Milwaukee Brewers place Brett Anderson on Injured List, recall Alec Bettinger

Brett Anderson has been somewhat snakebitten by injuries throughout his entire big league career, and his time with the Milwaukee Brewers has been no different. When healthy, he’s been a solid inning-eater, producing a 102 ERA+ during his two seasons in the Cream City. But he’s been laid up by a variety of different maladies, and his most recent one came after being struck by a line drive in his latest start against the Giants.

The 33 year old Anderson was hit by a 103 MPH comebacker on September 1st while facing San Francisco, and actually finished the inning he was pitching before exiting the game. Craig Counsell suggested that the team was planning on getting only about 100 innings out of Anderson this season, and if he doesn’t make it back to the active roster at some point, he will have come pretty close to meeting that threshold. Anderson sits with 88.1 IP across 21 starts in 2021, with a 4.18 ERA, 5.7 K/9, 2.6 BB/9, and a 58.4% ground ball rate.

Alec Bettinger will return for another stint in the big leagues, though his numbers haven’t been very inspiring this season. He has pitched to a 13.50 ERA in 10.0 innings, allowing 18 hits and 3 homers while striking out five and walking three. Milwaukee’s #24 prospect didn’t have great run prevention numbers at Triple-A, either, posting a 5.10 ERA in 16 games (13 starts) and 72.1 innings pitched. His 9.6 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 marks in the minors this year were strong, however, and he is stretched out in case the team needs to cover some longer relief innings or a spot start in Anderson’s absence.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference