Here’s the latest injury news from around Major League Baseball:
- The Pirates announced that both infielder Jung Ho Kang and right-handed reliever Jared Hughes will begin rehab assignments at Triple-A Indianapolis in the upcoming week. Kang, who will play for Indy on Monday, is certainly the bigger piece of the two, having put up a 3.9-fWAR season as a rookie in 2015. After coming over from Korea, the shortstop/third baseman hit .287/.355/.461 with 15 home runs before suffering torn ligaments in his knee in September. Kang is allowed 20 days on his rehab assignment, which means the latest he can return to the Pirates is May 7, tweets Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Hughes, meanwhile, has exceeded 60 innings three of the last four years out of the Bucs’ bullpen, and his ERA hasn’t surpassed 2.85 in any of those seasons. Although the ground-ball pitcher owns a 2.77 ERA in 250 career innings, FIP (3.95) and xFIP (3.93) aren’t quite buying his bottom-line results.
- Astros right-hander Lance McCullers threw Sunday without any problems, reports Brian McTaggart of MLB.com (on Twitter). The 22-year-old has yet to debut this season because of shoulder troubles, and he had to be scratched from a rehab start earlier this week because of “lingering recovery issues” from his prior outing. McCullers burst on the scene as a rookie in 2015, tossing 125 2/3 innings of 3.22 ERA ball (3.26 FIP, 3.50 xFIP) to accompany a stellar 9.24 K/9. Without McCullers, the Astros’ rotation has put up a lofty 4.82 ERA this year.
- Twins outfielder Danny Santana, who landed on the disabled list April 9 because of a hamstring injury, could begin a rehab assignment midway through the upcoming week, per Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press (Twitter link). Santana played all three outfield positions for the Twins during his first four games prior to the injury, though he went just 2 for 12 with no extra-base hits or walks at the plate. Twins outfielders have been putrid in general this year, so Santana could work his way back into the lineup when he returns. However, he was ineffective over 91 games last season in putting up a .215/.241/.291 line and -1.4 fWAR. Those numbers served as a stark contrast to Santana’s red-hot, 101-game rookie campaign in 2014 (.319/.353/.472, 3.3 fWAR).
