NEW YORK – Brewers sparkplug Sal Frelick is back to active duty with the Brewers, torn labrum and all.
Before panicking about that diagnosis, which the 26-year-old outfielder shared Tuesday after the Brewers activated him from the 10-day injured list, you have to hear him out. Yes, Frelick has some structural damage in his right shoulder, which explains the discomfort that had bothered him on throws since June, and began to affect his hitting before he landed on the injured list in mid-July.
But no, he’s not the only ballplayer with something going on in his throwing shoulder.
“Ultimately, it’s a torn labrum, which is never what you want to hear, but how they explained it to me was that if they had an MRI of my shoulder five years ago, it would have looked relatively the same,” Frelick said. “It’s nice that they were able to tell that off the picture. They said that there was some new stretching of it going on, but for the most part, they said if they MRI’d everybody’s shoulder, everybody would have a torn labrum, for the most part.”
To clear a spot for Frelick, the Brewers designated utility man Jonathan Ornelas for assignment on Tuesday ahead of their series opener against the Mets at Citi Field. Frelick was not in a starting lineup stocked with right-handed hitters against Mets left-hander Zac Thornton.
Ornelas, 26, appeared in three games at second base with the Crew, going 2-for-9.
Frelick had been on the IL since July 18 with a right shoulder strain. He played 10 rehab games with Triple-A Nashville, going 10-for-36 (.278 average) with two home runs and four doubles, starting with days as the designated hitter and finishing with a series of games in the outfield in which he tested his shoulder on throws.
Frelick had posted a .631 OPS over 90 games with the Brewers before landing on the IL, a step back from the .708 mark he recorded from 2024-25. Rookie Luis Lara had seen the lion's share of reps in right field in Frelick's absence, posting a .711 OPS.
“Anybody who knows our club knows what Sal brings to us,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “So we’re excited about having him back. We have to trust the medical team, and that they’re confident. It’s not to say there’s not an injury there. We know that, but we’re on top of it and aware of it and caring for it. He understands what he has to do on his end, and we’ll just kind of make the best of it right now. It’s in a way better place than it was.”
Is Frelick worried that playing through this could cause long-term harm?
“I think maybe if you had asked me right after an MRI, I might have been not optimistic,” Frelick said. “But just how my body has responded to the rehab, and it wasn’t like I saw the MRI and they were like, ‘You need to get surgery.’ But if we weren’t in [contention for] the playoffs and in the spot we’re in, it might have been a different approach to the rehab.
“It was like, ‘Listen, there’s no reason to rehab it and try to get back as quick as possible.’ The trainers and everybody said we still have to take it slow, so there was that battle going back and forth. I pushed it as fast as I could while still being smart, and I think my body responded pretty well. Better than we all thought.”