Hader is the latest reliever out with COVID
COVID-19 continued to run through the Milwaukee Brewers’ bullpen on Monday, and the latest loss really hurts.
The Brewers reported that closer Josh Hader was placed on the COVID-19 injured list, meaning he tested positive for the virus. Per Major League Baseball protocol, Hader must be quarantined for a minimum of 10 days.
On Saturday, the Brewers announced relievers Hunter
Strickland and
Jake Cousins were placed on the COVID-19 IL after testing positive and reliever Jandel
Gustave also would go into quarantine for seven days because of contact tracing.
That meant he did not test positive but was in contact with Strickland and Cousins.
“We have to fill out a screening every day and he reported contact with somebody experiencing COVID-like symptoms, so we tested him and it came back positive,” manager Craig Counsell said.
Counsell, who confirmed after Strickland and Cousins tested positive that both players had been vaccinated, was asked whether he could share Hader’s vaccination status.
“No, I cannot,” he said. “I don’t think it’s important, really. Nobody is really protected right here, the way it’s going. Which makes it confusing, obviously, for everybody and challenging for sure. You become less sure about how to protect yourself a little bit.”
Prior to that outbreak, leftfielder Christian Yelich was placed on the COVID-19 IL after a positive test and infielder/outfielder Jace Peterson was quarantined after contact tracing but he was activated Monday after being out seven days and not testing positive.
Counsell said in the wake of the latest positive tests the team has changed up its
practices a little bit so as to help provide a little more distance between players and staff again whenever possible.
“A little, yeah,” he said. “We’re trying to kind of get guys away from each other when we can. We sent some guys home the other night that we knew were going to be involved in the game. We’ll continue to do that in order to separate guys.
“But, you guys are all standing here, too, and that’s where we’re at right now. And we have workplace rules that kind of challenge us.”
If there’s a positive to come out of all this, it’s that none of the players who tested positive have been hit particularly hard by the virus.
“The symptoms the guys are experiencing are fairly minor,” Counsell said. “We check in with them and have had no real health scares with them, so we feel like we’re in a good place there.
“Obviously, losing players fairly regularly hurts and makes it challenging. Again, we made a roster move today, and again, it kind of helped us that we had to make a roster move because we had an extra player here.”
The Brewers announced earlier in the day they had acquired former closer John Axford in a minor-league deal in Toronto but he was not acquired to serve in that role again. He was added because the team needed another right-hander in the bullpen after losing Strickland, Cousins and Gustave.
Hader, 27, made the National League all-star team for the third consecutive year and was 3-2 with a 1.83 earned run average in 40 appearances. He recorded his 22nd save Sunday by pitching the ninth inning of the Brewers’ 2-1 victory in Atlanta.
In 39 13 ⁄ dominant innings, Hader allowed only 18 hits and eight runs with 14 strikeouts and 67 strikeouts. He has a 0.814 WHIP.
“Different names have to step up,” said Counsell. “That’s how it’s going to have to work. We’ve dealt with this off and on throughout the year, whether it was injuries and now Covid, so other guys are going to get the ball and have to step up.”
Said Devin Williams, who has yet to save a game as a major-leaguer: “We’re going to miss him, but I think I’m ready for the challenge of filling in for him as best as I can. Same game. That’s my mind set.”
Brad Boxberger, who’s been serving mostly as the Brewers’ seventh-inning option, recorded 41 saves with Tampa Bay in 2015 and 32 with Arizona in 2018.
He has three so far with Milwaukee in 46 appearances.
Axford returns
Looking for a right-handed reliever, the Milwaukee Brewers turned to a blast from their past.
The Brewers announced Monday morning they have acquired right-handed reliever John Axford, one of the most successful closers in club history, from the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for cash considerations.
“I mean, it’s been five years since I’ve even been here as a visitor, so it’s pretty incredible,” said the 38-year-old, who was in uniform and in the bullpen against the Pittsburgh Pirates at American Family Field. “Just being back on a big league field, it’s pretty great to be back here and put on this uniform again.”
The MLB trade deadline passed Friday, prohibiting teams from trading players on major-league contracts. But Axford had signed a minor-league deal with the Blue Jays in June and was not on their 40-man roster.
A corresponding roster move on the big-league roster will be made later. Because players on the COVID-19 injured list do not count against the 40-man roster, and neither do replacements such as Blaine Hardy, the Brewers had two openings before acquiring Axford.
“Crazy times call for creative solutions,” Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns said. “It’s out of left field a little bit but we’re doing it because we think he can help us.
“He jumped on our radar before the (trade) deadline and we actually tried to pull off a minor deal as a minor-league player before the deadline to get him in our organization. At that point, we didn’t have an immediate major-league opportunity for him.
“Once we had the COVID cases and the space in the bullpen, we did have an immediate major-league opportunity for him, and we were able to get him.”
The Brewers found themselves shy of right-handed relievers when a COVID-19 outbreak Saturday led to positive tests for Hunter Strickland and Jake Cousins as well as contact tracing with Jandel Gustave. All three were placed in quarantine and left behind in Atlanta when the team returned home Sunday night.
The Brewers acquired veteran relievers Daniel Norris and John Curtiss before the Friday deadline but Norris is a lefty. To fill the other bullpen vacancy created by the quarantines, the left-handed Hardy was selected Sunday from Class AAA Nashville.
Axford played his first five seasons in the majors with the Brewers (2009-13), converting 106 saves in 368 appearances while posting a 21-19 record and 3.35 earned run average. He set the franchise record for saves in a single season with 46 in 2011, helping the team to its first National League Central crown, establishing another mark by converting 43 in a row.
Axford ranks second to Dan Plesac (133) on Milwaukee’s all-time saves list.
The Brewers traded Axford to St. Louis on Aug. 30, 2013 and he went on to pitch for Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Colorado, Oakland, Toronto and the Los Angeles Dodgers. He last appeared in the majors in 2018 with the Dodgers. He has a career record of 3834 with a 3.87 ERA and 144 saves in 543 games.
Axford began the 2021 season as a studio analyst for Blue Jays television. He returned to action by pitching for Team Canada in the Olympics qualifier, and Toronto signed him to a minor-league deal June 24.
Axford went 1-0 with a 0.84 ERA and two saves in nine appearances for Class AAA Buffalo, holding opponents to a .061 batting average (102⁄3 innings, two hits, one run, three walks, 14 strikeouts). His fastball reportedly registered in the high 90s.
“I was going to be an analyst on Sportsnet. That was the job. I was there on opening day with the Blue Jays. I was supposed to pick up some more games in the second half,” said Axford.
“They knew that I was preparing for Team Canada, that I was playing in the Olympic qualifier, and it wasn’t until I was there and all of a sudden I was throwing 95-96, then 97-98 that, ‘Oh wow, stuff is still kind of here. I feel good.’ I felt physically great.
“Teams became interested. When I got home after that Florida trip I got coldcalled by a couple teams saying, ‘Hey, we saw you and we’re interested.’ For me, as I have in the past, it was important to put my family first and my kids, and just being with them and knowing the travel is difficult across the border and I knew if I signed with Toronto I could be home and that was the opportunity to take.
“It didn’t work out that way, and now I’m here.”
This is a remarkable turn of events for Axford, who missed all of 2019 with injuries and had any thoughts of latching on with a team last year nixed by the pandemic.
“He’s throwing very hard - 96, 97 (mph),” Stearns said. “The stuff looks really good. We understand, and I think ‘Ax’ understands, this is a really unique situation. We have a player who was a broadcaster not too long get himself back to the point of being a viable major-league option.”
Axford pointed to the work he put in last year during the height of the pandemic as the foundation for his comeback.
“I outfitted my entire garage into a gym, and I know Canada’s been a little bit different than here in the United States,” he said. “But that’s what I spent most of the early part of the pandemic doing, was just getting a bunch of equipment and fitting my garage knowing I was going to train and prepare for this. That’s basically what my offseason was.
“I did simulated games at a ballpark where I put up a net and I would throw 12 to 15 (pitches) like I would in the ‘pen, then I would run around and then I would throw eight and then I would throw a simulated inning. I had my pocket radar and the Rapsodo, so I was tracking everything and seeing. I was throwing 93 at times, but I knew once I got a hitter in there it would go up with the adrenaline. It’s always been that way for me.
“(The velocity) was certainly a little bit of a surprise, but the effort and the amount of time that I put into it, I’m glad that it happened.”
As for what will happen with the 40man roster when players are ready to come off the COVID-19 IL, Stearns said, “We’re going to have make some tough decisions. There will be a cost to it on the back end. The main focus right now is putting a competitive major-league team on the field every night.”