The Brewers have selected the contract of right-hander Jay Jackson from Triple-A San Antonio and opened a spot on the roster by designating right-hander Alex Wilson for assignment, per a club announcement. The Brewers also placed righty Aaron Wilkerson on the 10-day injured list due to a left foot contusion and recalled left-hander Donnie Hart from San Antonio in his place.
Jackson’s promotion marks the culmination of a lengthy journey back to the big leagues for the 31-year-old. The right-hander appeared in six games with the 2015 Padres, totaling 4 1/3 innings of bullpen work, but was cut loose that offseason in order to pursue an opportunity in Japan. The 2008 ninth-round pick could have stuck with the Padres that year in hopes of surviving the offseason and spending the next season as an up-and-down reliever, though there was no certainty or fiscal security associated with that route. Rather, Jackson took a chance on venturing overseas and not only found success, but became one of the most dominant relievers in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball over the next three seasons.
In three seasons with the Hiroshima Carp, Jackson pitched to a combined 2.13 ERA with 202 strikeouts against 70 walks in 182 innings as a member of the Carp. He explored the possibility of a return to the U.S. after his second season in Japan but, apparently not finding any offers to his liking, returned for a third season in NPB. Ultimately, the Brewers made Jackson a minor league offer to return to the organization — he’d pitched in their minor league system in 2014 — that the righty accepted.
It’s still early in the Triple-A season, but Jackson has torn through opposing lineups in the Pacific Coast League, pitching 8 2/3 innings of shutout relief with a 14-to-2 K/BB ratio and just four hits allowed. Given the inconsistencies in the Milwaukee ’pen beyond Josh Hader and Junior Guerra, Jackson could very well have a legitimate opportunity to entrench himself in Craig Counsell’s relief corps. Milwaukee has hopes that Jeremy Jeffress, recently activated from the injured list, can help to stabilize matters, but the team has already lost Corey Knebel to Tommy John surgery and designated both Wilson and Jake Petricka for assignment in the past 48 hours.
Wilson, 32, spent Spring Training as a non-roster invitee with the Indians after being non-tendered by the Tigers last December. He didn’t earn a spot in the Cleveland ’pen, however, and later signed on with the Brewers on a big league deal once health concerns in the Milwaukee ’pen began to mount.
Although he’s long been a steady presence in the Detroit bullpen, Wilson was tattooed for a dozen runs on 15 hits (three homers) and nine walks with 13 strikeouts in 11 1/3 frames with the Brewers. He started off with three strong outings in a row before being hammered for six runs his fourth time out, and the right-hander never managed to fully recover. Three of his past four outings have seen him yield a pair of earned runs.
The Brewers will have a week to trade Wilson, release him, or pass him through outright waivers (though he could reject an outright assignment and take free agency instead). His contract reportedly came with a fairly minimal $750K base salary, so even if there’s no 45-day advance consent clause in the deal, the financial loss is hardly prohibitive for the Milwaukee organization.
cool to see Jackson up, but also shocking how Wilson fell off. i wonder if the unusual offseason threw him off.
As a Padre fan, very cool to see Jackson get another opportunity. Super cool guy, hard to not root for.
Huzzah, let us rejoice on this most glorious of days! Thine Jay of the Jacksons has commenced his long awaited return to the grandest of arenas in his profession. The tumultuous trials gracefully exceeded are testimony to the greatness we shalt witness before us. Tis thine honor for perchance few might gain a glimpse of this mythological hero the scripts have depicted. The Jay of the Jacksons, greatness before thee!
Nice!
Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a while.
as atrocious as the pitching has been, it isn’t as bad as Braun and Aguliar. if they didn’t have Yelich they’d be lucky to have 5 wins. what a crappy franchise
Harsh. Pitching issues for sure, and yeah, Aguliar has been unexpectedly awful. Braun has provided some pop, but not hitting for average. This team won the tough NL Central in 2018, and while things haven’t been going well for them lately, they are still a force.
So Lorenzo Cain is just useless to you?
Either Russian bot or Cubs fan (if there’s a difference)
Harsh on the Russian Bots!
Go cubbies
show us where they touched you
The best part was watching such a crappy franchise celebrate winning game 163 at that dive of a park named after even crappier chewing gum.
You are a loser.
I have his 2015 baseball card and had been wondering where he’d gone. Nice job not sucking!
Brewers are doomed with Council running pitching staff , he’s clueless on how to use a bullpen. Using Hader for 2 2/3 innings for a save is insane, it’s not the 70’s when Gossage & Fingers ect we’re counted on for that many inn. He burned out Knebel, who’s next ?
You know that Knebel only had 57 appearances last year right? And has pitched the last 5 years with UCL damage that originally happened on the Rangers and knew would eventually require Tommy John surgery? Thanks for weighing in Cubs fans.
Who’s Council? If you’re going to talk trash someone at least do them the decency of at least spelling their name right. And you do realize Hader came up through the system as a starter right?
Oops sorry, your manager sucks!!
What he started as has no influence on how your manager misuses the entire staff . Your manager won’t be around long enough to win 400 games in 4 1/8 seasons!!
The cubs are the best. They easily have 9 guys on the field everyday who are mvp candidates. So what if they blamed there franchise misfortunes on a goat and a fan that could catch better than alou. We have to remember yu darvish is a dominant pitcher. Also cubs fans are awesome. Wrigley field is the worlds largest?
You are ignorant if you think Knebel injury was due to overuse.
Ok Rockless
Not too long ago, Brewers fans were raving about this pickup and now they’re calling up Cubs washouts from 10 years ago lol
To be fair, he is a Brewers and Padres washout as well.
Milwaukee should hope for continued awful weather in Wisconsin so they can keep the roof and windows closed. Little league park about the only place they hit.
Haters got to hate. Maybe Chicago should get rid of the ivy covered toilet they call a a stadium and build a new one themselves.
Let’s see what Jay Jackson can do now.