Priester's wrist discomfort persists; Opening Day status in question

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Who will start on Opening Day for the Brewers? It probably won’t be Brandon Woodruff, who is healthy but building up cautiously in light of his injury history, and is currently behind other pitchers in camp. And now it’s increasingly obvious that it won’t be Quinn Priester, either, whose right wrist is a matter of growing frustration.

Priester went 13-3 with a 3.32 ERA in the Majors last season after Milwaukee plucked him from Boston’s Triple-A team, including one stretch in which the Brewers won 17 consecutive games when he pitched. It was during that stretch – in an Aug. 21 start against the Cubs – that Priester developed discomfort in his right wrist. Medical imaging then and now has offered assurances that he is not dealing with a major structural injury. But more than six months later, after a restful offseason, the issue has not gone away. Its precise cause is proving difficult to pinpoint, so much so that the Brewers refer to Priester’s ailment vaguely as a “right wrist issue” on their injury report.

“The part that’s difficult is some throws I’ll be able to feel it, and then some throws I don’t,” Priester said. “Sometimes it’s difficult, based on the day, to understand what we’re going to expect. That’s some of the frustration right now.”

He’s approaching the process day by day, but the days he has to prepare for the season are already starting to run out. As of Thursday, Opening Day against the White Sox was precisely three weeks away, and Priester has not thrown off a mound in more than a week. He would have to go through a series of steps before pitching in a Spring Training game, and then build up his pitch count.

As with Woodruff, the Brewers are far more focused on getting Priester healthy for the bulk of the season than on rushing to get him ready for Opening Day. That long-term outlook has been the theme of camp for manager Pat Murphy, who has repeatedly mentioned the stress that was applied to Brewers pitchers during their run to the NLCS last season.

“We’re all concerned because he’s not responding consistently,” Murphy said of Priester. “He’ll have a bullpen and feels great, and then the next bullpen, he can’t do it. Whenever you’re dealing with whatever up the arm, [starting at] the wrist, it’s concerning. But I’m optimistic.

“We’re thinking about even sending him to a specialist now. We’re optimistic that the shoulder MRI, the elbow MRI, everything is good. But something’s keeping him from progressing.”

If not Woodruff or Priester, the Brewers would have to either go with one of their young arms – Jacob Misiorowski and Chad Patrick are probably the leading candidates – or get creative. They are building up left-hander Aaron Ashby's pitch count this spring, for example, because a pitcher can always pull back if he winds up in the bullpen to begin the year. The club is doing the same with left-hander DL Hall and right-hander Coleman Crow.

It could end up being more of a traditional opener on Opening Day as we saw with Ashby’s series of short starts during last year’s postseason. Candidates for that scenario run the gamut all the way to 2025 All-Star closer Trevor Megill, who started Game 5 of the NLDS against the Cubs last year.

After Opening Day, the Brewers do have depth to cover a stretch of starts – but it’s still a very young group. After Misiorowski and Patrick, starting pitchers on the 40-man roster include left-handers Robert Gasser (who started Thursday’s game against the Rockies), Kyle Harrison and Shane Drohan, and right-handers Logan Henderson, Brandon Sproat and Carlos Rodriguez.

Priester is determined to remain optimistic, but he hasn’t put any timelines on his recovery.

“I’m confident that it’s nothing large, and just something the body is probably reacting to after a really intense season last year,” Priester said. “Not only [was it] my highest inning workload, but also a full workload in the big leagues. That is a different intensity. We’ll learn from this as we continue to navigate it, and hopefully start responding a little bit better.”