Brewers send two key relievers on rehab assignments as September roster expansion looms

It's not necessarily surprising for pitching injuries to pop up at this point in Major League Baseball's 162-game marathon. Young starters are often approaching career-highs in innings pitched in a single season, while relievers who have been called upon throughout the campaign start to experience some anticipated late-season fatigue.

The Milwaukee Brewers are not immune to this phenomenon that seems to reliably arise during the "dog days" of the season each year. Back on August 14, three days after he had last pitched, elite set-up man Abner Uribe landed on the 15-day IL (retroactive to August 11) due to a forearm flexor strain. It's a scary injury for pitchers, as forearm injuries can be precursors to elbow problems, which carry more significance and longer recovery times. However, the Brewers quickly revealed that Uribe's flexor strain is thankfully on the minor side, meaning there are no long-term concerns.

Even still, a stint on the IL was required for Uribe, leaving the Brewers to cover the eighth inning without their flame-throwing set-up man for a couple of weeks. Uribe joined trade deadline acquisition JoJo Romero, who came over to the Brewers in the same deal that landed Milwaukee Dustin May from the St. Louis Cardinals, on the injured list. Romero underwent an emergency appendectomy back in mid-July that has kept him away from a big-league mound for more than a month.

However, while currently having two high-leverage relief weapons on the IL is not ideal for the Brewers in the short term, fans now have reason to be encouraged that both Uribe and Romero will be back in the big-league 'pen sooner rather than later. As announced by the Brewers earlier today, both relievers are set to begin rehab assignments with the Low-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers tonight, August 25.

MLB's September roster expansion will help Brewers' roster decisions upon Abner Uribe and JoJo Romero's returns

Before landing on the IL, Uribe was in the midst of an incredible streak on the mound. The flame-throwing 26-year-old hasn't given up a run since June 19, compiling 21 straight scoreless appearances. On the season, Uribe has a 2.05 ERA in 49 appearances, while once again serving as the set-up man to All-Star closer Trevor Megill.

Romero, meanwhile, was one of the most dominant left-handed relievers in baseball last year, with a 2.07 ERA in 65 appearances to prove it. His numbers look a touch more pedestrian this year (3.35 ERA in 44 appearances), but he had allowed just one earned run in his 10 outings leading up to his emergency procedure.

The duo will undoubtedly offer a huge boost to the Brewers' bullpen for the final month of the season, but every roster addition requires a corresponding move, and Milwaukee may be facing difficult ones upon the pair's return. Thankfully, Uribe and Romero's re-addition to the Brewers' bullpen may perfectly coincide with the rosters expanding on September 1, meaning Milwaukee will only have to make one subtraction from their current bullpen group to accommodate their arrivals. As a reminder, rosters now expand from 26 to 28 players in September, and the only restriction is that teams can't carry more than 14 pitchers.

The Brewers haven't officially confirmed how long each rehabbing pitcher will spend in the minor leagues before joining the big-league squad, but the team's latest injury update did have a late August expected return for Romero, and a late August/early September return date for Uribe, suggesting that the former will be back before the latter. That timeline is obviously contingent on everything going according to plan during their rehab process, but it's not out of the question that both could be back in the major league 'pen for the Brewers' four-game series against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field from August 31-September 3.

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