ST. LOUIS – Two of the new faces that were in the visiting clubhouse at Busch Stadium May 4 were expected. Then there was Quinn Priester.
On the same day the Milwaukee Brewers activated outfielder Jackson Chourio and first baseman Andrew Vaughn from the injured list, right-hander Priester also rejoined the team as he was returned from his rehab assignment and placed back on the IL.
Priester’s first three starts in his recovery from thoracic outlet syndrome didn’t go well. The 25-year-old went five innings and allowed nine runs, struggling badly with his control as he issued eight walks and struck out five.
While Priester’s velocity was also down, sitting around 91 mph with his sinker after averaging 93 mph last year, the lack of strikes was even more jarring. Priester reported his shoulder didn’t quite feel right, so after some discussion between team and player, the decision was to hit the reset button.
“He had some shoulder soreness,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “We felt like pulling him off right now was the best thing. To get here. He agreed. Get him here, get him looked at, get our [pitching] group on him.”
Priester didn’t feel any new pain, which is positive news given the potential severity of TOS injuries, but was clearly not progressing as hoped.
“Talked to him last night,” Murphy said. “He’s in a good spot. He feels like he’s moving in the right direction. He doesn’t feel like he’s injured again in terms of long-term. He just feels like this is a setback. We’re going to take some time to evaluate and work with him a little bit and talk to him and then get him back to a program where we build him up.”
There’s no new diagnosis for Priester, but he is still dealing with some of the effects of TOS, which compresses nerves that typically impact the shoulder and neck area for a pitcher.
“It’s obviously related,” Murphy said. “The shoulder can be affected by the TOS.”
There is no timeline set for Priester’s return to throwing or the mound.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Quinn Priester is back on the injured list after dealing with ‘setback’
Reporting by Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
