The Royals announced that right-hander Ian Kennedy has been placed on the 10-day disabled list due to a strained right hamstring. Kennedy exited last night’s game due to the injury, and while there’d been some optimism that he may not need to miss a turn in the rotation, it now appears that he’ll miss at least his next two starts. That’s an unfortunate development for the 32-year-old and for the Royals, as Kennedy has been strong through his first six appearances in 2017. The right-hander, who can opt out of the remaining three years and $43MM on his contract at season’s end, has a 3.03 ERA with 7.8 K/9, 3.8 BB/9 and a 38.9 percent ground-ball rate through 35 2/3 innings this year. It’s not yet known exactly how much time Kennedy will miss, but any lingering injury issue would only add to the widespread expectation that he’ll forgo his opt-out provision at the end of the season. Fellow righty Miguel Almonte was recalled from Double-A to take Kennedy’s roster spot.
More from the AL Central…
- The Tigers announced on Friday that J.D. Martinez will begin a rehab assignment at Class-A Lakeland this weekend. The slugging right fielder has yet to play in the Majors this season due to a lisfranc sprain in his right foot. While Detroit initially projected an absence of three to five weeks, Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press noted just yesterday that the five-week mark had passed without Martinez embarking on a rehab stint. Per Fenech, Martinez has been serving as a designated hitter in Spring Training games without really running the bases, so he’s at least been getting in some work at the plate. Martinez, though, will still need to prove that he can run the bases and handle right field on a regular basis in order to be activated.
- Yoan Moncada is off to a monstrous start in the Triple-A International League, hitting .340/.413/.536 with five home runs, two doubles, a triple and six steals through his first 109 plate appearances. However, the White Sox don’t seem to be in a rush to promote him to the Majors, writes CSN Chicago’s JJ Stankevitz. Despite their hot start, the Sox plan to remain patient with Moncada, as the organization wants him to stick in the Majors from the day he’s first called up to Chicago. “The fact is he does remain a 22-year-old that coming into the year had fewer than 200 plate appearances above A ball,” GM Rick Hahn tells Stankevitz. “His development is by no means complete at the minor league level but he certainly is making a great deal of progress and we’re thrilled with where he’s at.”
Sox just want to save some future $’s , that’s why no Moncada yet. I’m sure they want him to cut down on his K’s as well.
money has nothing to do with it he’s not ready to be called up yet
Money has slot to do with it lol
He already signed a long-term, guaranteed contract. Therefore, money has nothing to do with it.
Not true at all. He is still eligible for arbitration after 2 or 3 years.
No he hasn’t. That was a signing bonus he got
the main reason for keeping him down is to obtain one more year of control. Makes no sense to rush him to the bigs, when they aren’t planning on contending.
Moncada’s signing bonus was one time and done. It is NOT a major league contract, and also doesn’t influence the luxury tax. When called up, he will be paid as with any other young player, and his years of control will work the same way.
So Chicago could and possibly will give him the same treatment that many non-contentious teams give top prospects and hold him down to save a year of control.
Control? International signings don’t work that way. Hence why they get such large contracts. Also Red Sox are paying this kid, we aren’t.
They already obtained the one year of control by keeping him down this year to date. Now its about the super 2 money
The fact that he’s struck out 31 times in 97 AAA at bats this year probably has a lot to do with it. He’s still got work to do.
This is a great point on the SO rate. Look at Pedro Alvarez….Fielding not withstanding, the Pirates brought him up too soon and he has been an all or nothing HR hitter ever since. One does not reduce the strikeout rate in the Majors.
Actually stating that Moncada has 31 SO’s in 109 plate appearances would be the accurate assessment. It’s still a high rate but the 28% rate per PA is the proper gauge for evaluating his propensity for fanning , not the 32% per AB.
Very true. That’s a huge part of it. And while he still has a ton of work to do in that regard, he “only” had 10 K’s in his last 10 games (41 AB’s) as opposed to 21 in his first 14 games (56 AB’s). Hopefully that downward trend continues.
Might be easier to stop writing about injuries and just write articles when a pitcher finishes a start without getting injured.
Lol
Charlotte’s home stadium is a hitters’ paradise. Moncada’s home/road splits show that some more marinating is needed.
That said, his start is very encouraging.
That helps to explain some of giolito’s 7 era.
I’m not sure Giolito will ever be more than an innings-eater in the MLB.
Some.
He’s also only 22, lost a year to TJ surgery, a year to 9 promotions/demotions and delivery tweaks and is learning a new pitch.
All that said, while his secondary stuff looks great, his FB command needs A LOT of work.
I don’t think it’s the ballpark. I watched him pitch on TV the other day, and while it was only 1 game, the fastest velo I saw from him was 91mph. He was sitting at 89-90 the entire game.
Like I said, it was only 1 game (and I didn’t see a lot of him coming up in the Nats organization), but for someone that’s supposed to have a mid-to-upper 90’s heater, that’s a ridiculously huge drop off. I don’t know what, if anything, is wrong with him, but that needs to get figured out if he’s ever going to come close to reaching his potential.
In regards to Moncada, he looked fantastic the last 2 games that were on CSN. He was hitting the ball hard all around the diamond. I don’t see a call up happening until June at the earliest though.
FYI- The Charlotte radar gun has shown to be slower than the others around the league..
Fulmer, Giolito and Lopez have all registered 2-3 clicks higher FB velo on the road.
He seems to be 91-94 true reading, while working through another tweaked delivery.
Agree on Moncada. I think Frazier gets dealt, before Yoan comes to Chicago.
as said earlier, charlotte has a slow gun. I think they had fulmer clocked at 86 and lopez sitting at 91 earlier this year?
giolito is also still tweaking his mechanics. i don’t know what kind of pitcher he’s trying to be, but it doesn’t look like he’s capable of being the high school phenom who sits at 96-99 with an 80 grade curve.
on the bright side, the 3rd piece in the trade, dane dunning, has been pretty unhittable this year.
That velo drop happened last year. It’s part of why some evaluators soured on him.
This is not a $$$ issue. It’s true they look like contenders in the ALC but it’s also true they have a growing DL list. That puts pressure on the team & while it’s not clearly visible now it becomes more apparent as the work load increases. That list includes 2/5 of the rotation & now 4 in the pen.
I don’t want to take anything away from Avasil Garcia’s MVP like play this year, but teams pretty much ignored him in April & now will focus mainly on him the rest of the year. He will now have to adjust as they employ defensive shifts.
As far as the rebuiild, Hahn’s biggest ordeal will be Robertson. How do you trade your closer if the team is say 10 over .500 near the deadline? Will Kenny let him?
That’s when we bring up kopech and let him close with that 100mph heater
Don’t see any point to that with Burdi and his triple digit heater in AAA already…
Yes, Zack Burdi is the heir apparent to David Robertson as White Sox closer although a healthy Nate Jones might assume the role as a bridge to Burdi.
In addition, Robertson is not an imminent free agent. He has a contract that runs through the 2018 season. It’s not like the White Sox have to trade him this summer should they remain serious contenders as the July 31st deadline nears.
Michael Kopech may eventually wind up in the bullpen with his 100+ fastball but the White Sox are giving him every opportunity to become a top of the rotation starter first. Kopech wants to start while Burdi has always professed a desire to finish games as a closer.
How like no does Moncada have to stay down to not be super 2?
After the all-star break apparently to not be a Super 2.
I hope JD comes back hot so that the Tigers can trade be for the trade deadline. With no bullpen, they have no hopes of making the playoffs.
I agree they will hold him down long enough to avoid Super 2 status, but Moncada has already earned something of a marquee status. CSN Chicago is already airing Knights games because of him. They will for sure bring him up in Sept to drum up ticket sales, but I won’t be surprised it if’s sooner than that.