Back in April of 2023, the Milwaukee Brewers claimed right-handed relief pitcher JB Bukauskas off of waivers from the Seattle Mariners. At that point in his career, he had not seen much success on the Major League level. In 2021, he was 2-2 with a 7.74 ERA in 21 games with Arizona Diamondbacks. In one game with the Mariners in 2023, he had a 9.00 ERA.
But once he arrived in Milwaukee, Bukauskas started to flash the promise that many believed he had. In five games with the Brewers in 2023, he had a 0.00 ERA and 0.83 WHIP. After making the Opening Day roster in 2024, he had a 1.50 ERA and 0.67 WHIP through six games before his season was ended with a lat injury.
And unfortunately, he will not be playing for Milwaukee in 2025 due to suffering the same injury early in Spring Training.
Milwaukee Brewers Reliever JB Bukauskas Is Out 9-10 Months
According to Todd Rosiak, who covers the Brewers for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Bukauskas is getting surgery on his lat, which has been injured on three separate occasions prior to this one, and will miss the entire 2025 season:
JB Bukauskas will have surgery on his injured right lat and need 9-10 months to recover.
It’s the fourth time Bukauskas has injured the same lat.
“It sounds weird but I’m excited,” he said. “I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and finally get it fixed.”
— Todd Rosiak (@Todd_Rosiak) February 25, 2025
As one can see from the post, however, this is a procedure that Bukauskas is looking forward to because it should finally fix the issue that he has had. While the surgery will cost him the 2025 season, it should give him many more years of a Major League career.
Bukauskas exceeded his rookie limits in 2021 and this season is the final year of his pre-arbitration seasons of club control. He will be arbitration eligible for the first time in 2026, and one might expect that his cost will be quite low due to the fact that he will have only appeared in 11 games over three seasons by the time Milwaukee offers him his first one-year contract.
He is not supposed to hit free agency until 2029, which means the Brewers can still get many productive seasons from him once he is healed.
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