Clarke heads back to Kansas City where he spent two seasons from 2022-2023 after spending last year in the Brewers’ organization. He missed most of last season recovering from right knee surgery and didn’t end up making an appearance for Milwaukee. The 31-year-old righty holds a pedestrian 5.03 ERA, 1.40 WHIP and 260/97 K/BB ratio across 279 1/3 innings (183 appearances) in the majors since 2019. He’s merely extra organizational relief depth at this juncture of his career.

Milwaukee had to kick someone off the 40-man roster to make room for the newly acquired Aaron Civale. Clarke was yet to appear in the majors this season and had a 5.34 ERA in 10 games with Triple-A Nashville. The Brewers have seven days to trade Clarke or place him on waivers.

Clarke spent most of 2021-23 as a major league reliever, but the Brewers reintroduced him to the rotation in Triple-A and would have considered him next time they needed an extra starter. He had a 3.46 ERA in 26 innings for Nashville since returning from knee surgery last month.

Clarke underwent successful knee surgery at the end of spring training and time ran out on his minor league rehab assignment. The 31-year-old right-hander still needs more time to build up though before he’s an option to rejoin the Brewers’ bullpen, so he’ll stay at Triple-A Nashville and continue to work there.