MILWAUKEE – The Brewers wasted no time bringing young shortstop Cooper Pratt back to the big leagues on Wednesday, and right fielder Sal Frelick doesn’t appear to be far behind.
While Pratt returned to the Brewers’ lineup for Wednesday’s game against the Mariners after being reinstated from the 10-day injured list, Frelick was going off for Triple-A Nashville in Norfolk, Va. He led off the Sounds’ game with a home run and later added an RBI single in the resumption of a rehab assignment.
Frelick, on the IL with a strained right shoulder, played seven games with the Sounds on rehab before checking in with the Brewers on Tuesday at American Family Field. The following day, he was back in the Minors.
“Sal’s going to play [on Wednesday] night and see if his throws and his arm respond the way [they] did this past time he played,” manager Pat Murphy said. “Then he’s going to play another game after that to see if it responds. Back-to-back nights, if his arm can respond. If so, we can make a decision on Friday.”
Frelick was worth between 2-3 wins above replacement by the Baseball-Reference measure in each of his first two full seasons in the Majors in 2024-25, but he slipped to -0.2 bWAR this season while hitting .236/.301/.330 and dealing with shoulder pain.
Does Murphy believe the lingering shoulder issue affected Frelick’s offensive numbers?
“I don’t think we’ll ever know,” Murphy said. “Knowing Sal the way we all know Sal, he was not going to speak up about it. I think he’s been injured all year. I’m just hopeful he can play through this and not have to have a more serious approach to it. He’s got to know himself and not be his own worst enemy, and that he ends up damaging himself for the future because he’ll play through it. We know him.
“So, that’s why we sent him back. We could have kept him and activated him [Tuesday]. He was ready to go. But we sent him back in order to ensure that he knew what we wanted: Two straight days playing and your arm feels good. We told him, ‘This is your career at stake.’”
While Frelick continued working his way back to Milwaukee, Pratt was back in the lineup on the first day he was eligible – and after just one game on rehab assignment.
He made that one game in the Minors count. Pratt went 1-for-2 with a single, a run scored and a sacrifice fly while playing seven innings in the field for High-A Wisconsin on Tuesday night, his 22nd birthday. It was his first game action since landing on the IL with a strained right hamstring.
“He was right in the flow of things [during] the 10 days off,” Murphy said. “He did a lot of baseball work the past week, just to [be ready to] go out and see live pitching and the game atmosphere.
“Is he going to be his best? No. But you mix in the Trajekt [pitching simulator], you mix in the way they train, you don’t get too far off.”
Pratt entered the night slashing .272/.352/.368 in his first 44 Major League games since debuting in June.