Winker goes on IL; Toro back from Sounds
TORONTO -- Unable to get going at the plate so far this season, Jesse Winker will now have a chance to press the reset button.
Winker was placed on the 10-day injured list Tuesday at the outset of the Milwaukee Brewers' opener against the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre with a cervical strain.
Winker had a disc replaced in his neck in the offseason and hit just .182 with two RBI in the month of May – far from the type of production the Brewers had envisioned from their primary designated hitter when they traded Kolten Wong to the Seattle Mariners for him in the offseason.
Infielder Abraham Toro, also acquired in the Wong trade, was recalled from Class AAA Nashville to take Winker's spot on the roster.
“We just made the decision with him battling some of this stuff, the neck soreness, because of the surgery we were going to be cautious for at least a little while here,” manager Craig Counsell said. “So, put him on the IL to get an active player here.
“Then the other thing is just going into this stretch of games; we've got 13 in a row. Our depth has been hit, and so we're probably going to be doing a little bit more of a rotating (designated hitter) here for this stretch of games, and this helps us do that.”
Winker was hitting .204 with an OPS of .546 and 13 runs batted in over 39 games. Overall the Brewers rank 27th in batting average (.203), 28th in OPS (.583) and home runs (two) and 27th in RBI from the DH spot this season.
Toro, who was hitting .258 with a homer and 18 RBI in 43 games with the Sounds, will see time at both second and third base with the Brewers.
Luke Voit just ‘didn’t work out’
Darin Ruf made his seventh start at DH on Tuesday with the Blue Jays starting left-hander Yusei Kikuchi, and was batting leadoff.
He's one of nine players to start at least one game as Milwaukee's DH – not the scenario the Brewers were hoping for coming out of spring training when Winker and Luke Voit were expected to provide a potent left-handed and righthanded punch.
But now Winker is on the IL and Voit is no longer with the Brewers, having been designated for assignment on Monday after struggling mightily against left-handed pitching.
“It was just the overall production, the fit,” said senior vice president of player personnel Karl Mueller. “Obviously, he had that history coming in that we knew about where he wasn't great against left-handed pitchers. But it was something that we thought, given the success he's had (overall) and some of the things he'd done in the offseason, it was worth taking a shot on him to see if he could buck that trend.
“It didn't work out, obviously. And Darin becoming available was something we didn't anticipate. His history, his track record against left-handed pitching -- it's a pretty small sample and I know the results haven't quite been there. But if you've seen the quality of his at-bats he's having, we feel like it's a better fit.
“So, we're going to run with that and kind of see how it goes.”
Updates on Luis Urías, Willy Adames, Eric Lauer, Matt Bush
Infielder Luis Urías, four games into a minor-league rehab assignment with Nashville coming into Tuesday, is likely to rejoin the Brewers for the start of their next homestand on June 6.
“We'd like him to play more,” Counsell said. “But by the end of this trip he'll have a good (base) underneath him and a solid week of playing, and we'll be ready to go.”
Shortstop Willy Adames underwent his first workout on Tuesday in Milwaukee as he begins his trek back from the concussion IL.
“He and Jesse stayed home,” Counsell said. “So, they're going to just work out. That's the plan. But he's got to pass some tests.”
And finally, Eric Lauer (right shoulder) and Matt Bush (right rotator cuff) are on the road trip and pointing toward pitching in minor-league games in another week.
“Eric and Matt Bush are really on the same kind of timeline,” Counsell said. “They're going to throw bullpens throughout this road trip, and then they will go on rehab when we go back home.”