As planned, Felix Hernandez will come off the DL to start tonight for the Mariners, according to a club announcement. It’ll be King Felix’s first start for Seattle since July 31st. It’s been a tough year for the righty so far (this was his second stint on the disabled list for issues with his throwing shoulder), but he’ll have a chance to turn things around and keep the Mariners breathing in the AL Wild Card chase.
Some other injury news and updates from around MLB…
- Cardinals righty Adam Wainwright threw a bullpen session today, according to a tweet from MLB beat reporter Jenifer Langosch. At this point in the season, and with the Cards three games back in a battle for the NL Central pennant, it seems likely that the veteran will pitch out of the bullpen upon his return. Langosch also notes that reliever Seung-hwan Oh threw a bullpen session as well, while Jedd Gyorko and Dexter Fowler took practice on the field.
- Astros outfielder Jake Marisnick left Wednesday’s game with an apparent thumb injury after sliding into second base in the top of the third inning. Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle offers some thoughts on the unfortunate situation for the AL West-leading Astros, noting that the recently-acquired Cameron Maybin and rookie Derek Fisher are likely to see increases in playing time. The organization hasn’t released details on the severity of the injury, but manager A.J. Hinch offered that, “It doesn’t look good.” For reference, significant thumb injuries — such as fractures or ligament tears — frequently require absences of at least six to eight weeks. More information will likely be available sometime after Marisnick undergoes tests in Houston today.
- Veteran reliever Jim Johnson of the Atlanta Braves has been diagnosed with achilles tendinitis, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. He remained in Atlanta while the team traveled to Washington, and Braves manager Brian Snitker says he’s unlikely to pitch this weekend. Johnson is in the first year of a 2-year, $10MM deal with the Braves. It remains to be seen whether he’ll pitch again this season, but its certainly an unfortunate development for Johnson after losing the closer role to Arodys Vizcaino already this season. For Atlanta, the loss of Johnson thins out a bullpen that already has the fifth-highest ERA among all major league teams.
We’ve somewhat rapidly watched Felix’s decline over the past couple years. He has so many innings on his arm, the injuries are coming his way. He’s lost most of his velocity so he’ll need to learn how to pitch like other pitchers who have lost velocity. It’s sad he hasn’t even sniffed the post season
There has been far worse such as johan Santana making 30 million to rehab an injury and then never pitch again for the mets. Sometimes you have to just realize you made a bad decision to make a certain player a long term option
The Mariners excel at making bad decisions.
Yea…I’m a Braves fan. Luis Gohara and Alex Jackson were just named MiLB players of the year at their level.
Gohara looked great in his second start.
His velocity has been around 92 for years now
No he was throwing 93-95 when he got robbed of the cy young in 2014. I guess it’s not a huge drop off, but it’s clearly making a difference.
Those are the kinds of deals the Mariners love to make. Get rid of a 20 year old lefty that throws smoke and a high ceiling raw talent for what ended up being an already injury prone and extremely mediocre Drew Smyly and a couple of middle relief pitches cause they think they are one or two players away from the 2nd wild card.
Pitchers….