Throwing hard and perhaps finally fully healthy, Aaron Ashby gets called up by the Brewers

Aaron Ashby is back in the major leagues, and seemingly at the perfect time, too.

Recalled by the Milwaukee Brewers prior to Sunday afternoon's series finale against the Oakland Athletics in a corresponding move for reliever Nick Mears' placement on the injured list with right forearm inflammation, Ashby is seemingly trending upward in every conceivable facet of late.

The numbers at Class AAA Nashville are still not pretty for the former top prospect in the organization. In 25 outings and 84 innings, his ERA is north of eight. He's walked 73 in total, an average of 7.8 per nine innings.

But a move to the bullpen at the start of August seems to come at the right time for Ashby, who Nashville manager Rick Sweet said earlier in the week is just starting to fully recover from shoulder surgery last season .

Since August 10, Ashby has struck out 14 over 6 2/3 scoreless innings and allowed only one walk and two hits. And it isn't just the surface numbers that are impressive, either.

Perhaps most notably, Ashby's velocity is back up. He's averaging 95.7 mph with his fastball, which is exactly what it was when he was last at full health in 2022. Previously this year, Ashby was seen sitting in the 92-94 mph range. He's gotten as high as 98 mph in recent outings, too.

Ashby's secondaries have been whiff machines, too. His slider has gotten swings and misses on 64.3% of attempts since Aug. 10 and the curveball is right behind at 60.0%.

"Have you seen Ashby? It's freaking unbelievable," Sweet said last week. "It usually it takes a full year up to two years with that injury. We're just getting through our second year with Ash. The velo is back up. I'll go take Ash out of a game, usually because he's run out of pitches. I'll go out and get him and he'll leave, and the infielders will start going, 'Holy (crap). Did you see that (freaking) sinker. I'd hate to hit off that."

The 26 year old lefty, who signed a five-year, $20.5 million extension with Milwaukee in 2022 , made two spot starts with the Brewers this year and allowed six earned runs over 8 2/3 innings but only struck out five while walking seven.

Immediately upon his return to Nashville in both instances, Ashby was hit around hard, keeping him mostly out of the picture for the big-league staff.

But perhaps the Brewers have a healthy and rejuvenated Ashby to keep as a possibility moving forward in the bullpen for the stretch run.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Throwing hard and perhaps finally fully healthy, Aaron Ashby gets called up by the Brewers