Rangers lefty Jake Diekman underwent successful surgery to remove his colon, with several more procedures to come as he battles ulcerative colitis. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News has the latest, including video diary entries from Diekman himself. It’s well worth a watch to learn more about the unfortunate affliction and Diekman’s fight. We hope to see him back on the mound as soon as possible.
There won’t be a return in the offing for Phillies lefty Matt Imhof, who lost his eye in a terrible accident involving exercise bands. As Imhof himself writes in a moving piece for ESPN.com, he’s returning to finish his degree at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and will retire from the sport. He says it’s not just due to the injury, though; as he writes, “the truth is I need a change of pace after 20 years of doing the same thing.” You’ll want to give a full read to the southpaw’s powerful story of coming to grips with — and not being defined by — his injury.
As we wish the best to Diekman and Imhof, here’s the latest on the market for pitching:
- As the Mets look to bolster their bullpen, the team is still weighing a variety of free agents, per Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). In addition to keeping open the possibility of a reunion with lefty Jerry Blevins, the Mets are also considering righties Sergio Romo and Joe Smith.
- The Blue Jays are also keeping in touch with Blevins, according to Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca. Toronto’s search for a southpaw reliever has also led it to consider Craig Breslow, per the report. The team was among those to check out his new mechanics recently.
- The Reds are exploring a reunion with former starter Bronson Arroyo, as Buster Olney of ESPN.com reports (Twitter links). Unsurprisingly, the team is not interested in guaranteeing him a roster spot, as Arroyo is two full years removed from appearing in the majors and has dealt with significant arm issues of late. GM Dick Williams confirms that the team has watched Arroyo throw and is weighing a signing, per MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon (Twitter links). Beyond a move on Arroyo or other candidates for minor-league deals, Cincinnati is done with its free-agent signings, Williams adds.
- Speaking of longstanding veterans weighing returns, righty Jason Marquis suggested in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM (Twitter link) that he’s open to reviving his career. The 38-year-old last appeared in a nine-start stint with Cincy in 2015, but he’s set to pitch for Team Israel in the upcoming World Baseball Classic.
- While Dodgers lefty Julio Urias showed plenty in 2016 to warrant a rotation spot in the coming season, innings considerations may hold him back to start the year. As Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times tweets, skipper Dave Roberts says that the organization may keep him in extended Spring Training at the beginning of the 2017 campaign. Such an approach would not only ensure that Urias is available for good once he does make it up, but would afford more opportunities for the organization to see what it has in its variety of interesting, injury-plagued arms. Over at Fangraphs, Craig Edwards takes a look at what’s shaping up to be a fascinating staff.
- There’s an argument to be made that the Nationals not only need to address their closer situation, but also ought to bolster their rotation depth, as Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post writes. While the team’s five-man starting unit is likely set, which perhaps limits their ability to promise opportunities to free agents, a swingman could make sense. Janes mentions Travis Wood as at least a hypothetical match, and he would indeed seem to make a sensible fit.
- 31-year-old Cardinals reliever Mitch Harris is hoping to join former teammate Seth Maness in bouncing back from a “primary repair” procedure to his right elbow, as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Harris last pitched competitively in 2015, but will be ramping up for a full spring after undergoing the surgery last summer. Because his surgeon was able to attempt that less-invasive approach, as opposed to a full UCL replacement, there’s a possibility of a much swifter return to the hill — though Harris will first need to earn his way into MLB camp after failing to receive an invite.
The Jays need to dedicate the remaining payroll to Romo for the 8th and one of the remaining lefties wood/blevins/Logan.
Grilli can keep the 7th, Biagini gets stretched out for long man/rotation depth.
Save on the LF position by allowing Pompey to take the reigns in the left half of a platoon with Upton. Even if pompey fails we can try out Ceciliani instead
Trade/DFA Smoak and put his salary and roster spot to get Napoli on a 2 year deal with a fancy option. Seeing 1 year seems to be his Market atm, he should jump at it
I’m not sure you’re going to clear much of anything off the payroll by DFAing/trading Smoak and his $3.9 million. Plan makes sense, but the Jays are already $11 million over last year’s payroll, so not sure how much more room they have.
I like the idea of those players but not sure how you get rid of Smoak without paying a hunk of his stupid contract. I think your budget is bigger than Rogers’ unfortunately.
Biagini needs to stay in high leverage spots imo
The Jays could and should be a luxury tax team given Rogers financial capabilities.
11 million over still leaves them 20 or 25 short of the luxury tax which should buy all your needs in FA, saving the farm
We’re in a position as a team and ownership to out spend our mistakes , offer an extra year/overspend if it’s for the right player. We will never be the Dodgers and just spend unlimited money but we should be on par with the AL East big boys
I’d also like Biagini in the 8th but that means Estrada back has to hold up. Sanchez/stroman can’t take a step back. Lariano must pitch the whole season and happ must also stay healthy
Hammel is a good addition but doesn’t want to be a 6th guy or would have likely signed
Wood is ok but also prefers to start, he would solve our depth and LHP relief in one tho.
So Romo in the 8th on an incentive laden deal doesn’t seem so bad to me
Agreed
Instead of signing romo for the 8th and picking up one of the remaining lefties, both at open market prices, why not send two prospects to pittsburgh for tony watson and sign a reliever to a MiLB deal with an invite as depth? Or if you want to go bigger, revisit the Cutch for Vlad jr talks that went nowhere and have the bucs include watson and the jays add another solid prospect and a lottery ticket. Then Bautista can spend more time at first instead of OF but I doubt the jays want to add the 20 mil in salary for cutch and watson.
Sounds perfect world to me
Comical Marquis considering a comeback. He was a 4A pitcher in his prime and pretty much had a rotation job by default due to lack of anyone else, even on those good cardinals teams.
Maybe someone needs a BP pitcher, or some Indy league team looking for help. Can’t see why a minor league team would want this guy even.
Yeah how dare a guy try and come back to play the game of baseball! Scandalous!
Ha!That was good!
Someone’s awfully salty about Marquis for no reason….
Some of these guys have a really hard time moving on. It’s definitely understandable, but going out with grace should be a consideration also.
Marquis was once a top-100 prospect in Along with Jason Shiell, Bruce Chen, Jimmy Osting, Rob Bell and Odalis Perez. And Luis Rivera.
The point isn’t to run down Marquis or the Braves system. It’s just that pitching prospects break. Something to think about when you look at the “loaded” Padres system.
I don’t understand how Marquis is playing for team Israel in the WBC.
Apparently he’s Jewish, so I guess that’s enough. Head scratcher still.
I believe Gabe Kapler was in the same boat
I understand why teams are so cautious with pitchers these days but man, it’s kind of sad that we’ll never get to see another pitcher averaging 150 pitches per start and pitch into his mid 40’s like Nolan Ryan…they just don’t make them like they used to apparently
Colon could do it. The mid-40s part at least. Probably not going to hit 150 pitches too often though, considering he averaged 86 per start last year.
Yeah Jamie Moyer did it too…Nolan was still slinging gas though when he did it…I just watched to documentary “Fastball” on Netflix so I’m still a little in awe of how amazing Ryan really was
Ryan was a complete outlier. You can’t compare him to anybody. Most of the guys who came out of that “150 pitches per start” era were done by the time they were 30.
Agreed that Nolan Ryan was “the exception not the rule.” He was truly an anomaly.
As much as I like Arroyo I can not see any Inning this Spring for him. Look at the number of Pitchers the Reds will have in camp.
The abbreviation for Cincinnati is “Cincy,” not “Cinci.” Better yet, why not just spell it out?
Only people from “Cincy”, care about such things.
People who are compensated to write ought to care. It’s called constructive criticism. Here’s some for you: I was discussing words as words, hence the quotation marks. You need not have included them. Additionally, there was no need for a comma in your sentence. If a comma was necessary, it should have been placed inside the quotation marks, had they belonged. There are four punctuation marks in your post. There should only be one.
Greetings from Cincinnati!
I’m from Cincinnati and most of us aren’t condescending and insulting like you. Please grow up. Thanks.
I will change it. Why the shortened version? Because I had already written it out once in the post and it’s tiresome to write with so much formality all the time, that’s all.
Cincy-serely?
Somebody had to ask.
Wow, some people are really Cinci-tive.
I’ll show myself out now…
Use fewer words in your posts. The word “just” was unnecessary to convey your point.
Braves should sign Arroyo to go with Colon and Dickey. Try to have the oldest rotation of all time.
Maybe Jamie Moyer would come back to…
For the oldest rotation, check out the starting pitchers on the Mets their first year! They also had the oldest pitcher-catcher battery in Warren Spahn
That’s Warren Spahn and Yogi Berra. Casey Stengel was their manager. The fans loved them.
I guess now it’s Matt mhof
tacky. rude. not funny.
Funny is in the eye of the beholder
So does that second UCL tear render Tim Collins useless as even starting depth?
Collins never was a starter.