Top Brewers pitching prospect could make his MLB debut this week; Christian Yelich working his way back

CHICAGO – If all goes as planned, it is trending that one of the Milwaukee Brewers’ top pitching prospects would make his major-league debut this upcoming week.

Left-hander Robert Gasser will pitch for Class AAA Nashville on Sunday, after which he could be in strong contention to make his next start with the Brewers over the weekend against the St. Louis Cardinals at American Family Field.

The Brewers will likely have a hole in the rotation for one turn with Freddy Peralta facing a five game suspension. Peralta will pitch Sunday for the Brewers and said recently that he planned to drop his appeal after his start against the Chicago Cubs.

Doing so would mean Peralta would begin serving his suspension on Monday in Kansas City. He would be eligible to return Saturday against the Cardinals, but his normal turn in the rotation would be Friday.

Gasser would be lined up to make a start Friday on regular rest.

“He’s got to pitch well,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said of Gasser. “He’s got an outing today and we want to make sure that he gets his pitch count up. But I think that you see the hole there with Freddy being out, most likely. That would be a strong candidate.”

Gasser was the Brewers’ co-minor league pitcher of the year in 2023 and spent all of last season with Nashville, sporting a 3.79 ERA over 25 starts and 135 ⅓ innings. He got a late start this season due to bone spurs in his throwing elbow but recovered quickly and has already made two starts for the Sounds.

Janson Junk and Aaron Ashby are the two other internal starting pitching options already on the 40-man roster – which Gasser is not – but both would seem to be beneath Gasser on the starting depth chart at the moment. Milwaukee could also throw a bullpen day but will be on its eighth straight day with a game on Friday.

Christian Yelich progressing

Outfielder Christian Yelich took swings, played catch and ran all three days at Wrigley Field this weekend. Murphy said Yelich is making strides as he deals with a back injury that has kept him out of the lineup since April 12.

“It’s a day to day thing and it seems to be progressing the last couple of days,” Murphy said. “I hope we have another good day today.”

Joey Ortiz out of the lineup again

Infielder Joey Ortiz has been one of the Brewers’ better bats this year but hasn’t been in any of Murphy’s three lineups this weekend.

The reasoning for that, Murphy said, is that he wanted to get at least one more look at what Oliver Dunn could do as the team weighed whether he would remain in the majors or get optioned.

“Ortiz, I consider him a starter,” Murphy said. “I’ve given Dunn this opportunity here because I want to find out about him. It seemed to be trending the other way and maybe he needs some more seasoning. And he’s kind of stepped up both offensively, defensively, and baserunning.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers prospect Robert Gasser getting close to making MLB debut