Brewers news: Robert Gasser starts, Christian Yelich returns, Peter Strzelecki DFAd

It has been a busy weekend of roster moves for the Milwaukee Brewers. In an effort to give an extra day of rest to Jacob Misiorowski, Brandon Sproat, and Kyle Harrison, as well as line that trio up for the Brewers' first series against the Chicago Cubs of the 2026 season, which begins on Monday evening at Wrigley Field, Milwaukee has called upon two starters who began the season in Triple-A to fill in during their series with the Minnesota Twins.

The first of these two call-ups was right-hander Coleman Crow, who made the second start of his MLB career in Friday's series opener and tossed five innings while allowing just one earned run. Crow was promptly sent back to Triple-A after his start, just as he was after his MLB debut back on April 17, but it's almost a guarantee he's back up with the major league club at some point in 2026 given how much he's impressed in his limited opportunities.

After Logan Henderson, another starter who began the season with the Triple-A Nashville Sounds, got the ball on Saturday night and added to his impressive early-MLB-career resume, the Brewers will turn to left-hander Robert Gasser for his first appearance of the 2026 campaign on Sunday afternoon.

Robert Gasser to make 2026 debut on Sunday afternoon in series finale against Minnesota Twins

The Brewers were waiting to announce a starter for Sunday's series finale, but it sounds as if they knew it was going to be Gasser for quite some time. According to Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who is in Minnesota covering the team this weekend, Gasser was already at the ballpark on Saturday evening, suggesting the plan was already in place before the Brewers turned to Chad Patrick for the final four innings of Saturday night's victory.

Patrick appeared to be the other option that Milwaukee could have turned to for Sunday's matinee, but the Brewers have used the right-hander in relief situations as of late and did so once again on Saturday. He was excellent, allowing just one hit and zero runs en route to his first career save, but the outing solidified Milwaukee's strategy of turning to Gasser for his 2026 debut on Sunday afternoon.

Earlier this morning, the Brewers made the news official, promoting Gasser to the big-league roster and designating Peter Strzelecki, who was added to the roster yesterday afternoon, for assignment. Gasser, who owns a career 2.67 ERA across seven major league starts over the last two seasons, was off to a strong start in Triple-A, with a solid 3.74 ERA over six starts to prove it. His 32 strikeouts in 21.2 Triple-A innings this year are especially encouraging. While Gasser hasn't pitched more than four innings in one outing since the Nashville Sounds' Opening Day, he did toss 70 pitches in his most recent outing, so he should be able to give the Brewers, who have a fully rested bullpen outside of Patrick, decent length this afternoon.

Christian Yelich rejoins the lineup after back soreness caused him to miss last four games

The Brewers activated Christian Yelich from the IL, where he resided due to a left adductor strain for nearly one month, ahead of their mid-week series against the San Diego Padres last week. It was a great surprise for Brewers fans who didn't receive much update on their injured veteran before he was suddenly back in the lineup.

However, Yelich reportedly started to feel some back soreness just before Tuesday night's game began last week, and when it persisted on the following days, the Brewers made the wise decision to keep him out of the lineup. That caution extended to the next three games as well, causing Yelich to be sidelined for the second two-thirds of the Padres series and the first two-thirds of the Twins series.

Now, Yelich is back in the lineup for Sunday's series finale in the Twin Cities. Milwaukee's veteran leader will serve as the DH this afternoon, batting clean-up behind William Contreras. Before the injury, Yelich was off to a hot start at the plate, as evidenced by an excellent slash line of .314/.375/.451. Though it generally takes Yelich some time to lock in his timing at the plate, hopefully he hits the ground running now that he's back in action.

Brewers designate Peter Strzelecki for assignment before he can make 2026 debut

Much to the excitement of Brewers fans, the team promoted Peter Strzelecki from Triple-A on Saturday afternoon. Strzelecki, who Milwaukee signed to a minor league contract this past winter, pitched for the Crew in 2022 and 2023 and found great success during his debut season. However, after struggling in 2023, Strzelecki bounced around the league before landing back in the Brewers' organization this past February.

Strzelecki earned the short end of the stick in regard to the Brewers' recent string of roster decisions. He was promoted essentially just to cover a low-leverage situation on Saturday night should it have presented itself. Now, he heads to waivers, where his decent showing in Triple-A to start the 2026 campaign could lead to interest from other clubs.

If not, the Brewers will be more than excited to welcome Strzelecki back to their organization. The right-hander appears to be working through some changes to his repertoire with the Brewers this year. After relying mostly on a four-seam fastball through his career to this point, Strzelecki is now featuring a sinker far more often. Given his strong slider, a sinker that dives in the opposite direction makes a lot of sense for Strzelecki and could unlock the success that he found back in 2022.

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