Brewers add right-hander Luis Perdomo to the bullpen, option Keston Hiura to Class AAA Nashville
ATLANTA – Many roster prognosticators had Luis Perdomo making the Milwaukee Brewers' opening-day roster coming out of spring training.
While the right-hander ultimately didn't make the cut then, he was selected from Class AAA Nashville on Friday in advance of the team's three-game weekend series against the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park.
Keston Hiura was optioned to Nashville to clear room for Perdomo on the 26-man roster.
"Feels really good," Perdomo said through translator Carlos Brizuela. "Thank God. I just have to take advantage of the opportunity."
Perdomo, 29, went 2-0 with a 1.23 earned run average and WHIP of 0.55 in five Cactus League appearances (two starts) with three strikeouts in 7⅓ innings, numbers that seemed good enough for him to survive the final cut, especially with the Brewers departing camp with 15 pitchers.
But Perdomo wasn't caught off-guard.
"They had talked to me about it beforehand," Perdomo said. "So, I wasn’t surprised."
A ground-ball specialist, Perdomo is 20-31 with a 5.19 ERA and WHIP of 1.52 in 133 appearances (61 starts) with the San Diego Padres dating to 2016. His best season came in 2017, when he went 8-11 with a 4.67 ERA in 29 starts.
Perdomo made nine appearances for Nashville (two starts) and posted a 2.25 ERA with a pair of saves in two opportunities and 13 strikeouts in 12 innings.
"I think Carlos Villanueva has done a really nice job here," manager Craig Counsell said, referring to the former Milwaukee pitcher and current special advisor for baseball operations and player development.
Perdomo is in the second year of a two-year deal he signed with the Brewers coming off Tommy John surgery, which cost him all of 2021.
"We’ve just explained to Luis where we’re at, and he’s been very open where he’s at, too," Counsell continued. "There were good conversations in spring training about getting the season off on the right foot for him, getting him into the season a little bit after his injury. We’ve done that.
"We expected him to throw well down there. This is a guy we were pretty much counting on impacting us at some point."
By adding Perdomo, the Brewers' bullpen is back at eight relievers, a number Counsell and company are much more comfortable with considering their pitching plans moving forward.
"What we’re thinking is we’d like to, for the rest of the month, use six starters when appropriate," Counsell said. "We went with seven relievers for the Reds series and we were just at a point where we’ve got to protect those guys in the bullpen and have the normal eight guys down there.
"So, we just got to a point where today was the day we were going to make sure we were protected there with that number. Most days, we’re going to have to have eight relievers down there."
With regard to the six-man rotation, lefty Aaron Ashby will slot in Sunday and start against Charlie Morton. Sunday would have otherwise been Brandon Woodruff's day.
Ashby is 0-2 with a 2.33 earned run average in six appearances, two of which have been starts.
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"I don’t know if we knew it was going to work out this (smoothly), Counsell said. "The way we’ve been able to use him is perfect. We’ve been able to keep him on a starter’s routine while lessening his innings, but still getting him on a schedule where he throws a bullpen between appearances.
"It’s also a function of how well he’s pitched, that we’re able to put him in a game we’re winning by two runs and let him pitch through the eighth inning instead of going to some of our other guys. I think it will benefit Ash. The way we’ve been able to do it, fortunately through the schedule and how everyone has pitched around him and how he’s pitched, it really helps us.
"Most importantly, we’ve been able to keep him stretched out. We don’t feel like we’ve lost anything, even though he’s starting every 10 days – he’s got 90 pitches in him.
Hiura, meanwhile, was demoted the day after hitting one of the Brewers' six homers in a 10-5 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at American Family Field.
In 15 games, he hit .216 with a pair of homers and five RBI.
"I look at the positive for Keston, which is that he contributed here," Counsell said "He can be a contributing member of this team, for sure. I think last year was such a struggle and at times his confidence got to be a struggle, too.
"I think he played like a confident player his first month. There’s a place for him. Obviously, the roster is going to change throughout the year and at some point we will have 13 position players. We will have, unfortunately, an injury at some point.
"He’ll find his way back here."
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers add pitcher Luis Perdomo, send Keston Hiura to Nashville
