Brewers roster news: Alexander to the White Sox, Avans claimed from Athletics, Perkins and Mitchell progressing

The Milwaukee Brewers dropped a disappointing 1-0 loss to the San Diego Padres in this afternoon's series finale, earning them their first series loss since the Minnesota Twins three-game set in mid-May. The team sits at a 35-31 record as the Atlanta Braves come to town. 2024 NL Cy Young Award winner, Chris Sale, is set to start game one for Atlanta opposite Aaron Civale, who will make his fifth start of the year for the Brewers.

Meanwhile, the Brewers' roster fluctuation has calmed in recent weeks, with several injured players, namely DL Hall, Aaron Ashby, and Aaron Civale, making their returns in late May, just as the team kicked off a nine-game win streak. With a healthy roster and a high-performing squad, the need for roster movement has decreased, but a few small moves and updates did occur over the weekend. Here's a rundown of the minor roster developments that arose in recent days.

Tyler Alexander lands with Chicago White Sox after rejecting outright assignment

One week ago, the Brewers designated Tyler Alexander for assignment in order to open up a roster spot for José Quintana, who spent just over two weeks on the injured list with a left shoulder impingement. Despite passing through waivers earlier this week, Alexander rejected the Brewers' assignment to Triple-A and instead elected free agency. Earlier today, it was announced that he signed a league minimum contract with the Chicago White Sox. Later this afternoon, Alexander made his first appearance with the White Sox and tossed three innings while only allowing one run.

Alexander served an important role on the Brewers pitching staff for the first two months of the season, eating innings as a starter, a long reliever, and even making a couple of appearances as a one-inning high-leverage reliever.

However, despite the value he displayed often providing relief for an overworked Brewers' bullpen, the results simply weren't there for Alexander. He finished his brief Brewers tenure with a 6.19 ERA in 36.1 innings. He made 21 overall appearances for the Crew, four as a starting pitcher, but the walk numbers were elevated, and Alexander posted an unsustainable 9.24 ERA in May.

He joins Adrian Houser, Bryce Wilson, and Vinny Capra as former Brewers who are getting another shot with the American League's worst team. If his first outing this afternoon is an indication of how his stint with the White Sox will play out, then the Brewers’ decision to part ways with the veteran lefty will feel like a win for both his former squad and Alexander himself.

Brewers claim Athletics outfielder Drew Avans off waivers, assign him to Triple-A Nashville

During today's game against the San Diego Padres, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Brewers beat reporter Curt Hogg announced that the team had claimed outfielder Drew Avans off waivers after he was designated for assignment by the Athletics on Friday.

While Avans does possess some intriguing tools (most notably a sprint speed in the 93 percentile, according to Baseball Savant), his minor league career raises some concerns. After being drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 33rd round of the 2018 MLB Draft, Avans quickly rose through the minor leagues and was playing Triple-A ball in his third season of professional baseball. However, that was four years ago, and Avans only just made his MLB debut on May 27 of this year.

While his numbers in Triple-A weren't bad, Avans was playing in an extremely talented Dodgers organization, and he never did quite enough to crack their big league roster. This previous offseason, after spending six years in the Dodgers' farm system, Avans became a minor league free agent and chose to sign with the Athletics, where he finally made his MLB debut before being designated for assignment a week later.

Avans joins Nashville Sounds' outfield that consists of Eddie Rosario, Jimmy Herron, Jared Oliva, and occasionally Bobby Dalbec. While he probably isn't the first name on that list who would be called up to the Brewers’ active roster, Avans serves as important left-handed hitting outfield depth should an injury or two pop up.

Pat Murphy provides update on Blake Perkins and Garrett Mitchell

Speaking of outfield injuries, Pat Murphy offered updates on both Garrett Mitchell and Blake Perkins to several Brewers reporters ahead of Saturday's game against the Padres. As reported by Hunter Baumgardt of 97.3 The Game, both Mitchell and Perkins could start their rehab assignments by the end of the month, putting an early-to-mid July return in play for both of them.

Mitchell's timeline seems to be slightly ahead of Perkins' according to information provided on MLB.com's "Latest Brewers injuries & transactions" page. The page notes that Perkins is not yet running at full speed, while Mitchell is already doing baseball activities down in Arizona.

When either one returns, it will likely be Daz Cameron who falls victim to the roster crunch, barring an impressive display from Cameron in the next few weeks. And while Jackson Chourio's defense in center field has improved as of late, adding Perkins and Mitchell's gloves back should offer a boost to the Brewers' outfield defense.