The Pirates announced today that right-hander Joe Musgrove has been placed on the 10-day disabled list due to a muscle strain in his right shoulder. Righty Clay Holmes, who’d previously been returned to Triple-A after serving as the 26th man for yesterday’s doubleheader, has been recalled. (Holmes’ optional assignment needn’t be for the typical 10-day minimum, as he’s replacing an injured player.) As MLB.com’s Adam Berry notes, the move seemed somewhat curious at first, as Musgrove had said he felt good physically not long before the announcement. But testing ended up revealing a strain, leading to the roster move.
Musgrove’s DL placement is retroactive three days, so he can be activated on April 9. In his place, the Pirates could turn to one of Steven Brault or Tyler Glasnow to start in Musgrove’s place on Thursday. At present, it doesn’t seem that the injury is serious. Musgrove was slowed by some shoulder troubles in Spring Training, so it seems the Bucs are just being cautious early in the season. Pittsburgh will also need to evaluate shortstop Jordy Mercer, who exited after jamming his finger into the bag when diving back to first on a pickoff attempt. The Pirates, so far, have only said that Mercer left the game with right hand/finger “discomfort.”
Some more injury news from around the league…
- The Nationals recalled catcher Pedro Severino from Triple-A and placed Matt Wieters on the disabled list with a “mild left oblique strain.” Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post first reported today that Wieters was dealing with some type of injury and that Severino was headed to Atlanta in the event that Wieters needed a DL stint (Twitter links). Janes noted that Wieters didn’t take batting practice yesterday on his off day and “looked uncomfortable” throwing the ball back to the mound when catching warm-up pitches between innings for Nats starters. Both Wieters and Severino are coming off down seasons in 2017, as is Washington’s current backup, Miguel Montero.
- The Mariners are leaning toward placing Nelson Cruz on the 10-day disabled list so they can have a full bench for their upcoming interleague series, manager Scott Servais said today in an appearance on Brock & Salk on 710 ESPN in Seattle (Twitter link via 710’s Brent Stecker). Cruz suffered an ankle injury when slipping on the dugout steps after a two-run homer over the weekend and had an MRI, though the results of that test haven’t been announced yet.
- Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto has progressed to the point where he’s been cleared to resume catching drills, tweets MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro. However, Frisaro cautions that Realmuto will probably still require “a few more weeks” before he’s able to return from the lower back injury that landed him on the disabled list to open the 2018 campaign. Chad Wallach, Tomas Telis and Bryan Holaday have been doing the catching in Realmuto’s absence.
- The Yankees announced today that they’ve voided right-hander Ben Heller’s optional assignment to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and instead placed him on the Major League 10-day disabled list with a bone spur in his right elbow. There’s no immediate timetable provided for Heller’s return, though he’ll benefit from being on the MLB disabled list instead of the minor league DL, as he’ll now gain big league service time (and be paid the pro-rated portion of the league minimum) while sidelined.
Getting paid the pro rated portion of the league minimum is at least something. The Yankees are starting to resemble a MASH unit.
Better they have the injuries now then in September
Can’t believe you have 3 down votes for saying something that is correct. Would be a season killer if they were past the deadline and no way to obtain any replacement help except for young minor league players as you are pushing for the playoffs……I say this assuming many of the injuries are shorter term and most will be available relatively soon
Probably downvoted because it seems like he’s implying that, because they’re hurt now, they won’t hurt hurt in September. It doesn’t work that way though. You don’t get an injury out of the way
But at least now there are several months for guys to try to get healthy again. In September, no chance to get back for the stretch run for many of these guys.
Assuming the Pirates made the move to give Musgrove more time in Florida where it is warm to get some more work in before he has to pitch in the cold north with his shoulder. Bet he does not get activated till the Bucs play in Miami April 13th.
That makes sense, good thinking.
This is what I am figuring. He has been pretty filthy since coming to the pirates. Going to be a staple in that rotation for a while health permitting.
I love that the big opening day story here is angry people boycotting a 4-0 team claiming it doesn’t want to win because they traded a guy who is 1 for 16.
Pitch perfect Pittsburgh.
Not sure whether Musgrove’s future is as a starter or a long man.I read an article a couple of months back that said that last year he pitched much better as a long man in Houston.The best scenario I think for the Pirates would be if Glasnow gets it together and becomes a starter and Brault and Musgrove both become the multi inning relief pitchers that have become more desireable lately.I think that that would enable Hurdle to pull Nova and Kuhl especially after five innings before they begin to implode.In the old days the long men routinely could pitch three or four innings but that was lost in this time of hard throwers and specialists.Perhaps that time is coming back.It may also enable them to save Rivero more.
Everyone knew that the Nats needed another number three starter bye they did nothing. Nice job A.J.!!!!