Prior to today’s 10-8 win over the Reds, the Brewers placed outfielders Tyrone Taylor and Darin Ruf on the 10-day injured list. Taylor (whose placement is retroactive to June 2) is dealing with a right elbow sprain, while Ruf has a laceration on his right knee. In corresponding moves, Milwaukee called up Blake Perkins from Triple-A, and as reported yesterday, Jon Singleton’s contract was selected from Triple-A.
The new faces delivered today, as Perkins hit a grand slam to help the Brewers score the victory in Cincinnati. However, losing Taylor and Ruf further thins the Brewers’ depth, as the club now has 14 players (six of them position players) on the injured list. It isn’t yet known when either player could be back, as Bally Sports’ Sophia Minnaert notes, since Ruf’s laceration is quite severe and Taylor will undergo tests to determine the nature of his elbow problem.
Taylor first sprained his right elbow in late February, which kept him out of action for Spring Training and delayed his 2023 debut until May 2. Whether due to the lost spring prep time, lingering elbow soreness, or both, Taylor has badly struggled at the plate, hitting only .160/.179/.240 over 78 plate appearances. It’s a big dropoff for a player who had a solid .241/.303/.453 slash line over 729 PA of part-time duty in 2019-22, and it seemed like Taylor might have been in line for a larger role given the rather unsettled nature of Milwaukee’s outfield.
Ruf just signed the Brew Crew in the middle of May, coming to Milwaukee after he elected free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate. Stepping into a first base platoon as the right-handed hitting complement to Rowdy Tellez, Ruf also wasn’t hitting much (.531 OPS) over his first 30 PA for Milwaukee before he badly cut his knee during Friday’s game. Ruf was chasing a foul ball when he collided with the tarp rolled up on the sidelines at the Great American Ballpark.
