Strike-thrower in minors out for months
Milwaukee Brewers pitching prospect Dylan File went from the off-season exhilaration of being added to the 40-man roster to the disappointment of not being able to participate in his first big-league camp.
The Brewers revealed Sunday that File, a 24-year-old right-hander, underwent surgery Feb. 4 to repair a stress fracture in his pitching elbow. The procedure was performed by team surgeon William Raasch and File is expected to need 3-4 months for a full recovery.
“Dylan first experienced some elbow soreness last summer,” Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “He attempted to rehab it but ultimately surgery was necessary.”
File’s injury came after a summer in which he stood out at the Brewers’ alternate training site in Appleton, being sent there after the coronavirus pandemic wiped out the minor-league season. Already known as the top strikethrower in the farm system, he picked up some velocity as well after making some tweaks in his delivery at the team’s training complex in Phoenix.
“It was a pretty good jump,” File said in a late-November interview with the Journal Sentinel. “Seeing the velocity jump I had was interesting. But I wanted to see how that would have played out in a regular season against other teams, so that kind of sucked.”
File has been an overachiever since the Brewers selected him in the 21st round of the 2017 draft out of Division II Dixie State University, located in St. George, Utah. He was a staple in the Class A Wisconsin rotation in 2018, going 8-10 with a 3.96 ERA, with only 28 walks in 136 1/3 innings and 114 strikeouts.
File took a bigger leap forward in 2019, splitting that season between Class A Carolina and Class AA Biloxi. He led the organization with 15 victories (15-6, 3.24 in 26 starts), with 22 walks and 136 strikeouts in 147 innings.
“My M.O. from Day 1 has been my command,” File said in that November interview. “I’ve always prided myself on throwing strikes. Honestly, I think I went about (gaining velocity the right way). I don’t think it really cost me any command. That’s what I was excited about.”
File and right-hander Alec Bettinger were the two pitchers the Brewers added to their 40-man roster over the winter, and at the time Stearns said the expectation was that both would pitch in the majors at some point in 2021. Now, for File, that will have to wait as he recovers
from surgery.
A look at the outfield depth
Nobody ever said baseball is fair. Take Tyrone Taylor, a 2012 secondround pick of the Brewers, for example.
The 27-year-old has been a model employee during his tenure with the organization.
He displayed consistency and grit in moving up the ladder in the minor leagues, finally made his major-league debut in 2019 and then bounced back from offseason wrist surgery by hitting .237 with two home runs and eight runs batted in to go along with a .793 OPS in 22 games in 2020 while making starts at all three outfield positions.
But even if Taylor builds on that with a solid spring, there’s no guarantee he’ll be wearing a major-league uniform on opening day.
It all has to do with how much the Brewers value depth.
They claimed Billy McKinney off waivers last September and traded for Derek Fisher just prior to the start of camp. McKinney is a 2013 first-round pick and Fisher a 2014 first-round pick, and both are out of minor-league options, meaning Milwaukee could lose either to another team if they don’t make the major-league roster out of camp.
Taylor, meanwhile, has one option remaining. So, if their play merits it, McKinney and Fisher could be kept while
Taylor is sent to Class AAA Nashville and remains property of the Brewers, able to be called up and sent down as many times as is deemed necessary in 2021.
“McKinney and Fisher were brought in with a really good chance to compete for a roster spot,” Counsell said. “Tyrone Taylor goes into that mix, but McKinney and Fisher are both out of options so when the organization is trying to consider depth, that matters.
“We have three outfielder locks (Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain and Avisaíl García, from left to right). We can consider four, we can consider five outfielders. I think that paints the picture as best as I can do. I’m not going to make any evaluations yet but that’s kind of the picture coming into this.”
Taylor, a right-handed hitter, hit a booming home run off Eric Yardley in an intrasquad scrimmage Saturday and started in left Sunday as the Brewers opened Cactus League play against the Chicago White Sox at Camelback Ranch.
Fisher started in center Sunday. McKinney, 26, is a career .231 hitter with 18 homers and 41 RBI in 124 majorleague games since 2018. He’s a corner outfielder also capable of playing first base, and a left-handed hitter.
Fisher, 27, is a career .194 hitter with 17 homers and 52 RBI in 168 majorleague games since 2017. He’s capable of playing all three outfield spots, and also
a left-handed hitter.
Killer Bs
Two springs ago, Counsell predicted Zack Brown would be making his majorleague debut for the Brewers.
It was a logical conclusion at the time; the right-hander had been named the organization’s minor-league pitcher of the year and a decent start to the season at Milwaukee’s then-Class AAA affiliate San Antonio would have been the finishing touch.
But Brown struggled from the outset in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League and his hopes of a big-league callup faded. Add in a lost season in 2020 in which he pitched solely at the alternate training site in Appleton, and he’s neither a touted prospect nor a member of the 40-man roster at age 26.
So, where does that leave Brown, a 2016 fifth-round pick, in the Brewers’ plans moving forward?
“Zack’s on the outside looking in right now, but he’s also in a season where we know we’re going to need innings and he probably comes into camp in a better spot than he comes in before,” Counsell said.
“I think right now you link Zack to a guy like Alec Bettinger, who’s on the roster and would have been in Triple-A or is going to be in Triple-A, depending on how that works out.
“Zack is going to be an option for us this year. He was talked about at times last year during the alternate camp, so he’ll definitely be an option for us this year.”
Bettinger, who turns 26 on July 13, was a 10th-round pick in 2017 who made 26 starts at Class AA Biloxi in 2019.
The right-hander also was part of Milwaukee’s 60-player pool and pitched in Appleton last season but, after being added to the 40-man in November, has a leg up on Brown as Counsell noted.
“Alec, he’s a guy that’s just, he’s a performer. That’s how he’s gotten to this point,” Counsell said. “He’s a pitcher. He’s a pitch-maker. His stuff has I think just consistently gone in a positive direction. And he knows what he’s doing. A strike-thrower.
“He’s put himself in a really good position – obviously good enough to get himself considered as a 40-man roster player. He’s a player that would really benefit from a true Triple-A season, to be able to perform at the next level for the bulk of a season.
“But again, he’s an example of a player that with the innings we need for this season, he can definitely put himself in a position to help us during the season this year.”