Milwaukee Brewers: Brent Suter’s Season Ends In Disappointment

The Milwaukee Brewers’ worst fears were confirmed on Monday when news broke that southpaw Brent Suter suffered a torn UCL in his left elbow on Sunday.

The injury bug that has been biting the Milwaukee Brewers the entire season just took another player. Brent Suter is done for the season and will likely miss most, if not all, of next year as well.

Should he undergo Tommy John surgery, that would require a 12-16 month recovery process. That would mean the earliest return he could have would be late July or early August next season, but there’s a good chance he just won’t pitch at all in 2019.

A Big Blow

Suter was finally becoming a more reliable pitcher in 2018. He’s been in the regular rotation for most of the season and has done an admirable job. Prior to his injury shortened start on Sunday, Suter had a 4.39 ERA in just under 100 innings pitched.

During late June, Suter had a stretch where he was finally able to go deep into games. For most of his career, Suter has been unable to get past the fifth inning because he struggles during the third time through the batting order. He went seven innings in back to back starts, and followed that up with a six inning performance to finish out the month of June.

Suter’s big focus coming into the season was being able to go deeper into games. He added 15 pounds of muscle in the offseason to try to build up his stamina so he can become a trusted starter instead of a rotation swingman. He had been showing a lot of promise in that regard before the injury.

The starting rotation has been injured a lot this season. Jhoulys Chacin is the only starter to have not spent time on the DL this year. Zach Davies has been out for two months, Jimmy Nelson is slowly working his way back from injury, and Junior Guerra is returning from the DL as well.

Team Impact

Does this make the need for a starting pitcher even more important? While the Milwaukee Brewers have built up enough depth in the rotation, losing one of the top five is a big blow. The Brewers need to add a starting pitcher at the Trade Deadline now after Suter’s injury.

While his spot could be filled easily by Junior Guerra or Zach Davies, now is the perfect time to add someone to this group. Davies has had a couple setbacks already, and neither Guerra nor Davies should be counted on in a playoff race. While Suter probably wouldn’t be counted on for that either, this leaves a hole in the rotation for someone to fill.

Brent Suter is a great guy, and by all accounts, an even better teammate. He’ll still hang around the clubhouse but losing Suter is more than losing just a fifth starter.

The Milwaukee Brewers will find a way to move on from this injury and keep moving forward. That’s what the best teams do.