The Nationals relief corps took another blow yesterday when righty Craig Stammen was placed on the 15-day DL with stiffness in his right forearm. Stammen will undergo an MRI soon and he told reporters (including CSN Washington’s Mark Zuckerman) that he is at least somewhat worried that it could be a more serious elbow injury. Nats GM Mike Rizzo also told the media, including Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post, that the club is going with internal bullpen options for the time being. Rafael Martin and Taylor Jordan were called up to replace Stammen and the recently-designated Xavier Cedeno, and Martin made an impressive MLB debut Wednesday, recording five strikeouts over two innings of work against the Red Sox.
Here are some more bullpen items from around baseball…
- Cubs righty Neil Ramirez could also be facing some bad injury news, as he left Wednesday’s outing after just three pitches with a shoulder problem. Ramirez will undergo an MRI today, ESPN Chicago’s Jesse Rogers reports. The reliever’s status has a bigger-picture impact on the rumored promotion of top prospect Kris Bryant on Friday. If Ramirez needs some DL time, the Cubs could promote a reliever and continue with a 13-man pitching staff rather than call up Bryant and thin out an already heavily-worked bullpen.
- Right-hander Cody Martin is off to a strong start, and the Braves rookie reliever tells MLB.com’s Mark Bowman that he is partially motivated by the fact that Atlanta didn’t protect him in the Rule 5 Draft last winter. “That was tough, but I knew I belonged [on the roster] and belonged in the big leagues….I took it as a challenge to prove them all wrong, especially all the teams that didn’t pick me in the Rule 5 Draft,” Martin said. “It all worked out pretty good. I’m where I need to be right now.”
- Arquimedes Caminero enjoyed a strong Spring Training and earned a spot in the Pirates bullpen. As Fangraphs’ Jeff Sullivan writes, the hard-throwing Caminero might be another reclamation success story for Bucs pitching coach Ray Searage, who encouraged the righty to simplify his delivery. The result has been the fastest average fastball in the game this season, as Caminero is averaging 98.9 mph according to Fangraphs’ measurements.
Caminero has closer written all over him: his stuff is nasty, and everything has movement on it. If Melancon’s struggles and drop in velocity continue, Watson and maybe Hughes would be ahead of Caminero in the late inning pecking order, but Arquimedes could very well get a look for late inning work.
Why would the bullpen affect Bryant? They will just send down Herrera.
Regardless of how one feels about Bryant being in the minors, if Ramirez goes to the DL the proper response is to call up another reliever. Cubs relievers have already tallied 26 IP in 8 games. I think we’ve only seen two starts where the starter went 7.
I would think a team would target a position player or starting pitcher for a Rule 5 pick before targeting a reliever unless it was a top prospect. Maybe it’s me but it’s easy to see how Martin was overlooked.
Martin was a starting pitcher in the Minors. I think he needs another pitch though to be one in the Bigs
The Cubs have played exactly 8 games. Today is an off-day. The bullpen is hardly “over-worked”. Gad.