MILWAUKEE -- There was a time not so long ago that teams would do their best to avoid yo-yoing players between the Minors and the Major Leagues. Now, in an era of what club officials call “active roster management,” players constantly move up and down, not just in response to unforeseen circumstances like injuries, but as part of a strategy to keep the rest of the roster fresh, and avoid injuries in the first place.

That’s how left-hander Eric Lauer made it back to the big leagues last week. The Brewers chose to expand their starting rotation to a sixth pitcher during a stretch of about two weeks without an off-day, and he’ll make another start on Tuesday night against the Tigers. It’s a good thing for Lauer, of course. But the ups and downs also present some challenges.

“I think the biggest challenge in that is just finding the consistency with a routine,” said Lauer, who is in his second stint with the Major League club this season. “Everybody preaches, 'Get a routine and stick to it,' but when you're in that position, you can't. So you've got to be able to adjust on the fly, and you've got to be able to just kind of make things work as they come at you.

“Nobody really wants to be in that position. I know it's not a comfortable place to be. But it's the way the game is changing. They're obviously doing different things, and there's different reasonings for everything, but you've kind of just got to roll with the punches at this point. I don't have a whole lot of leverage or say in what I do.”

Brewers manager Craig Counsell sees that last part differently. Players in Lauer’s position -- and hitters in a similar spot, like outfielder Tyrone Taylor -- do have some say in terms of their performance.

“The roster changes much more frequently, absolutely,” Counsell said. “It is challenging on the guys that have [Minor League] options, and those conversations are all had, really, the first time we talk to him in Spring Training, so that they're understanding of it. It doesn't make it easier, but they understand that this is likely to be part of the year if they're a player that has Major League options left. And there's a way to get out of that cycle, and that's to really perform.”

Lauer has done well so far, posting a 2.45 ERA in his first 22 big league innings this season. Healthy again after dealing with shoulder issues in his first season with the Brewers in 2020, and having worked to shorten his arm path in order to reduce the stress on his arm and make his delivery more repeatable, his walk rate is way down to a career-best 1.2 walks per nine innings in that small sample.

Lauer said he’s also better aligned with Brewers catchers and coaches in his second year with the organization. Because he’s healthy, Lauer can discuss a strategy and then go out and execute it, rather than “spraying” the baseball around the zone like he did last year.

“I think we're really in a good place of understanding each other,” Lauer said. “I've explained the way that I like to pitch, the way that makes me most comfortable, the way I'm most effective. The way that my pitches play off of each other the best is by mixing. I treat it as like a video game, like I'm playing The Show, where I'm never trying to throw the same pitch twice in a row in the same location.

“I'm always trying to mix and match, move things around, play things off of each other, because I feel like that's what gets hitters off balance. I don't throw extremely hard, I don't have incredibly hard breaking stuff, but the more I can get pitches to look like each other and then go opposite ways or split, I think that's kind of the way that I find success.”

Last call

• Counsell described the back injury that landed left-handed reliever Angel Perdomo on the 10-day injured list Sunday as a bout of back spasms, and said the Brewers opted for an IL move in part because the team already had right-hander Alec Bettinger on hand after he served as the 27th man in Saturday’s doubleheader. Of Perdomo’s prognosis, Counsell said, “We don't think it's serious, but it's enough that it's going to keep him out for a little bit. He was going to be unavailable to pitch for several days.”

• Christian Yelich played his 1,000th Major League game on Monday, a milestone that took a bit longer than expected to reach as he navigated an early-season back injury. Only Lorenzo Cain (1,081 games through Monday) has more big league games under his belt than Yelich among current Brewers. Then it’s Jackie Bradley Jr. (919 games entering Monday, when he wasn’t in the starting lineup) and Kolten Wong (894 games through Monday).

• Taylor was named Triple-A East Player of the Week on Monday after hitting .533 (8-for-15) with seven runs, two doubles, three home runs, eight RBIs and four walks during the previous week for the Nashville Sounds, who won a 12th consecutive game on Sunday.