Brewers option Keston Hiura to Triple-A Nashville, select contract of Luis Perdomo

As the Brewers are set to start a series tonight in Atlanta, they made a roster move in advance of the upcoming series. They have swapped a bat for an arm, as they optioned infielder Keston Hiura to AAA Nashville. As a corresponding move, the contract of Luis Perdomo was selected from Nashville.

While Hiura hasn’t been at the top of the Brewers’ offense so far this season, he also hasn’t necessarily been a big detriment, either. His 101 wRC+ is near neutral, and his 0.0 fWAR puts him right at replacement level. The one glaring stat for him is his strikeout rate. He’s struck out 20 times in 42 AB, which is a 47.7% strikeout rate, though he has walked five times as well (11.9 BB%). This move may be more about Rowdy Tellez than Hiura as Tellez has heated up (10-for-23 with four HR in the last week). Sending Hiura down gives him time to work on his strikeout rate while bring up an additional arm for the upcoming series.

The addition of Luis Perdomo also brings even more strength to the Brewers bullpen. In nine appearances in Nashville, he has allowed just three runs in 12 IP (2.25 ERA) with 13 strikeouts (9.8 K/9) and just two walks (1.5 BB/9). Overall, the Nashville pitching staff has been impressive, leading the International League with a 2.76 ERA (second is Iowa at 3.55 ERA) and allowing a total of 77 runs in 26 games this season (Indianapolis has allowed 100 runs in 25 games, Iowa 101 runs in 26 games). The Brewers should have no shortage of potential call-ups when the major league staff needs a boost, and Perdomo is just one of the strong arms the Sounds have on their roster.

With the addition of Luis Perdomo to the roster, the 40-man roster is currently at 39. It had dropped to 38 following Jose Ureña’s DFA earlier this week. This also puts the pitcher count on the active roster at 14. Because of an agreement reached last week, active rosters can carry 14 pitchers through May 29, but will have to reduce to 13 after that.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs.