couple of young arms with plenty of potential to dream on — Drew Rasmussen and Angel Perdomo.

Rasmussen’s story is an easy one to get behind, and our Brad Ford has been following it every step of the way: unsigned former first round pick, multiple Tommy John surgeries, a 6th round pick by the Brewers despite that, and more than two years away from baseball before making his pro debut last spring. Now, less than a year and a half later, he’s on a Major League roster.

You can read more about Rasmussen’s journey in an interview he did with Brad in December.

Perdomo, meanwhile, is a big guy with an even bigger fastball, as Jack Stern noted on Twitter.

Perdomo has quickly picked up some hype in Appleton after being cleared from the COVID-19 protocol earlier this year due to that and could potentially be a lights-out reliever if he can get a handle on his walks. At the very least, he could be a very good weapon against left-handed hitters with enough strikeout stuff to get through the 3-batter rule.

The Brewers haven’t announced who will take Lauer’s rotation spot yet, but one of Corbin Burnes or Freddy Peralta seems like the safe bet, considering they brought in two relievers to take roster spots.