Brewers' Hoffman Put on 15-Day DL

Sports Illustrated reports that Trevor Hoffman, closer for the Milwaukee Brewers has finally been put on the disabled list. The move comes three weeks after the right-handed pitcher pulled his right oblique while pitching during a March 13^th game.

This move is administratively retroactive to March 27^th, and leaves Hoffman unable to return to 'active-duty' until April 11^th. Assistant General Manager for the Brewers, Gord Ash says there is no hurry for Hoffman to return and possibly injure himself further.

"He is feeling much better and has shown much improvement. He has the normal 'day-after' soreness (after pitching). We did this because we didn't want him to feel he's in a hurry-up mode," Ash said in recent reporting on the Sports Illustrated website.

What does this mean for the 41-year-old pitcher? For one, it rules him out for the start of the season; the Brewers home opener is scheduled for April 10^th. There shouldn't be any effects to his $6 million one-year contract that was signed in January.

Hoffman has 544 saves for his career, a hard role for General Manager Ken Macha to fill. One potential prospect is Carlos Villanueva; the right-hander who has just over 108 innings pitched for his career, all with the Brewers. Villanueva's last regular season game pitched was October of 2008, against the Phillies. He threw sixteen pitches and gave up zero hits.

Filling the shoes of the sixteen-year MLB veteran is going to be difficult. The true test will be if Villanueva gets called in during the April 10^th home opener against the Chicago Cubs at Miller Park. The last time the Brewers and Cubs met was 28 September 2008; the Milwaukee Brews winning by two over Chi-Town, 3 to 1.

Source: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/baseball/mlb/03/30/hoffman.dl.ap/index.html