The Athletics announced following tonight’s game that third baseman Danny Valencia will be placed on the 15-day disabled list due to a hamstring injury suffered in yesterday’s contest. Valencia, though, tells reporters that he doesn’t consider the issue to be serious and doesn’t anticipate missing more than the minimum amount of time (Twitter link via the Bay Area News Group’s John Hickey). “I will be very upset not to be in [the] lineup,” said Valencia in reference to the end of his 15-day DL window. The A’s didn’t announce a corresponding roster move, but Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets that it’s “clear” that the versatile Tyler Ladendorf will be recalled from Triple-A.
A few more notes from the game’s Western divisions…
- The Padres have placed left-hander Robbie Erlin on the 15-day DL and recalled right-hander Leonel Campos from Triple-A El Paso, as Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes. “He’s had some tightness in his forearm,” manager Andy Green said of Erlin. “He’d pitched through it, was capable of continuing to pitch through it. … We just thought it best at this point in time to shut him down for a couple weeks and get on top of it.” The Padres haven’t announced a replacement yet, but Lin tweets that Double-A right-hander Cesar Vargas was scratched from his start tonight and does not have an injury, making him a definite possibility. The Friars gave Vargas a big league contract and put him on the 40-man roster this offseason despite the fact that he’s never pitched in the Majors. Vargas has a 1.42 ERA through his first two starts this season and has a career 2.58 ERA at that level.
- Angels lefty Tyler Skaggs tells MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez that he’s throwing his fastball between 90 and 94 mph and is ready for a return to the Majors. However, Skaggs is still building up his endurance and says he understands the Halos’ cautious approach to his return. “I haven’t had any input or anything,” said Skaggs. “They said they want to save my innings for the end of the year, which completely makes sense. It’s frustrating for me because I want to pitch more. But it’s a good thing that they care about me, care about my future, about my health.” A healthy Skaggs could be a boon to an Angels rotation that is without C.J. Wilson and is going to be without Andrew Heaney for an indefinite amount of time. Heaney went on the disabled list with a forearm strain and, as of earlier this week, was said by manager Mike Scioscia to have “plateaued” in his rehab from the injury.
- Rockies right-hander Miguel Castro is dealing with shoulder inflammation and could land on the disabled list, writes MLB.com’s Thomas Harding. The hard-throwing 21-year-old, acquired in last summer’s Troy Tulowitzki blockbuster, has been outstanding for the Rockies early in the 2016 season, allowing just one run on two hits and two walks with eight strikeouts in six innings pitched.
- The Mariners’ revamped bullpen has delivered excellent results early in the season, writes Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune. Incredibly, as Dutton points out, none of the seven relief pitchers that are currently in manager Scott Servais’ bullpen were on the Mariners’ Opening Day roster in 2015. GM Jerry Dipoto acquired four of the club’s current relievers (Steve Cishek, Joaquin Benoit, Joel Peralta and Nick Vincent — this offseason, but Dipoto explained to Dutton that he’s all too aware of how fleeting the success could be. “I spent my entire major-league career pitching 400 pitched games in the bullpen,” said Dipoto. “Never did anything else. If you think you’ve got it figured out, you don’t. The bullpen is about as unpredictable as it gets.”
The hits just keep coming for the Padres. Forearm tightness is always a scary thing to hear for a pitcher, and the fact they’re not even going to re-evaluate Tyson Ross for two weeks leaves a weak pitching staff with no depth in a really bad place. Shields didn’t look good again last night, and Cashner hasn’t been good.
Boy, you think this team might like to have Joe Ross and Matt Wisler back around now? I know they weren’t going to be competitive this season but this could get really ugly really fast.
Campos got rocked last night too
Joe Ross and Matt Wisler would be saddled with no run support too.. Would address some of the pitching questions but wont fix the bats.. I would, however like Logan Forsythe back..
Has anyone else been seeing the A’s batting their pitcher? Saw it a night or two ago with Graverman, I think, and the announcers said it’s the fourth AL game this year they’ve done it in. I thought it was pretty absurd.
The one last night was because of the injury to Valencia. Their only backup infielder was DHing, so they had to have him play the field
And I don’t think it was really the 4th game they’ve done it in (unless the other 3 were interleague games on the road), but he ended up batting 4th in the lineup because of the injury.
Other than two nights ago, which was a consequence of injury, it’s been a consequence of using the DH spot to cycle through defensive liabilities or give rests to players who are often injuried. They Seemed obsessed with the platoon advantage this year, so they end up needing to put their DH in the field after obsessively pinch hitting.. I haven’t seen it backfire once, however, so I would assume Bob Melvin and Co. know what they’re doing.
They even have a platoon closer this year, with Madson or Doolittle taking on the ninth based on the handedness of the batters expected to come up in the ninth with the lead.