The Brewers anticipate that left-hander Aaron Ashby will miss “a couple of months” due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder, manager Craig Counsell told reporters this afternoon (relayed by Adam McCalvy of MLB.com). The skipper said Ashby has felt pain during his throwing session and will have to be shut down entirely for some time (via Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).
Milwaukee leadership had already suggested last week the southpaw wouldn’t be ready for Opening Day due to shoulder fatigue. The inflammation and complete shutdown represents a much more significant development than the Brewers had previously indicated. It’s not a complete surprise but frustrating news for the highly-touted young pitcher.
Ashby also missed time last season, logging injured list stints due to inflammation in both his elbow and shoulder. The latter issue cost him a month between late August and September, lingered into the offseason, and continues to pose a problem. His return timeline still seems to lack much certainty, though it looks as if he could be out of action for an extended chunk of the season’s first half.
The 24-year-old is a former top prospect. He’s only managed a 4.47 ERA in 139 career big league innings thus far, though he’s shown an enviable combination of bat-missing and ground-ball propensities. Ashby struck out 26.5% of batters faced in his 107 1/3 frames last season. He paired that with a massive 56.7% grounder percentage. Rays ace Shane McClanahan was the only other pitcher (minimum 100 innings) to strike out at least a quarter of opponents while keeping the ball on the ground over half the time a batter does make contact. That highlights why evaluators have been optimistic about Ashby’s upside.
Milwaukee clearly values Ashby as a long-term contributor. The Brew Crew signed him to a $20.5MM guarantee last summer, adding a pair of club options to extend their window of control by two seasons. He only appeared in eight games after signing that deal before injuries intervened. There’s obviously plenty of time for Ashby to get healthy and become the caliber of pitcher Milwaukee has envisioned, though that’ll be on hold as they try to sort out his shoulder issues.
Even in his absence, the Brewers have a strong starting staff. The trio of Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff and Freddy Peralta can rival any other club’s top three. Eric Lauer is a solid back-of-the-rotation arm, while Milwaukee reunited with Wade Miley on a one-year free agent deal. Ground-ball specialist Adrian Houser is on hand as the #6 option and would figure to start the season in long relief if the rest of the group stays healthy. There was some speculation the Brewers could put Houser on the trade block immediately after they signed Miley. Ashby’s longer-term health uncertainty seems to diminish that possibility.
Heard it actually started acting up last summer. 😉
Wade Miley is now a lock for rotation.
Teams may have to request extra Injured List spots at this point….
Prayers for a positive outcome for him…..
There’s no limit on the number of players an MLB team can have on the IL.
Every 60 seconds a minute passes by
Thats what your girl said til she met me.
Hope he recovers quickly
Will they blame Corbin Burnes for this too?
Just another reason the Brewers are gonna suck this year.
Ouch not a lot of good news out of their camp today.
Impending surgery. There’s no reason a shoulder inflammation issue should carry over during the offseason, and a pitcher have to be completely shut down for several months after lengthy rest.
Where did you go to medical school again?
Why, are you interested in attending? I can send you the packet and give you a reference.
But, since you seem to disagree with that assessment, can you name me one pitcher that had an injured shoulder (that’s specific), had an offseason of rest, and before even getting to throw a pitch had to be shut down for the next half a season at minimum, but then came back to pitch healthy?
You made an absolute statement about a player’s medicals. So the burden of proof for your statement is on you. Asking him to find a counterpoint to your assumption shows you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Actually, you’re wrong. I made a statement based off of my opinion, not an absolute. If I said, “he absolutely needs surgery based on his medicals” then I would agree. I didn’t say that. This entire forum is informal, and to think otherwise reflects the nativity of the writer.
Second, I explained my position when I posited there’s no [viable] reason for this injury to remain. That’s obviously an opinion as the subjective perspective suggests. But enough semantics. Why is [any burden] placed on me because someone responded to me?
I feel no obligation to justify my opinion, which is rooted in common sense and the evidence provided in the article, to any random, anonymous commenter. Perhaps you do, but I don’t. If someone questions my opinion, the basis of which should be evident, then let him explain why he feels the need to disagree.
“There’s no reason a shoulder inflammation issue should carry over during the offseason, and a pitcher have to be completely shut down for several months after lengthy rest.”
Thats an absolute. You stated there’s “no reason” for the situation to happen. It happened so there is obviously a situation where it happens. Why can you say there is no reason? Because you have an opinion?? FOH
This is a lot of words just to say “I don’t have any proof”
I can say that because of experience- anecdotal, professional, and sports, as well as the examples in the media of actual baseball players that have gone though the same issues and needed surgery
Also, it’s not an absolute. It’s an opinion, just like your statements. But stop with semantics, this isn’t a Congressional hearing. Also, I clarified that it is my opinion, yet you still seem to want to tell me that it is not my opinion, which is an odd hill to die on. Last, I clearly detailed why I have that opinion. You’re professing to have an intellectually sound argument by picking apart semantics, rather than actually having the conversation and explaining your POV.
And what do you think doctors call it when they say you do or don’t need surgery? A medical [opinion]. Court judges that rule on cases? A legal [opinion]. There aren’t absolutes in these fields for a reason.
Raregokus: You’re clearly immature. Why comment on someone’s thread whom you have muted? What a childish conversationalist.
Hey Clip. My experience has been that medical professionals do what’s best for the human, not the baseball player. If you can fix a human without an intervention that involves a general anaesthetic, you do it. There’s risk in knocking someone out, sticking a big tube down their bronchus and having a machine breathe for them for a period of time. It’s why anaesthetist’s are usually the highest paid medical guy in the operating theatre.
I agree Foppert. They almost always try to resolve the issues with non-surgical intervention. That’s exactly what ended my playing career (not blaming them, it was the shoulder injury that did not show any signs of injury in the MRIs, but it was completely shredded inside). I tried to do without surgery too but it was too prohibitive. I wouldn’t do any shoulder surgery unless it’s absolutely necessary to the individual.
So your opinion should hold as much weight as experts because of your experience?
You say semantics. I say it’s taking your words at face value. It’s the internet so that’s how it goes. Just admit you don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t have more experience than anyone else, especially those in the field.
I hope you aren’t one of those knuckle-draggers that use “argument of authority” as a negative because it goes against your opinion.
Where did I say anything about “them” holding my opinion with the same weight as those with access to the patient and his medical records? You are taking this to an illogical extreme because your argument is flawed. I wrote an opinion. Call it absolute, call it definitive, call it whatever you want. But where did I say “they should take my opinion over the doctors?”
You’re logic is circular and you keep changing the goal posts every time I respond to point out: I already stated the basis for my opinion that he will need surgery.
You then retort, “admit you were wrong.” Uh, what?! Lol. You’ve responded to my post about my opinion. I never said yours was incorrect, but you’ve repeatedly misstated my comment and told me I am wrong…… ironically with no evidence to support that claim.
So, argument of authority? Yeah, that’s YOU. I still believe he will need surgery and if I’m right, you will alter the conversation once more to try and show some linguistic genius that makes you right…. Whatever guy.
You need help.
Now I need to bring evidence to support my claim against your unsupported claim? That’s golden! I’m the one that is negative towards arguments of authority?
Dawg, you spoke as if you knew about Ashby’s situation and how it should be handled. Then you point to experience and other BS to justify it. Then when called out you pretend like you weren’t acting like you knew what you were talking about and it was all your experience.
Where did I say [how] it should be handled? Either you are intentionally misrepresenting my clear statement above, or you need to reread the entire conversation.
I simply wrote, “impending surgery.” That is my opinion he needs surgery at some point. You said I was wrong. I asked, how? You say I have no right to ask you to justify your opinion.
You are looking to argue for the sake of arguing. The fact you resort to insults reflects your lack of premise. You are changing facts intentionally and misquoting my statements to embolden your argument.
Bottom line: you called me out improperly because you don’t know what you’re talking about. You tried to insult me and failed because you didn’t read my statements correctly. You’re now trying to justify that by assigning motive to my original post.
– You’re a troll…and a bad one. You think your points make you look smarter, but you embarrass yourself.
“Ashby also missed time last season, logging injured list stints due to inflammation in both his elbow and shoulder. The latter issue cost him a month between late August and September, lingered into the offseason, and continues to pose a problem.”
Ill end this argument between yall. The answer was in the article.
It seems like every young pitcher is going through this these days.
Looking like a good decision not to trade Houser.
You can never have too much pitching depth.
Pitchers: please stop pitching with your shoulders. Duh.
Exactly! Pitchers need to learn to use their whole bodies. If you use your legs to generate forward motion and turn that motion into a front flip with your arms extended, the rotational force of the front flip will undoubtedly increase velocity and relieve the stress on the arm.
They will eventually figure it out. As the old saying goes “give a bunch of people from ohio typewriters, and eventually they will write Shakespeare”
Boy did this injury prone starter stick it to the Brewers with that 20 million dollar contract.