Finish line finally in sight for Ashby's return from surgery

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MILWAUKEE -- Any pitcher who’s been through a shoulder injury will tell you how difficult it can be. Aaron Ashby can sure tell you.

“‘Normal’ kind of gets redefined,” he said.

So, you focus on the positives. Ashby is pitching again after spending all of last season in rehab mode. He’s coming off a 77-pitch outing for Triple-A Nashville that lasted into the sixth inning, the first time in nearly 20 months that he’d pitched that deep into a game. He bounced back from the outing as expected and threw a successful side session on Thursday.

On Friday, he boarded a flight to Milwaukee, where he’ll await word on whether the Brewers need him to start in the Majors. Jakob Junis has a cranky right shoulder, and Ashby could take that spot as soon as Monday in Cincinnati.

It’s all good news, even if Ashby’s velocity isn’t back to where he wants it to be.

“You have to redefine [normal] any time you go under the knife,” he said. “You have a new shoulder in some aspects. I’m trying to find what that is. It’s been a long time.”

Ashby, the nephew of former Major League pitcher Andy Ashby, arrived in 2021 as the latest top pitching prospect produced by Milwaukee’s player development system, following the likes of Brandon Woodruff, Freddy Peralta and Corbin Burnes. Ashby inked a five-year contract extension in July ‘22 that guarantees more than $20 million, but in the runup to the ‘23 season, his left shoulder didn’t cooperate. He had surgery in April for a torn labrum.

As the summer wore on, Ashby got back on the mound but never over the hump. His fastball, which averaged 96-97 mph in 2022, wasn’t there, even though the structure of the shoulder checked out.

Ashby is still just 25 years old. He’ll be 26 on May 24.

“You never know with a shoulder injury,” Brewers manager Pat Murphy said. “Some guys come back perfectly healthy. Some guys come back even a tick up. Is it because they’re fixed now? Is it because they’re bigger and stronger? Is it because of the training regimen?

“He hasn’t got to that velocity yet. But we think in time -- he’s still a young kid. Once he gets past this whole thing … and [finds] the consistency of his motions and mechanics, and really, it’s confidence. It all plays a role. Let it eat. Let the big dog eat, you know what I mean?”

Ashby is preparing as if he’ll start in Cincinnati. As of Friday night, the Brewers hadn’t made any announcements about their pitching plans beyond their current series against the Mariners.

Just being in Milwaukee is enough for now.

“Last year, it was check-ins and a whole lot of being jealous of the guys here,” Ashby said. “This time, it’s possibly for real.”