MILWAUKEE -- Nick Mears has experienced being thrown into baseball’s proverbial deep end. Acquired from the Rockies at last year’s Trade Deadline, he went from the injured list one week to pitching against the Mets in the National League Wild Card Series the next.
“I had [two outings] and then it was all or nothing in the Wild Card,” said Mears, who’d missed more than a month with a forearm strain. “Yeah, you’re going to be physically ready coming off the IL, but it’s about the mentality and the mental side of things.”
A year later, Mears is once again in a group of Brewers bullpen arms attempting that kind of late-stage comeback. He landed on the IL with a back injury during the first week of September and, after navigating two mound sessions without incident, is poised to return to active duty for the Brewers as soon as Wednesday.
A couple of other Brewers relievers are cutting things much closer. Left-hander DL Hall touched 90 mph in a 15-pitch bullpen session on Tuesday that represented his first mound work since he went down with a right oblique injury on Aug. 16. He has a more robust, 25-pitch ‘pen scheduled for Thursday, to be followed at some point by live batting practice.
In the very best case scenario, Hall would make it back for the Brewers’ final regular season series against the Reds to prove his availability for the postseason, when he could be an incredibly important arm, depending on the matchup. Remember his piggyback with right-hander Quinn Priester when the Brewers swept the Phillies on the road back in May?
The timeline was less certain on Tuesday for Brewers closer Trevor Megill, who has been down with a right flexor strain since the last week of August and originally was targeting a return to action on Tuesday. But that was before he developed what the club calls minor soreness during a live batting practice session, which has pushed back his return.
“It’s a little concerning,” manager Pat Murphy said.
The goal, according to the Brewers’ medical staff, is a late-September return for Megill, who has 30 saves and made the NL All-Star team this season for the first time in his career. That would be ideal. Less ideal would be finding ways to simulate competition before he’s potentially pitching the ninth inning of a one-run game in the postseason.
“I hope we don’t have to do that,” Murphy said. “We have plenty of people around, a ‘stay ready’ group that he could throw to. But nothing’s like being in a game. I’m optimistic he’s going to throw [against] Cincinnati.
“I’m not saying it will happen. But I’m hopeful. The possibilities are there.”
Hall is hoping for similar timing.
“I want to be pitching [against] Cincinnati,” he said. “I don’t know if that’s going to happen, just because that’s really fast. I want to be able to help the team win, and the best opportunity to set me up for that is if I can get back in the regular season for at least one outing.”
If he doesn’t, the Brewers would face a difficult decision. Can they trust a young pitcher to get big outs in a postseason series who hasn’t appeared in a game of any kind for nearly two months?
“Me, personally, I think it would be fine,” Hall said, “but I also would understand why they wouldn’t trust that. I get it. That’s why I kind of want to try to come back for Cincy.”
Even that timing, Murphy said, is questionable.
“You’ve got a guy like DL Hall who hasn’t pitched in how many months? And then all of a sudden his first appearance is going to be one inning vs. Cincinnati and then, ‘OK, here, we’ve got playoffs?’ It doesn’t work like that,” Murphy said. “We’re limping a little bit. We’re limping.”
Mears showed that it can be done, however. He spent more than a month on the injured for a forearm strain before returning to make two appearances late in last year’s regular season. The Brewers included him on the roster for the NL Wild Card Series and he retired all seven hitters he faced in a pair of clean appearances -- including two strikeouts while retiring the heart of the order in a 1-2-3 seventh inning of a scoreless Game 3.
In fact, Mears was the pitcher of record when Devin Williams took the mound with a 2-0 lead in the ninth inning.
“Every guy is different,” Mears said. “You just get back to that headspace where you know you’re best to compete in. That’s the hardest part about coming back from the IL, getting back into that headspace.”