Already without closer Corey Knebel and first baseman Eric Thames, the baseball gods saw fit to smite the Brewers further today – probably for their poor social media performance – and send starting pitcher Zach Davies to the DL with a shoulder issue.
Davies, 25, is one of the key, steady members of the Brewers’ rotation, and he’s dealing with inflammation in his rotator cuff. The Brewers say he’ll miss only one start, and they’re framing this as just taking advantage of off-days and giving Davies extra rest. If you were a Brewers fan, and “starting pitcher shoulder issue” came up, would you be comforted by that? Or maybe Cubs fans are just extra paranoid about injuries these days.
In any case, the Brewers just added Wade Miley to the rotation, so they are covered in that regard. But if Davies winds up having to miss more than one start, or sees his performance degraded by the shoulder issue, that’d be another big blow to a club without a lot of margin for error if they want to be there near the top of the NL Central when the calendar gets into August and September.