PHOENIX -- Wednesday marked one week since Brewers pitchers and catchers reported to Spring Training, and Jimmy Nelson was one week closer to getting back on the mound in a Major League game.
The right-hander, coming off a lost 2018 season, could provide a big boost to a Brewers starting rotation that has solid depth but lacks a traditional ace. Nelson was at the top of the rotation in September 2017 when he sustained a shoulder injury that required major surgery.
“He threw a bullpen [session on Tuesday], everything went great. We’re at a point where he’s pushing us,” Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said. “That’s how we want it to be. He’s on a schedule we set forth before Spring Training started, and we’re on schedule with him.”
That schedule contains only slight alterations from other pitchers’. Nelson, for example, is slated to throw one extra live batting-practice session before getting into Cactus League games. Counsell described the differences as “logical” for a pitcher coming off such a major injury.
Nelson’s most recent mound session was shifted one day to accommodate a trip home to Houston, where wife Melissa underwent another medical procedure related to their unborn twins. After a tense weekend, a check-up Wednesday morning yielded promising news, Nelson said.
“It’s tough, just because I’m here and she’s there. We both have our battles we’re fighting,” Nelson said. “I see how she felt for so long while I dealt with my process and my rehab stuff. She felt bad and helpless, even though nothing was her fault, and she was always helping me more than she knew.
“Now I see that feeling, because I’m in that situation with her going through this. She’s taking it great. I’ve been really proud of her and how strong she’s been.”
The mound, Nelson said, is his “happy place” throughout this process. He is slated to throw again Friday, though he wasn’t sure if that would be another bullpen session or live batting practice. Assuming his progress continues, he presumably would open the season in Milwaukee’s rotation. The Brewers plan to let circumstances dictate those decisions.
“I guess we’re not there yet, is what I would say to that question,” Counsell said. “We’re not into games yet. And you want to see what it looks like coming out [of his hand] a little bit, and where we’re at, and does he need some more time? It doesn’t have to be the same, is one thing I would say. It doesn’t have to look exactly the same. It’s probably going to look different. For most pitchers, it can look different from year to year. But we need to let some games play out before we can talk about that.”
Plan for Braun
While outfielder Ryan Braun works on implementing the subtle changes to his swing that he made over the winter, the Brewers have the same workload in mind for him this season to avoid bouts of back tightness. Last year, Braun played in 125 games and had two stints on the injured list.
“I anticipate something similar this year,” Counsell said. “We have to just monitor usage. We have to be careful there … [and] we’ll continue to do that this year. All of our numbers say he was a little unfortunate last year in some of his luck. There’s a level of productivity he’s still capable of, and I think it’s more than last year. More than the numbers showed.”
Let’s do it live
Chase Anderson and Zach Davies , who are among the pitchers scheduled against the Cubs in Saturday’s Cactus League opener, were among those on the mound Wednesday for the first rounds of live batting practice at American Family Fields of Phoenix.
For hitters, it was their first look at real pitching in months, and Counsell remembers how uncomfortable those days can be.
“You hope you remember how to hit,” he said. “It always makes you remember how hard hitting is. It’s a process for these guys. It’s Spring Training for a reason. You let them work out the rustiness. That’s the point of it.”
What do the pitchers get from it?
“I tell the hitters to treat it like a game,” Nelson said. “That’s the only way it’s going to help us, to have no ‘L’ screen and we’re getting live feedback. Even when they’re tracking pitches, I’ll still talk to them afterwards and ask what they say and if in game situations it’s something they might have bit on or whatever.”