The Cardinals announced earlier today that Trevor Rosenthal has been placed on the 60-day disabled list, and a followup announcement out of St. Louis confirms what many Cardinals fans had feared; general manager Mike Girsch confirmed to reporters that Rosenthal has suffered a tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and will undergo Tommy John surgery next week (Twitter link via Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch).
Rosenthal’s placement on the 60-day DL already ended his season — a critical blow to a team that is still in the mix for both a division title and an NL Wild Card spot — but the prognosis of a torn UCL may now also spell the end of his time as a member of the Cardinals organization entirely. Rosenthal will almost certainly miss all of the 2018 campaign, and even if the Cardinals hold out faint hope that he can return for the final month next year, he’ll still be non-tendered rather than given a raise on this year’s $6.4MM salary.
The 27-year-old Rosenthal struggled through a down year in 2016 but was tendered a contract for the 2017 campaign anyhow, and he’d largely righted the ship this year. While he had a rocky stretch in mid-to-late June, Rosenthal had burst out of the gates in the season’s second half, firing 14 1/3 innings with just three earned runs allowed and a scintillating 23-to-4 K/BB ratio. Of those three earned runs he surrendered, two came in his final outing of the year (and possibly his final appearance as a Cardinal); Rosenthal allowed a leadoff homer to Xander Bogaerts and walked Mitch Moreland before being pulled from the game.
Rosenthal’s agent, Scott Boras, will now find himself in a similar position to the one he faced with Greg Holland two years ago. Like Holland, Rosenthal is a well-regarded high-leverage reliever that will undergo Tommy John surgery late in the regular season. (Holland’s surgery was performed at the end of September in 2015.) Rosenthal and Boras could seek some kind of backloaded two-year contract this winter, which would allow the righty to rehab with a new organization before hopefully being healthy enough to take the field in 2019.
Alternatively, Rosenthal could opt not to sign a contract at all this winter. That’s the route that Holland took following his own Tommy John procedure, as he opted not to sign in the 2015-16 winter before hosting multiple showcases/workouts for interested teams when he was back to full strength in the 2016-17 offseason.
That sucks
I wonder if they would consider signing him to a two year deal at around 6 or 7 million? Clearly he won’t be pitching at all next season, and I don’t really see a team giving him more than 6 or 7 in 2019 after a TJS.
I guess there is no reason for either side to do a deal like that, though.
The guy has just shown so much promise, carrying a 2.59 FIP and a 12 k/9 over 325 innings. I’ll be sad to see him go.
It’s in the updated post now, but I think it’s worth pointing out that Rosenthal (a Boras client) is now effectively in the same spot that Greg Holland was two years ago.
Every case is different, but Holland simply didn’t sign the offseason following his TJ procedure and opted for a two-year deal with the player option some 15-16 months after his TJ operation.
Who are free agent closers this off season? The Cards could be in the market. But Wainright could move to that position. He’s not a starter anymore, but can handle that role.
A link to the upcoming free-agent market can always be found on the sidebar of the desktop version of MLBTR:
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/08/2017-18-mlb-free-agent-list.html
But to answer your question directly, the top three late-inning relievers on the market will be Greg Holland, Wade Davis and Addison Reed.
Thanks Steve
Baseball can be such a cruel sport sometimes. A guy has a poor year in 16′, figures something out and comes back and corrects it in 17′ just to have the season derailed by this. MLB’s version of the NFL’s torn ACL. Most make it back but you never know what level of productivity you can expect once the return happens.
The sport that is so synonymous to everyday life, the up’s and down’s. Spring training, 162 grind, post season, winter ball, WBC, it just never stops. That’s the love for the fans is that it is always available but the chance of injury is so great when you compete so much.
Best of luck while on the road to recovery Trevor.
Technically, Rosenthal never figured anything out. He was simply pitching hurt for the majority of 2016. He was back to his usual self once he returned from the DL last September. The Cardinals obviously knew that, which is why they still tendered him a contract for this season.
Its really great the Cardinals held on to him at the deadline SMFH.
You’re right. The Cardinals should trade every player just before they incur a season ending injury.
prudent thing to do
Don’t forget, Magnificent Mike Matheny also decided to throw Trevor in his last outing when he had stated he was feeling tightness that day.
Nice going, Mike.
Are you of the opinion that if he was given a day or two off he could have bounced right back without requiring TJ surgery?
I am of the opinion that you and I both do not know if him throwing when he was tight directly led to the issue or if it was there beforehand.
Regardless, throwing someone when they are tight is not a good idea. Ever.
There have been a lot of correlations with injuries and pitching under duress. It’s not like these ligaments are getting stretched little by little then POP! Because if that were the case then there wouldn’t be any starting pitchers.
Pitching with stiffness is usually bad and will lead to these issues. I can’t say Matheny’s at fault because pitchers get sore all the time. On;y that, yea, maybe given him some time off may have saved his arm a bit.
Adding to this, It seems to me (not based on any evidence) that pitchers who start throwing harder, whether it is to get more missed bats or keep up their talent, seem to get injured. Not just throwing harder, but throwing harder than usual and more than what their body can take.
Maybe Rosenthal saw people catching up to his stuff and decided to up his velocity. And with that came the stiffness then the tear. The future looks ambivalent, as more teams are resting pitchers with any type of injury, but relievers, who only get maybe 2-4 years of good work, are becoming more used.
As money starts coming in for these guys, you see more of these players over-exert their arms to keep up their shut-down profiles. That 6 million a year for 3 years for a 1.80 ERA looks a lot better than a minimum or 1 million year salary being a specialist or long-relief, which can be filled by many arms competing for that job in the minors.
Rosenthal hadn’t pitched intense innings for half of the year and still has to get TJ after… 40, 50 innings? We are going to continue to see more of these injuries as these guys need to keep shutting down hitters to get huge paydays for short amount of work. And as more teams rest up players, it is going to be even more volatile to develop and maintain pitchers beyond 1-2 years as they go all out for these deals. In the end it doesn’t matter. There’s always another failed starter or AAAA pitcher looking to stay in the big game.
Rosenthal is a great career reliever who never started a game.
Makes me curious about a) best relievers turned starters, and b) best starters turned relievers.
First name that comes to mind for both scenarios: John Smoltz.
Dennis Eckersley.
I mean Red Sox had two of A:: Pedro Martinez and Chris Sale.
Are you counting guys who pitched out of the bullpen just for their rookie year (or thereabouts) before joining the rotation like Adam Wainwright, Carlos Martinez, and Lance Lynn?
Andrew Miller was a starter turned reliever.
For B: Mariano RIvera, Koki Uehara, There are many, hopefully someone will add to this!