Brewers News: Top Prospect Sal Frelick Finally Earns Promotion To Big Leagues

At the end of spring training, the Brewers told Sal Frelick to force his way on to the big league roster. He had fallen just short of making the club on Opening Day but was set to be called up soon. An unfortunate thumb injury in April took Frelick out of action for weeks, delaying his MLB Debut. It's been delayed no longer.

The Milwaukee Brewers are promoting outfield prospect Sal Frelick to the major league roster ahead of Saturday's game against the Atlanta Braves. Ken Rosenthal was first to report the news.

Frelick, 23, is ranked as the No. 2 prospect in the Brewers system and is the 17th ranked prospect in all of baseball.

The Brewers promotion of Sal Frelick is long awaited, but means the end of the Brewers tenure for Raimel Tapia.

To clear the roster space on both the 26 and 40 man rosters for Frelick, the Brewers designated outfielder Raimel Tapia for assignment. In 20 games with the Brewers, Tapia hit just .173 with a .555 OPS and 20 strikeouts in 52 ABs.

Frelick suffered a thumb injury in Triple-A the same day as Garrett Mitchell suffered his shoulder injury. While Frelick likely would've gotten the call back in April, it had to be delayed until after he recovered. Frelick has been back in action in the minor leagues since June 9th and has been back in Triple-A since June 14th.

The reason it took the Brewers so long to call upon Frelick despite their clear need for more offense in the outfield is that Frelick wasn't providing much offense himself down in the minors. Thumb injuries can take a while to fully recover from as a hitter and even though he was healthy, he still hadn't gotten his hand strength back.

It has become clear that in recent days his hand strength has gotten back to where it was and his offense has taken off. going 9-for-22 in his last 5 games with two doubles and a homer.

The Brewers seemed to just be waiting for Sal Frelick to get hot and the moment that he did, they would look to promote him to the big leagues. Now he's gotten hot, and he's coming up to Milwaukee.

Milwaukee selected Frelick out of Boston College with the 15th overall pick in the 2021 MLB Draft. He quickly moved up the system due to his exceptional hitting ability. He has a career .314/.393/.451 slash line in the minor leagues. He draws walks, he doesn't strike out much, and he has good speed, stealing 24 bags last season.

Frelick started 2022 in High-A and ended it in Triple-A. Now, he's in the big leagues and he's likely here to stay.