Braves righty Anibal Sanchez landed on the 10-day disabled list on Wednesday after suffering a hamstring strain while running in the outfield during pre-game warmups, as the team announced. Things looked potentially much worse, as Sanchez reportedly collapsed and was down for several minutes before having his leg placed in an air cast and being carted off the field (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Mark Bowman). Thus far in 14 innings (two starts, one relief appearance), the 34-year-old Sanchez has yielded just two runs on 11 hits and six walks with 14 strikeouts. He’d been relying more heavily on a cutter and a changeup with the Braves than he had in previous seasons, and those tweaks had generated positive gains in swinging-strike rate, chase rate and ground-ball rate. Lucas Sims, Matt Wisler and Max Fried are among the 40-man roster options to step into the rotation in place of Sanchez for the time being.
Some injury news from around the game…
- The Twins announced that Byron Buxton has been placed on the 10-day DL, retroactive to April 15, with migraine headaches. Outfielder Ryan LaMarre was added to the 25-man roster in place of Buxton, who’ll be eligible to return next Wednesday. It’s been a slow start to the year for Buxton after a strong five-month stretch to close out the 2017 season; the longtime top prospect hit .274/.335/.448 in his final 459 plate appearances last season but is off to a .195/.233/.244 start to the season.
- Left-hander Rich Hill hit the disabled list due to a finger injury, the Dodgers announced today. Fellow southpaw Adam Liberatore is up from Triple-A to take Hill’s place for the time being. Specifically, Hill told reporters that he’s dealing with a cracked fingernail and that the DL stint is “precautionary” in nature (Twitter link via Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times). The Dodgers have a reputation for aggressively utilizing the shortened 10-day DL and their Triple-A depth to keep their roster fresh, and that seems like the tactic they’re employing in this instance. Of course, as Aaron Sanchez’s 2017 season with the Blue Jays demonstrated, fingernail and blister issues can be more serious for pitchers than they initially sound.
- Anthony Swarzak’s rehab with the Mets has been shut down for now due to lingering discomfort in his ailing oblique muscle, tweets MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo. He’d been throwing off of flat ground but now won’t be throwing at all and won’t travel with the club on its upcoming road trip, per DiComo. Swarzak inked a two-year, $14MM deal with the Mets this offseason but has pitched just 2 1/3 innings on the year due to a DL stint that now looks like it’ll be prolonged.
- Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel passes along some Brewers injury news, reporting that Wade Miley’s first rehab start went smoothly and adding that he’ll start again on Sunday (Twitter links). At that point, the Brewers will likely have to make a decision whether they’ll add him to the big league rotation or keep him in the minors for another rehab outing. Additionally, lefty Boone Logan threw a bullpen session for the first time since injuring his left triceps muscle — a notable first step in his debut in the Milwaukee ’pen.
Say no to Matt Wisler!
…and Lucas Sims. AA was just quoted as saying Soroka is “very very close” to getting the call. He looks great.
Braves fans giving up on sims? Man is only 23 years old.
Braves fans are very temperamental at best, which can be both hilarious and infuriating depending on how you look at it. That being said, a lot of the luster has come off Sims over the past couple years, both due to his overall performance and fans shifting their focus towards other, newer pitchers that have come into the system since him. It’s a decent bet (as of writing this) that he’ll be starting tomorrow since he’s already on the 25-man, although they may have room to bring someone else up if Freeman ends up on the DL after tonight.
Sims has the scarlet letter – Frank Wren selected him in the 1st rd. Not exactly a good track record.
Albies, Acuna and 2013 division title says hello!
Anyone watching right now? Sims is awful.
Boy if Miley is anything who spot does he take Suter or Chacin? Plus if Corbin comes up without missing a beat we definitely will be sitting pretty
I don’t know if a collection of #4 and 5 starters in your rotation is “sitting pretty.” Not the words I would use…
Well those supposed #4/5 starters have played pretty well so far.
Have to agree with jbigz here. We’re hovering around .500 here. It’s very early yet, but starting rotation has been .500ish, lots of defensive errors, and we clearly need that 1-2 Punch of Cain and Yelich setting the table for Braun. Bullpen is hanging in there for the most part, but they need that starting rotation to go deeper and under 2 runs/6 at this point to stay in contention for long. Get them on and bring them around!
What????? Milwaukee starters outside of Anderson and Guerra have been abysmal this season.
Guerra wasn’t even with the team when the season started. Anderson got lucky he didn’t break his nose on Home plate the 1st game of the year. Davies was pushing a 6.00Era b4 getting his 1st QS of the year yesterday. Woodruff is back in AAA. Chacin has pitched 17 innings in his 1st 4 starts with an era closer to 6 then 5. Suter has pitched 20.1 innings in 4starts and has an era a tick under 5.
Pretty is definitely not the word I’d use to describe Milwaukee SP this season.
The only thing keeping the pitching staff afloat has been the bullpen and the bullpen has blown 7saves already this season.
1) Davies has had 2 quality starts ( 6.1, 0 R and 6, 1 run), and 2 poor ones.
2) 7 blown saves does not mean they’ve blown 7 games. A couple times they had more than 1 blown save in the same game and at least once they came back to win.
3) Milwaukee’s pitching as a whole ranks 7th in ERA out of 15 teams.
Anibal only had 2 winning seasons in Detroit. That’s crazy.
And he had a no-hitter with the Marlins. The talent is clearly there, but he’s never put it all together long term. His last 2 starts seemed like throwbacks to those early years with the Tigers. Hopefully he’ll pick up where he left off after this DL stint.
Collapsing, an air cast and a cart.. for a hamstring strain? Really?
What is this, soccer?
A strain is a type of tear, so it’s best to be pretty cautious about it until the severity is known. It’s not like he was faking it.
The comments here are more negative than Facebook. Lol.