Milwaukee Brewers were rolling a few Sundays ago. Keston Hiura helped Milwaukee win three straight games versus Pittsburgh on the road to wrap up a successful road trip. With Miami on the schedule next, the thought was unknown whether Hiura would be on the roster or if the Brewers were going to send him down for Travis Shaw. They did the latter and frustration grew high. Milwaukee has not put together three straight wins since Hiura’s absence. While one player isn’t going to be the world of difference for some of these games, Hiura could have obviously contributed here and there. He is back up on Friday while Travis Shaw heads to the minor leagues.

On the podcast a few times, I predicted that Hiura would be up by July 1st. That proved to be somewhat factual as he returns a few days prior to that date. Even though Milwaukee beat Seattle on Thursday afternoon, they did not have much offense. They need more jolt from the right side, and that’s what Hiura is hopefully going to provide. He hit .281 with four home runs in his first 16 games with Milwaukee. My guess is the Brewers will slot him in the fifth or sixth spot in the order depending on if Lorenzo Cain can come back from injury.

There is a drawback to the Brewers’ top prospect, he cannot play much defense. He will need Tommy John surgery one day, but we are not worrying about that right now. Hiura will be challenged at second base, but he mostly handled thing there fine the first time around. Mike Moustakas will move back to third base for the time being. Brewers need to have their best 25 man roster, and a version with Hiura is exactly that.

Charlie.