Mariners right-handed reliever David Phelps suffered a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching arm and will miss the season, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports. He’ll need to undergo Tommy John surgery, Greg Johns of MLB.com adds (Twitter links).
Phelps suffered the injury on the final pitch of his outing last Saturday, per Johns. It’s yet another significant arm problem in Phelps’ short Mariners career, as he previously underwent season-ending surgery to remove a bone spur from his elbow last September. That procedure came after a lengthy absence because of an elbow impingement. Phelps’ issues limited him to just 8 2/3 innings with Seattle last year after it acquired him from Miami in late July.
As was the case when they traded him for him in 2017, the Mariners were counting on Phelps to play a major role out of their bullpen this season. And for good reason, too, as the 31-year-old was among the majors’ premier relievers from 2016-17. Phelps made 108 appearances during that span, the third-highest total in the league, and pitched to a 2.69 ERA/3.12 FIP with 11.11 K/9, 3.97 BB/9 and a 46.4 percent groundball rate over 133 2/3 innings.
This injury comes at an especially inopportune time for Phelps, given that he’s in a contract year. He’ll make $5.5MM this season and could have put himself in line for a sizable multiyear deal in free agency next winter. Instead, he’ll head to the open market off a major surgery, and because of the 12- to 15-month recovery time that follows Tommy John surgery, it’s likely he’ll miss at least some of the 2019 campaign.
The Mariners, meanwhile, will have to go without arguably their best reliever as they attempt to break a league-worst 16-year playoff drought. Seattle still has other proven options on hand (depth chart), including closer Edwin Diaz, Juan Nicasio and Nick Vincent, yet this is certainly an enormous blow with the season just over a week away.
With Phelps no longer in the mix, it’s possible general manager Jerry Dipoto will now seek to bolster his bullpen from outside, potentially via trade (his signature route), free agency or the waiver wire (which he utilized earlier Wednesday). There are a few household names remaining on the market, including Greg Holland (he’d come at a high price and would cost the Mariners a draft pick), Chad Qualls, Jason Grilli, Joe Blanton and Huston Street. Unfortunately for the Mariners, though, anyone from that group would have a hard time approaching Phelps’ recent production.
Wow!! Poor M’s fans. Can’t get a ****ing break
I feel like there is always one team, whether it is spring training or the regular season that have multiple players get hurt. Unfortunately, it’s the mariners this time
this time?
Probably the wrong words to use there. Sorry if i made it confusing there. mariners are definitely having a lot of injuries so far whether it’s major like Phelps or something minor like a day to day thing.
Can we just list the Mariners as out for the season yet?
They don’t even know who is out for the season yet, that’s the really sad part. Their FO has to operate under the assumption that everyone, except for Phelps obviously, will be back at some point this season.
and the injuries continue to get worse…..
I Love Seattle
… this is bad
Hurts. But Phelps did only pitch 10 games for the M’s last year, and we survived without him. So it isn’t the end of the world. I expect waiver claim(s), and a trade like the Mariners did with Vincent in 2016.
that’s horrible news. why can’t thst happen to the new yuck Yankees.
hang in the m’s things will turn around sooner than later.
gonna have then dreams.
Just worry about your sorry team
There’s always some Yankee-hater who needs to bring the Yankees into the conversation.
Got news for you Eric- when the Yankees come to play in your town, people get excited & attendance goes up. Your ballclub wishes they’d play in Seattle even more.
oh, and ps- enjoy Robinson Cano’s waning years at $24 million/per and full no-trade protection.
I think the Mariners are grateful for Cano…and Pazos, and Gamel, and Rumbelow. Wouldn’t surprise me if the M’s acquired someone like Gallegos from the Yankees.
yikes not good for the Mariners
KO news. Sorry, M’s fans. :(
On the bright side, Trade..?
Paging Dr. Dipoto, you are needed in the ER
Paging Mr Holland.
Don’t even joke about it.
yes please
Never trade for a pitcher from NY.
Let’s see some examples.
Technically, you traded with the Marlins to acquire him.
Michael Pineda, but it was the other way around, with worse injury diagnosis, and happened alm. immediately following his trade. It can happen to anyone, any team.
he’s just a troll.
Huh?
The trade was with the Marlins.
Phelps is from St Loo
Could they release him and only pay a set amount since he went through arbitration? If not, I would hope Dipoto would see if he’s willing to sign for a cheap contract for the following year.
First Zych, now Phelps. They were likely going to add Lawrence to the roster to plug the hole Ramirez will leave open to start the season. Now they will likely have to find another reliever.
They coughed up a lot to acquire Smyly, SImmons, and Phelps last season. Talk about bad luck…
Wow. Seems like the injury bug followed DiPoto from the Angels to the Mariners. That’s tough.
The funny thing is Seattle was the last team to pitch a whole season with the same 5 pitchers it came out of spring training with. I believe it was 2006. I know Phelps is a reliever but he was supposed to be a huge part of the BP. Hopefully a few months into the season all the starters will be healthy and ready to go. Felix will be on limited innings and saved for the end of the year.
The ALW is going to be tough but if we stay healthy we have a chance. Mikey Z has 3 HRs tonight he is looking good this spring. Gordon looks like he had played CF all his life and has a cannon. Have an injury problem for LF but they will soon be healthy. Haniger is good in RF. The IF is solid. The team is not as bad as people think.
Didn’t we just improve our health and condition department?
They need to sign Holland if he’s willing to not be a closer. With Dipoto and Servais both in contract years the team needs to improve for their own sake, and with the way the rotation is setting up, the M’s won’t win many games without a good bullpen.
Holland may be alright with not closing but he’s not going to be alright with not getting closer money.
Would be interesting to see if Jerry was willing to cough up a draft pick to get him. I could see him turning to a lefty instead, such as Bastardo or Abad.
Yeah Jerry doesn’t hasn’t seemed like the guy to give up picks so I’m not sure if adding Holland is realistic, even though he’d be a good fit.
Kid you are the one who earlier said Haniger was a bad OFer but MLB listed him the 9th best RFer in MLB. Who is right you or them? I don’t think I will take much of your advice doesn’t seem too solid.
What does this have to do with any thing? I never said he’s bad at hitting, and I thought this “fight” between us ended a long time ago but you keep bringing it up.
I was thrilled when my M’s acquired David Phelps last Summer.
I was much less than thrilled when my M’s announced David Phelps was done for the entire season this evening.
This was certainly not the big announcement regarding David Phelps that I’ve been hoping for.
The battle for last place in the AL West has really heated up for this year. The M’s and the Rangers
We shall see.
David Phelps is a gamer. He does whatever is asked of him in whatever role. Even liked him when he was a Yankee. That deal was probably the Marlins only decent trade in the last 6 or 7 years. I hope he recovers from this, and eventually gets himself paid. He deserves it. Really unfortunate timing
Very sorry to hear about David Phelps. I really thought 2018 was going to be his year. I’ve been a big fan of his since his great Trenton Thunder days- have followed his career since..
@STEVEB his year was 2016 with Miami
Spring brings hope to every MLB team. However Mariner fans deep down you know this is no more than a .500 club.