Quinn

Priester

Priester has been out since spring training after being diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome. The 25-year-old is scheduled to face hitters in extended spring training on Thursday before he’s officially cleared to head out on a rehab assignment. His return would provide some stability to the back-end of Milwaukee’s rotation.

Priester was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome towards the end of spring training after the Brewers sought multiple opinions to figure out why his wrist wasn’t feeling better after a long off-season. While Priester has avoided surgery for now, his return to the Brewers rotation should still be considered questionable until he is able to throw at full strength without any symptoms.

According to Jack Stern of Brewer Fanatic, Priester will have two “ups” and throw 20 pitches. The right-hander will then head to Arizona, and is set to begin a rehab assignment in the early portion of April. Assuming no setbacks, he should be back for the Brew Crew by the early portion of May.

The hope is that Priester can return to the Brewers’ pitching staff by the beginning of May, and Saturday’s session suggests he’s on schedule. The 25-year-old will throw one more bullpen before facing live hitters in Arizona.

The most optimistic estimate puts Priester’s potential return sometime around late April or early May. Given the serious nature of the nerve-related issue he’s recovering from, fantasy managers should anticipate Milwaukee taking a cautious approach with his ramp-up process. The 25-year-old’s absence opens the door for Brandon Sproat and Kyle Harrison to get early-season looks in the majors.

Generally, players do not often return on the optimistic timeline, which means we could be looking at mid-May or later for Priester. However, this whole situation is a bit murky since we know that he is dealing with a nerve issue that’s “in the T.O.S. [thoracic outlet syndrome] family,” but we have little other information. It’s best to avoid him in redraft fantasy leagues right now.

It’s hard to know exactly what to make of that. While you never want to hear thoracic outlet syndrome, Brewers’ manager Pat Murphy told reporters on Thursday that the issue should be treatable without surgery. He also noted that Priester threw lightly on Thursday and has a bullpen session scheduled for March 21. It’s a near lock that he’ll open the season on the injured list, but it’s anyone’s guess at this point on when he may be able to rejoin the Brewers’ rotation.

The Brewers and Priester still have no answers for why he is experiencing soreness in his right wrist. We know that he’s had MRIs on his wrist, shoulder, and elbow, but none of those have seemingly produced any answer, so he will seek another opinion. Having to see a specialist is usually never a great sign for a player’s health, but we’ll wait to see what comes of the visit. It’s looking like Kyle Harrison has a good shot to start the season in the Brewers’ rotation.

It was initially believed that Priester was behind some of the other starters because of wrist discomfort that carried over from last season. However, Murphy said on Thursday that the team was “thinking about even sending him to a specialist now. We’re optimistic that the shoulder MRI, the elbow MRI, everything is good. But something’s keeping him from progressing.” The fact that Priester had MRIs on both his shoulder and his elbow and is also potentially being sent to a specialist suggests that Brewers are not really sure what’s preventing him from being able to let it loose on the mound. At this stage, given the uncertainty, it’s hard to feel good about drafting Priester in fantasy leagues unless you’re in a deep league with multiple IL spots.

The Brewers have been taking it slow with a number of pitchers this spring, but there was no stated reason for their doing so with Priester until now. That the wrist issue has lingered is a surprise; he had one start pushed back because of it at the end of August, but he finished the season just fine from there. If he’s behind at the start of the year, it might not be an IL situation, as the Brewers could just continue to build him up in major league games.