The Athletics announced today that righty Daniel Mengden has undergone surgery on his righty foot after suffering a fracture during a home bullpen session. He’ll require a walking boot for at least six weeks, with further rehab presumably required beyond that point.
Clearly, Mengden won’t be able to participate in Spring Training, which is set to open for A’s pitchers and catchers in less than a week. Even if he’s able to get back on the hill not long after the boot comes off, he’ll need some time to build back his arm strength. Odds are, then, that Mengden won’t be an option for Oakland until at least a month or so into the 2017 season.
The expectation had been that Mengden, who’ll soon turn 24, would battle for a spot in the rotation. He cracked the majors for the first time in 2016 after a quick run through the minors, but scuffled to a 6.50 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9 in his 72 innings. Still, the strikeout rate was fairly promising and Mengden’s track record suggests that the control won’t continue to be an issue.
Given the injury, he’ll now need to reestablish his spot in the pecking order and hope that an opportunity arises at some point during the year. In the meantime, the organization now seems likely to turn to Kendall Graveman, Jharel Cotton, and Andrew Triggs to round out a staff fronted by Sonny Gray and Sean Manaea. The other 40-man members who could compete for a starting job are Jesse Hahn, Frankie Montas, and Paul Blackburn.
The good news for him is that their rotation is awful and he could easily knock someone out of it when he’s healthy again.
Bro…not true lol
Cotton is sick, Manaea is sick, Gray is sick (when not trying to play through an injury), Graveman is the innings eater, Triggs was looking very intriguing last year – its so wrong that the literal opposite of what he said is true: It doesn’t really matter if Mengden is hurt, he won’t break that rotation anyway. He’s merely a depth guy at this point.
Yep…they may go undefeated this year
At least the have a shot going undefeated thru game 1. After all, they are playing the Angels at the Coliseum. Maybe the sewer will overflow in the visitors clubhouse.
He somewhat resembles lincecum in that picture.
Still putting off that upper lip surgery, huh.
Zach Neal will also be in this mix.. great 70ip last year and does not walk anybody (2nd only to kershaw in bb/9).. great success starting in AAA and last 3 starts for A’s in ’16
His righty foot lol
here we go again