Houser (elbow) is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment at Triple-A Nashville this weekend, with his first start coming Saturday, Adam McCalvy of MLB.com reports.
Per McCalvy, Houser is scheduled to pitch just two innings Saturday, so he'll likely require at least one or two additional rehab outings to get stretched back out to a normal starter's workload. With Freddy Peralta (lat) making his return from the 60-day injured list Wednesday, Milwaukee will have its Opening Day rotation back to full strength whenever Houser is deemed ready to go. Though Aaron Ashby (4.13 ERA, 1.45 WHIP in 80.2 innings) has performed marginally better than Houser (4.72 ERA, 1.48 WHIP in 76.1 innings) this season, the Brewers' desire to manage Ashby's workload should help Houser's case for reclaiming the No. 5 starter's role.