Arcia is back; Saladino goes on DL

Milwaukee Brewers shortstop Orlando Arcia’s stay in the minor leagues was a brief one.

Sent down to Class AAA Colorado Springs last Friday to work on his batting stroke, Arcia was recalled Wednesday when infielder Tyler Saladino was placed on the 10-day disabled list with a left ankle sprain. Saladino suffered the injury Tuesday night when he turned his ankle on second base on a force play.

Saladino’s playing time had increased dramatically since Arcia was sent down, so the timing of the injury was cruel.

“That’s kind of unfortunate,” he said Wednesday morning. “But it’s not something you can control, so it’s not something I’m going to be worried about.

“Just stay positive and get my pom-poms ready for the boys. Cheer them on and do what we’ve got to do to get back out there.”

Saladino was performing well at the plate, batting .324 with three homers, eight RBI and .359 OBP in 16 games since coming up from Class AAA Colorado Springs.

“It hurt pretty bad so I didn’t really know (the severity),” Saladino said of the injury. “They took X-rays right away and they were negative, so that was good.”

Of the somewhat gruesome video showing how badly he turned his ankle on the corner of the bag, Saladino said, “I’ve seen it once. That’s enough for me. It makes it hurt more.”

Saladino said he had not been given a projected timetable for recovery from the injury.

“It all kind of depends on the person, how they heal from it, how long it takes to get the swelling out and get moving on it, doing stuff,” he said. “I’m putting weight on it right now, so it’s a lot better than yesterday. I’ve already made some good strides with getting the swelling down.”

Saladino said he got caught “kind of in-between” on the play, not sure if second baseman Hernán Pérez, who fielded a grounder, would go to first base or flip for the force.

“You’re catching a ball, reaching for the base. I wasn’t really sure how far it was. I was anticipating being a little closer to what I was. It was just farther than I thought.”

Arcia was in a miserable slump when sent down to the Sky Sox. In 44 games, he was batting .194 with a .233 OBP and .671 OPS.

In four games at Colorado Springs, Arcia was 4 for 15 (.267).

Former Counsell houseguest returns: Five summers ago, a young University of Florida outfielder named Harrison Bader was taken into the Craig Counsell household in Whitefish Bay.

Bader, going into his sophomore year at Florida, was playing for the Lakeshore Chinooks of the Northwoods League and matched up with Counsell and his wife, Michelle, after they offered to serve as a host family.

Bader’s stay with the Counsells wound up being a truncated one, however, as an Achilles’ tendon injury ended his tenure with the Chinooks about 20 games into the season.

Two years later Bader was drafted in the third round by the St. Louis Cardinals and on Tuesday night, he helped power the Cardinals to a 6-1 victory over Counsell’s Brewers with a homer and a pair of singles.

Bader, who also homered on Wednesday in a 3-2 Brewers victory, said that he hasn’t spoken much with Counsell since that summer but still hears from Michelle.

“His wife, Michelle, is an absolute sweetheart,” Bader said. “She does a great job during the holidays and stuff like that just wishing everyone well and giving me updates on all the kids. It just shows you where the time goes.

“Baseball, as we all know, is fullcircle in terms of the people you come across later. Now I’m up here (in the majors) and he’s doing his thing managing. So it’s really cool to see some familiar faces.”

Bader still carries some lessons he learned from Counsell, who at the time of his stay was serving as special assistant to then-general manager Doug Melvin.

“I’ll just always remember he was very calm about the game, the way he spoke about the game and his success,” Bader said. “I think as a young player I didn’t really understand that because I was kind of on the aggressive side, I was always fast-paced.