The cavalry is close.
Outfielder Jackson Chourio and first baseman Andrew Vaughn are set to begin a rehab assignment with Class AAA Nashville on April 29 and are expected to return to the Milwaukee Brewers lineup next week.
Both have been out for nearly the entire season to this point. Chourio has yet to play while recovering from a third metacarpal fracture suffered March 4 while getting ready for the World Baseball Classic, and Vaughn had four at-bats on opening day, when he fractured his left hamate bone and required surgery.
The anticipated return date to the Brewers for both is May 4 in St. Louis.
This is big news for the Brewers offense, which has struggled mightily to generate power without two of its top five projected hitters in the lineup. With only 19 home runs, they are tied for last in baseball in home runs and have gone seven straight games without one, their longest streak since a franchise-record 13 straight in August 1999.
The Brewers have gotten some semblance of production in Vaughn’s stead, with Jake Bauers and Gary Sánchez bopping seven total homers and leading the charge for a combined .505 slugging percentage by Milwaukee first basemen this year.
The outfield, though, is an entirely different picture. Sans Chourio, Brewers outfielders are slashing just .216/.323/.293 (average/on-base/slugging) with a 78 wRC+ that is tied for 25th in Major League Baseball. Their two home runs from outfielders are by far the fewest in baseball, and they are without one since April 4 when Garrett Mitchell went deep for the first and only time.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Brewers set return date of Jackson Chourio and Andrew Vaughn
Reporting by Curt Hogg, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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