Milwaukee Brewers: Travis Shaw to start rehab soon?

Milwaukee Brewers third baseman Travis Shaw is slated to begin a rehab assignment soon. How will this impact the roster?

Travis Shaw is still at the rest phase of his rehab from the issue in his left wrist, but he should start rehab on Wednesday. Rehab assignments for position players on the 10-day Injured List can last up to 20 days, but Shaw should return to the Milwaukee Brewers much sooner. But how will that impact the current 25-man roster?

How long until Shaw returns

He’s already swinging a bat, and his 10-day IL stint ends on May 24th. If he starts his rehab assignment on Wednesday, he could be back with the Milwaukee Brewers in time for the start of the series with the Minnesota Twins on May 27th. That would give him about 20 or so at bats to ‘reboot’ his swing.

Who gets sent down?

It pretty much has to be top prospect Keston Hiura, right? Unless the Milwaukee Brewers choose to cut down to 12 pitchers, DFA Eric Thames, or DFA Hernan Perez, the smart money to go back to Triple-A is Hiura.

The Brewers might buy a few extra days for Hiura by playing ‘reliever roulette’, but he’ll have to go back to San Antonio eventually.

What is Shaw’s role when he returns

Shaw is the almost every day third baseman when he comes back to the active roster. He’ll probably sit against most tough lefties, and occasionally slide over to second base or first base, but he’ll be in the lineup more often than not.

The best case scenario for the Milwaukee Brewers is that Shaw uses this time to figure out what was wrong, and fix it. This is the perfect opportunity to get his issues worked out away from the team, and away from Major League pitching. However, Mike Moustakas has proven capable of handling the every day duties at the hot corner, and the Brewers could decide to make a change if Shaw can’t return to form. Hopefully, it was only the wrist injury that caused the downturn in his production, and he’ll get back to form after a few weeks off.