Milwaukee Brewers: Kolten Wong Heading Back to IL

This past offseason, the Milwaukee Brewers signed Kolten Wong to a two-year – $18 million deal with an option for a third season in 2023. And since joining the team, Wong has been as advertised, playing Gold Glove level defense at second base and getting on base offensively at a decent clip.

As the Brewers leadoff hitter, Wong is slashing .280/.343/.441 over 44 games, totaling a .784 OPS and logging an above league average OPS+ of 114. Defensively, Wong makes the difficult play look routine and is oh-so-smooth out there at second base. By Baseball Savant’s Outs Above Average (OAA) metric, Wong is +4, and by Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), he is +5.

Unfortunately, to go along with the news that Lorenzo Cain is headed back to the IL so is Kolten Wong, who once again strained his left oblique–the same injury that had him sidelined earlier this season. The injury took place during Thursday night’s game against Arizona after Wong struck out swinging in the third inning.

Wong has since been placed on the 10-day IL but told reporters that he could miss more action this time around in an effort to make sure that the injury is 100 percent healed, so he is not hindered by it during the second half of the season:

"“You want to hope for the best but just the feeling during that swing, I knew something was wrong,” Wong told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “It just didn’t feel right, from the start to the finish. We’ll probably take our time and just take care of it. Last time, we pushed through a little bit and I was able to play a decent amount. I want to make sure I’m ready for the second-half push, at least.”"

After a rough stretch in the month of May, the Milwaukee Brewers have since turned things around, winning 10 of their last 13 games, and we’ve seen the offense start to produce as well. During that same span, Milwaukee is averaging 4.7 runs per game, including 5.1 runs per contest over their last eight games. But now, they’ll have to sustain the momentum without one of their top contributors.

As manager Craig Counsell told us, and as we saw on Friday night, Luis Urias will be the Brewers’ primary second baseman while Wong is on the injured list. Urias has been swinging a hot bat as of late, with six hits in his last 16 at-bats, including a pair of home runs, two walks, and a 1.257 OPS. Urias also has plenty of experience at second base, playing 411.1 innings there over his big league career. Other second base options on the big league roster include Daniel Robertson and Keston Hiura.

Currently, the Milwaukee Brewers sit at 31-26, just one game behind the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs. They’ll have to navigate these next few weeks without Wong — as well as Cain — but they have a fairly friendly schedule with upcoming games against Arizona, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and Colorado–all of which are below .500.