Brewers relent on Rogers' innings limit

Published Aug. 21, 2012 7:05 p.m. ET

foxsports

MILWAUKEE — After alluding to a seemingly inevitable decision on Monday to shut down young pitcher Mark Rogers for the season, Brewers manager Ron Roenicke met with general manager Doug Melvin on Tuesday and seems to have changed his mind.

Rogers, who had earned his first win of the season on Monday against the Cubs, showed enough strength in his Monday start, Roenicke said, to push back that deadline for the time being -- similar to how a potential limit for Mike Fiers was discussed and then pushed back last week.

"It's his stuff," Roenicke said of Rogers. "His stuff is still good. He's maintaining it all the way through the game. … He's still really strong, so we talked about that. And he'll go a little bit."

The former first-round pick wouldn't be on such a short leash if it weren't for his history of injuries, the most recent of which involved surgery on both of his wrists due to double carpel tunnel syndrome. But even without his best performance of the year, Rogers kept his stuff consistent from the first inning to the end of the fifth, his final inning of the game.

The discussion on innings limits has reached its apex this season, as the Washington Nationals discuss whether to shut down ace Stephen Strasburg. That situation seems to have especially struck Roenicke, who said the state of affairs in the Nationals' rotation has led him to be a little bit more careful in regard to next year.

"Just thinking about what Washington is doing, I don't want to be in a spot next year where we're contending like I hope we will be and in September talking about shutting people down," Roenicke said. "I think it is important.

But for the time being, it appears that any decision, no matter how imminent, about shutting down Fiers and Rogers will be put on hold.

"What we have planned out right now, these guys are going to go for a while," Roenicke said. "In two, three weeks, we'll look at it again and see where we are."

Follow Ryan Kartje on Twitter.