Brandon Woodruff’s Sprained Ankle Leaves Another Hole In The Milwaukee Brewers’ Starting Rotation

One week after sending right-hander Freddy Peralta to the injured list with a strained shoulder, the Milwaukee Brewers’ starting rotation was dealt another blow when right-hander Brandon Woodruff was placed on the IL with a sprained right ankle.

The move comes days after Woodruff was pulled from in the fifth inning of a start against the Cardinals.

“It was kind of a gradual thing,” Woodruff said after that outing. “I just felt some discomfort in the fourth, the last few hitters. Once I came in and sat down and then went back out for my warm-up pitches in the fifth, it was just kind of stiff. it was in the ankle and every time I would set into my leg and try to drive, I just couldn’t. It didn’t feel right.”

At the time, Woodruff and the Brewers were optimistic that he wouldn’t need to miss any time. When the pain hadn’t subsided after 48 hours, the team decided to send him back to Milwaukee for an evaluation by team orthopedist Dr. WIlliam Raasch, who diagnosed a high ankle sprain — similar to the injury that has kept shortstop Willy Adames sidelined since May 18.

The good news, relatively speaking, is that the injury doesn’t seem to be serious.

“Right now, it’s really just when we can calm it down enough where he doesn’t have pain when he throws,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said Monday. “So I think it could be very short, it just takes us a little while to calm it down. I think our caution we’re gonna have is not feeling it walking around at all, just feeling it when he throws, we gotta get rid of that. So it’s just a little hard to predict the timing of that. It’s certainly possible that it’s short. It’s probably just a little bit longer until we quiet it down.”

In the meantime, the Brewers need to fill another hole in their rotation. Woodruff’s next spot in the rotation was scheduled for Wednesday when the Brewers wrap up their three-game series with the Cubs.

The most obvious choice to fill that spot would have been to keep rookie left-hander Ethan Small around for another start after he lasted just 2 2/3 innings while making his big-league debut in game one of Monday’s doubleheader.

Milwaukee, though, optioned Small back to Triple-A Nashville between games and recalled Luke Barker, a 30-year-old right-hander who Milwaukee signed out of independent ball in 2016 and has made just one start in 190 minor league appearances.

Aaron Ashby has served in something of a swingman role this season, shuffling between the bullpen and rotation when Milwaukee has needed a sixth starter but he started the second game Monday and is essentially filling Peralta’s place for the time being.

A bullpen game is possible but not likely considering the Brewers played a doubleheader Monday and are in the midst of stretch of 19 games in 18 days so it stands to reason that another call-up is in the works.

Dylan File, another of Milwaukee’s top pitching prospects, also pitched Monday, leaving him unavailable on such short notice.

That leaves right-handers Jason Alexander, Alec Bettinger or Josh Lindblom as the most likely Triple-A options. While none of them are currently on Milwaukee’s 40-man roster, Alexander — the only one of the three without any previous big-league experience — is in Chicago as a member of the team’s taxi squad.