The Brewers announced today that they have outrighted reliever Jim Henderson to Triple-A Colorado Springs. The right-hander, who formerly served as the club’s closer in the 2013 season, has struggled with shoulder injuries since that time, however.
Henderson, 32, is a former 26th-round pick of the Expos (2003) that didn’t surface in the Majors until his age-29 campaign. He’s totaled 102 innings at the Major League level and posted a solid 3.44 ERA with 12.1 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 and a 32.5 percent ground-ball rate in that time, also accumulating 31 saves. He’s spent the 2015 season getting up to speed after labrum and rotator cuff debridement surgery in 2014. Henderson has reached the Triple-A level again, but he’s allowed four runs on seven hits and five walks with five strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings there.
That he’s been outrighted means that he’s already cleared waivers, so every club in the Majors passed on an opportunity to claim the 6’5″ righty. With this move, Milwaukee opens a spot on their 40-man roster, which now has 39 players.
I wonder how many players who were drafted by the Expos are still playing in the big leagues today?
Brandon Phillips (2nd round, 1999), Ian Desmond (3rd round, 2004), Grady Sizemore (3rd round, 2000), Cliff Lee (4th round, 2000), Russell Martin (drafted but not signed, 35th round, 2000).
And I think Bartolo Colon is the last player who played for the Expos who is still in the majors.
You mean to tell me that there was not a single club willing to claim him? Dude’s only making $512K this year. I guess they must be worried a lot about his recent injury history to not even be willing to take that risk. I mean, if I were another club in need of bullpen help, I’d have been jumping to claim him. Take a flier, why not. But, I guess he’ll stick with us for now. Hopefully he fully recovers in AAA and we see him again soon.
Shoulders are pretty significant injuries for pitchers, especially for 32-year olds. Teams are right to be wary.
I mean, yeah, and I’d totally get not wanting to claim him if he were owed a couple million or more in salary, or if he hadn’t pitched at all this season. But, he’s been throwing in the minors all season and is owed virtually nothing. I get the feeling a lot of clubs were thinking along the lines of “well, the terrible Brewers don’t want him. What do they know that we don’t?” and got scared off. I dunno, just seems like he’d have been worth the risk, unless there’s something we don’t know.
I think there’s another factor at play, which is that a team could acquire him and he might need significant shoulder surgery, which that team would then be on the hook to pay for. That’s a bit of financial risk for a guy who is unlikely to ever throw any meaningful major-league innings again. He had a nice run there, but I bet he’s not coming back.
I guess I hadn’t really considered that. Probably because I’ve been a bit more optimistic about his chances of coming back, but you’re probably right.
I mean, I hope he comes back, because what a great story – a career minor-leaguer who gets to be the closer for a season after scuffling through the minors for a decade, but shoulder injuries for pitchers are notoriously difficult to come back from.
Yeah, that’s definitely true. I’m sure rooting for him, though. I’ve got his bobblehead up on my shelf. He was one of my favorites for the short time he was up and healthy.
Shame about Jim – but now he can fall back on his true passion for muppetry.
Well there’s plenty of great work by Jim Henson he can study.
Strange move. He’s fanned 6 hitters and walked none in his last 3 innings, all scoreless. Forget his overall numbers at AAA. He had one bad outing which happens pitching in Colorado Springs.
Strange indeed. There must be something more to the story. It’s not like he could do any worse than Kintzler or Wooten, after all.