An injury cost Sal Frelick a chance at making his major-league debut in April.
But the Milwaukee Brewers’ No. 2 prospect is finally back in action, having recovered from surgery on his left thumb. The 23-year-old outfielder went 0 for 3 Friday in a rookie-level Arizona Complex League game, marking the first time he’d played in a game since being injured April 18.
Frelick injured his thumb on a slide on the same night Garrett Mitchell suffered a left shoulder injury on a baserunning play that eventually necessitated surgery and is expected to cost him the rest of the season.
Had Frelick had better luck, there’s little question he would have made his major-league debut with the Brewers in Seattle at that point. Instead, Blake Perkins received his first major-league callup.
Now, Milwaukee’s 2021 first-round draft pick will begin the process of logging at-bats in the minor leagues – first in Arizona before eventually returning to Class AAA Nashville – in hopes of getting on a roll at the plate and getting back into consideration for a promotion.
“I think Sal’s job is, one, to get healthy. And obviously if you’re playing games, you’re deemed healthy,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said Saturday. “He’s got to log some at-bats at a minimum, for sure. He’s got to get to Triple-A and play for a while at a minimum. And then Sal’s job is to play well enough to say, ‘Hey, he’s got to be here.’ Pretty simple.
“I mean, we’re certainly open to it, but Sal’s job is to beat down the door and tell us that, ‘I belong there.'”
Frelick participated in the World Baseball Classic with Team Italy and had a strong spring training on the heels of a tremendous 2022 season but was off to a slow start in Nashville at the time of his injury, hitting only .220 in 15 games.
As it turned out, rookie Joey Wiemer has been a staple in the outfield for the Brewers since the second game of the season and despite some offensive struggles has been tremendous in center field.
Outfielder Tyrone Taylor, who’s battled a troublesome right elbow dating to last season and has been on the injured list since June 3, underwent a cortisone shot after consulting with a pair of orthopedic doctors.
Taylor will be shut down another week and then begin to ramp up physical activity after that.
He missed all of spring training and the first 28 games of the season after undergoing a platelet-rich plasma injection in the same elbow but struggled badly once he returned to action, hitting only .160 with a home run and four runs batted in over 27 games.
Craig Counsell won’t manage series finale
It’s an especially rare circumstance when Counsell isn’t calling the shots from his usual spot near the dugout steps.
But such will be the case for Sunday’s series finale against the Oakland A’s at American Family Field.
The reason? His son, Jack, is graduating from Whitefish Bay High School. The ninth-year skipper will hand the managerial reins over to trusted bench coach Pat Murphy in his absence.
It’s the second time Counsell has done so in the last three years; he also attended his oldest son Brady’s graduation in June 2021.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers prospect Sal Frelick back in action following April thumb surgery