Aaron Ashby moves to relief role with Triple-A Sounds in preparation for eventual call-up to Brewers

Aaron Ashby is moving to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds bullpen to prepare for an eventual call-up to the major league Brewers. Ashby will offer multi-inning relief. Sounds manager Rick Sweet made the announcement on Tuesday night.

Historically, the move has proven successful for The Brewers and their Triple-A affiliate. Sweet can cite a number of examples of a promising starters who moved to a Triple-A relief role before a major league call up. At the top of the list for Sweet are Josh Hader, Brandon Woodruff, and Corbin Burnes.

The three arms Sweet referenced illustrate the promise and upcoming possibilities of Ashby’s career. He’ll start as a middle-inning reliever with the ability to go multiple innings and pitch in high-leverage situations. According to recent top rankings and scouting reports, Ashby can pitch in such a role, in late-inning relief, or eventually, move into a starter position.

Ashby has been a call-up conversation-starter since 2020. That is when he impressed in instructional league, adding a few mph to his fastball and signaling improvements to his changeup, which he’s only continued to improve. He also impressed in 2021 Spring Training after making it past the first round of cuts across a few innings a work, putting up a 3.38 ERA and 1.50 WHIP as a non-roster invitee. Ashby has been impressive with the Sounds, too. He’s produced a 3.34 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, and 12.7 K/9 over nine innings.

In his first relief appearance with the Sounds, Ashby pitched two innings of relief, allowed one hit, two (earned) runs, and walked two batters. Nevertheless he got the win in the Sounds’ 9-2 victory over Indianapolis.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference and MLB.