Brewers closer Corey Knebel headed to DL with hamstring injury

The Milwaukee Brewers now have to reshuffle their bullpen, with closer Corey Knebel likely facing a long absence.

Since he had not pitched in nearly a week, Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell wanted to get closer Corey Knebel some work before too long. The ninth inning of Thursday night’s 8-0 loss to the Chicago Cubs, with the score 6-0, was that time.

But things went awry when Knebel collapsed on the mound after throwing a pitch to Tommy La Stella, the fifth batter he faced as he hit a batter and allowed a two-run homer to Jason Heyward earlier in the inning. It looked like a significant left hamstring injury for Knebel, since he had to be helped off the field by training staff, and he will hit the disabled list.

An MRI is scheduled for Friday, with no update yet, but Knebel appears to be facing a lengthy absence.

Knebel left an outing late in spring training with tendinitis in his left knee, which may not been totally unrelated to his current hamstring issue. Prior to Thursday night he had made two appearances (one save, one blown save) this season, with four strikeouts and zero walks over two innings of work.

Knebel emerged as Milwaukee’s closer last year, with 39 saves, a 1.78 ERA and a 14.9 K/9 rate as over a league-high 76 appearances as he earned a All-Star nod. In his absence the Brewers have multiple options to close games, in Jeremy Jeffress, Josh Hader, Matt Albers and Jacob Barnes at the front of that line. Or a matchup-based approach to the end of games could come, with a committee approach to the ninth inning, but Counsell was not quite ready to commit to any plan immediately after Knebel’s injury.

“We’ll figure that out,” Counsell said. “I haven’t thought about that (yet).”

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It doesn’t show in their 4-3 record entering Friday, but the Brewers have had a roller coaster first week of the new season. And now their best pitcher is out, likely for awhile.