MILWAUKEE – For the Brewers’ starting rotation, Dustin May is in and Brandon Sproat is out.
The Brewers activated Trade Deadline acquisitions May, who is slotted to start Thursday’s finale against Pittsburgh, and Antonio Senzatela, who joined the bullpen for Tuesday’s game against the Pirates at American Family Field. They also welcomed reliever JoJo Romero to Milwaukee, though he is on the injured list recovering from an appendectomy.
Milwaukee acquired May and Romero from the Cardinals on Monday and got Senzatela from the Rockies. To make room on the active roster, the Brewers optioned out reliever Garrett Stallings and slumping starter Sproat, who was lifted in the middle of an at-bat during the fourth inning of Monday’s loss.
“With us adding a starting pitcher, then you have to consider, ‘OK, who needs the work in Triple-A? Who needs to go down? Who can move to the ‘pen?’” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “You look at all of those options and [sending down Sproat] was the choice.
“It’s really about what’s best for the player, what’s best for the team. You combine those, and that’s what you come up with.”
Of Sproat, Murphy said, “He’s got some leeway [in Triple-A] to work on some things, to ask some questions, try things, to kind of formulate his arsenal, which works in-zone. Because the free bases, the wild pitches, the walks, the hit-by-pitch. That’s got to stop. You can’t pitch in the big leagues doing that.”
May, 28, was 5-7 with a 4.38 ERA in 21 starts for St. Louis, including a gem against the Brewers in late May in which he carried a no-hit bid into the eighth inning of an eventual loss to Milwaukee.
With more than seven years of Major League service, he has nearly five years’ more experience than any of the Brewers’ other current starters.
"I'm a completely open book," May said. "I've been through a lot of the highs and definitely been through some of the lows. I feel like I have a very good mix of how the game can go very well, very fast and it can also go very bad, very fast. I would like to say you can talk to really anybody in my past that I've conveyed that to, that I'm a complete open book and you can ask me any question. I'm going to do my best to give my best outlook.
"They're getting a guy with a lot of fight. I definitely show a lot of emotion on the mound. I'm very fiery, and you'll be able to see that on Thursday."