Brewers Place Whopping Seventh Starting Pitcher On IL After Latest Injury Blow

Brewers place Nestor Cortes on 15 day IL

On Sunday, the Brewers placed left-handed starter Nestor Cortes on the 15 day IL with a left elbow flexor strain. The move is retroactive to April 4th. Left-handed reliever Grant Wolfram was recalled from Triple-A Nashville as the corresponding move.

When the words "elbow" and "flexor strain" are used to describe a pitching injury, the natural inclination is to worry about the severity of the issue. 

"This is not a situation where we think it's going to be a long term issue. We're still in the process of gathering information and that'll take another few days but as of right now this is looking more like a short term issue than a long term issue." Brewers assistant GM Matt Kleine said.

Cortes last pitched on Thursday against the Reds and threw six shutout innings en route to a Brewers 1-0 victory. Despite a great performance on the mound, Cortes already wasn't feeling the best heading into it.

"Leading up to the game, it wasn't feeling great, but felt good enough to pitch and that's what I did. And then after, that's when it started feeling more sore than usual" Cortes said.

The Brewers now have seven of their top eight starting pitching options unavailable just over a week into the regular season. Aaron Ashby, Aaron Civale, Tobias Myers, DL Hall, Brandon Woodruff, Robert Gasser, and now Nestor Cortes are all on the injured list. Woodruff and Gasser were known coming in, but now two have been lost since the season began and the other three suffered injuries in spring training.

You could also include Jose Quintana among the pitchers they're missing, as he's still ramping up in extended spring training. He's eligible to be added to the roster on the next road trip and is likely to join the team as soon as he is.

Still, Freddy Peralta is currently the only one of the Brewers preferred starting pitching options that's healthy. Quintana will return soon, which will help. Tobias Myers is heading out on a rehab assignment today with Triple-A Nashville. Reinforcements are coming, but not soon enough.

The Brewers are currently operating with a rotation of Peralta, Tyler Alexander, Elvin Rodriguez, and Chad Patrick. Cortes' next turn was coming up on Wednesday in Colorado, which is now TBA and Milwaukee will need to find another starting pitching option somewhere because the hits keep on coming.