Milwaukee Brewers place Tyrone Taylor on Injured List with oblique trouble, recall Eric Yardley

The Milwaukee Brewers will have to move forward for the time being without one of their best reserve players. During Friday’s ballgame, outfielder Tyrone Taylor exited early after he felt some oblique discomfort during his second at-bat. After the game it was revealed by manager Craig Counsell that Taylor would need to go on the shelf with this injury, and the Brewers made that move official this afternoon:

Taylor’s playing time had dwindled a bit lately with Lorenzo Cain healthy and Christian Yelich returning from his bout with COVID-19, but the 27 year old has been afforded relatively regular playing time with Milwaukee throughout the season and has largely made the most of it. In 238 plate appearances across 82 games player, Taylor has hit .245/.324/.453 for a 107 OPS+, with 10 home runs and five stolen bases. The versatile outfielder has appeared at all three spots and graded out positively at each one, according to Defensive Runs Saved. “We’re going to miss him,” Counsell told reporters after last night’s game. “Hopefully he’s able to just miss a little bit of time and get back to us.”

Returning to the big leagues to fill the spot, at least for the time being, is sidearming right-hander Eric Yardley. After playing a significant role in the bullpen during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Yardley has largely struggled at the MLB level this year. He’s appeared in 17 games for the Brewers in 2021, covering 18.2 innings with a 6.75 ERA. Yardley has walked 10 batters in that time against only five strikeouts. His results at Triple-A have been far better, with a 3.65 ERA in 26 games and 24.2 innings with a 21:6 K/BB ratio. This will be Yardley’s first opportunity back at the big league level since June.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference