WASHINGTON -- A second star player in the past three days has landed on the injured list for the Brewers, who placed rookie All-Star Jacob Misiorowski on the 15-day IL on Sunday morning with a left tibia contusion, retroactive to Thursday.
It comes just two days after outfielder Jackson Chourio was placed on the IL with a right hamstring strain.
Misiorowski was set to start on Sunday in the finale vs. the Nationals, but was replaced as starter by Logan Henderson, who was called up from Triple-A Nashville as the corresponding move. Henderson, the Brewers' No. 5 prospect, has made four starts for Milwaukee this season, including three starts in May when Jose Quintana went on the IL. Henderson is 3-0 with a 1.71 ERA over 21 innings.
It’s been a season of firsts for Misiorowski, who made the NL All-Star team after five dominant starts in just a month after his June 12 debut. The 23-year-old is 4-1 with a 2.70 ERA in seven starts, while his 112 pitches of 100-plus mph entering Sunday are second in the Majors to only the Reds’ Hunter Greene.
Sunday’s start was supposed to be a chance for Misiorowski to show his ability to grow. Last Monday against the Cubs, he had endured a 40-pitch first inning in which he took a line drive from Seiya Suzuki off his left shin, leading to the contusion.
Misiorowski didn’t have any major issues from the contusion at the time, and he was lauded by his team for how he finished the start: 10 straight batters retired and three scoreless frames. But his shin wasn’t healing as quickly as he, or the team, would have liked. He still felt soreness from it during his midweek bullpen session, and the Crew noticed his velocity was slightly down.
“We noticed during the week -- really, our pitching guys noticed during the week -- that the throwing programs and the bullpen, something wasn’t right,” manager Pat Murphy said, “and we wanted to be smart about taking care of the kid. He’s got a big future, and hopefully -- he’ll try to push through it because he’s young, and we want to keep him from making those types of decisions unless we know he’s 100%.”
While Misiorowski was, of course, willing -- and eager -- to pitch through the injury, the decision was made to place him on the IL. He’ll miss two starts but plans to pitch through the healing process so that he’ll be ready after the minimum time on the list.
“I mean, I’m competitive,” Misiorowski said. “I want to play every game, so I don’t think it -- it sucks. It’s not fun to sit on the bench, but at the same time, I don’t want to go out there and not have my best stuff [when I’m] trying to win for the team. So if the best is me sitting on the bench, then that’s what we got to do.
“It was basically like, ‘This is what it’s going to be.’ Obviously I was trying to fight it a little bit, trying to throw, but I understand. And you know, they’re looking out for me.”
The move is also, in some ways, a blessing in disguise as it will help the Brewers limit Misiorowski’s innings a bit more, without detracting from singular starts with a pitch or inning count just yet.
“Yeah I mean, obviously it’ll help with the mileage and stuff,” Misiorowski said. “Two starts get knocked off. So I mean -- but I don’t think there’s any concern with it. It’s just, you know, [I’ll] go until the end of the year.”