Under The Knife 9/3/25

Rough Day for Relievers

Let’s jump right into this because I’m doing something I don’t think I’ve ever done - things lead off with four relievers today, so let’s get to the injuries:

SHELBY MILLER, RP MIL (inflamed elbow)

The Brewers brought on Shelby Miller at the trade deadline, the kind of move you don’t see teams make much. Miller had a known arm issue, but had been effective in relief for the Snakes, getting moved up to closer by being last man standing as much as taking the job. He’s done well in the role, despite bouncing from team to team and really it’s a little usage and a little luck that separate the good numbers he had in ‘23 and ‘25 from the superficially worse ones in ‘24. Put Miller on a good team, give him mid-leverage innings, and you’ll probably be happy.

When he’s healthy that is and Miller’s had his share of injuries since being a phenom that put up big innings with the Cards. Maybe we talk about how those early innings, including 205 in 2015 at age-23, might have had a cost, but Miller is age-34 now, has overcome multiple arm issues, including Tommy John back in ‘17, and may be headed for it again. “Feeling it pop” isn’t the best indicator, but it’s usually not nothing either. With the Tuesday off-day, the Brewers have the chance to get the images back and figure out next steps, which sound like they could be a second elbow reconstruction from early whispers.

It’s bad timing for the Brewers with Trevor Megill down (but throwing this week), making Pat Murphy juggle his leverage charts again. Craig Yoho is up and his weird mix might get some looks again despite his poor results in two previous stints. His changeup dominates in the minors and a couple hot weeks could make him the next “who is this guy closing games in the playoffs” for broadcasters to talk about. If you want a wilder name, Coleman Crow has only been in two games for Nashville so far, but has a monster curve that has unworldly numbers for spin and movement.

JASON ADAM, RP SDP (strained quad tendon)

Once again, it wasn’t pitching that caused a season-ending injury for a top level pitcher. Jason Adam made a quick turn and said he felt his quad tendon pop, the muscle quickly rolling up. He was carted off and will have an MRI (or likely has by the time you read this) but tendon injuries are apparent to the touch in their absence. The Padres and Adam know his season is done and that the six to nine month recovery puts the start of next season in jeopardy.

We are seeing better results for tendon repairs with new techniques, but quad tendon is one that baseball gets little experience with, thankfully. That’s one reason why the already wide return timeline gap might be short here. There’s simply no documented quad tears in my database and calls around the league show this might be the first. It happens in other sports - Tony Parker and Victor Oladipo are famous cases in the NBA, while Jamal Adams had one in 2022 and came back, currently playing for the Raiders, albeit diminished from his peak.

Which means we - and by we, I mean everyone - know almost nothing here. The default will have to be conservative, which means this might not just push past spring and into the season, but could go longer and certainly has to be qualified as career threatening at this stage. There’s lots of hope and again, tendon repairs are seeing better results, but Adam is in the unenviable position of being one of one, first of his kind, and that’s seldom comfortable or easy.

In the meantime, the Pads called Alek Jacob back up. He’s a pitcher once described to me by a scout as “Cameo.” Umm, what? “You know, super funky, mid 80s.” Scouts have a lot of time to think of lines like this.

I don’t often lead with two relievers, but here we are. For paid subscribers, I have more about another two relievers, a starter, and two aging stars whose seasons might be done. Five bucks gets you behind the curtain for a month!