Giants second baseman Joe Panik has a torn ligament in his left thumb that could require surgery, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Panik, who went on the disabled list Saturday, will go for a second opinion to determine whether he’ll go under the knife or rehab the injury without surgery, per Schulman. Panik got off to a solid start in his first 100 plate appearances of the year before landing on the shelf, with a .267/.323/.389 line (102 wRC+) and as many walks as strikeouts (six). Kelby Tomlinson has been San Francisco’s top second base option in Panik’s absence.
More from the NL…
- Although Diamondbacks right-hander Archie Bradley has been among the game’s most dominant relievers since moving to the bullpen last year, he hasn’t given up on working as a starter again someday. “I still would like to start and see what I can do,” the 25-year-old told Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. “But for what I’m doing right now and what this team is doing, it’s kind of the perfect spot for me. It just fits with what we’re doing.” Bradley was a high-end prospect as a starter, evidenced in part by the fact that he went seventh overall in the 2011 draft. However, he struggled at times in that role in the minors and then in the majors, where he logged a 5.18 ERA (with a much more encouraging 4.27 FIP) in 34 starts and 177 1/3 innings from 2015-16. As a reliever, on the other hand, Bradley has posted a 1.73 ERA/2.47 FIP over 88 1/3 frames.
- The Cardinals have recalled lefty Austin Gomber from Triple-A, putting him in position to make his major league debut, and optioned righty Jack Flaherty. Gomber, whom the Cardinals chose in the fourth round of the 2014 draft, ranks as the team’s 14th-best prospect at MLB.com. The 24-year-old has registered impressive numbers as a starter in the minors, including this season (2.45 ERA, 9.47 K/9 and 3.16 BB/9 in 25 2/3 innings), but he’s likely to open his MLB career as a long reliever, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
- Pirates righty Joe Musgrove is slated to begin a rehab assignment Tuesday, Adam Berry of MLB.com tweets. Musgrove joined the Pirates over the winter as a key part of their Gerrit Cole trade with Houston, but a muscle strain in his pitching shoulder has delayed his debut with the club. Barring any setbacks, Musgrove should be four rehab starts away from returning to the majors, Berry suggests.
What’s with all the torn thumb ligaments all of a sudden?
Cell phone disease. Too much texting!
From commenting on the MlbTradeRumors message board; social media disease….
Don’t know. Related to excess weight lifting? Video game abuse? Better diagnosis-something they used to play through? What says Fangraphs?
Good idea getting a second opinion Joe. Now’s not the time to Panik.
Nice
Giants just can’t catch a break. I wonder how good they would be if they had 2 more quality starters and a strong pen. Oh well.
Pen hasn’t been that bad, Strickland has actually done pretty well in the closer role, moranta is showing that he belongs, the biggest issue has been osich who despite a nice spring hasn’t shown the same control In the regular season and bochy keeps insisting that he is a multi inning guy rather than using him like he should and Dyson has blown it a lot coming in .. but the rest of the pen had actually been very effective.
Don’t forget Watson has been excellent.
Bruce Bochy used to be a good manager. I seriously think he is in the early stages of dementia.
At last, I’m very intrigued to see what Gomber is capable of in the bigs
The Cards offense looks terrible as of late…. no one is driving in runs when we do have runners in scoring position and a few players like Ozuna, Wong, Carpenter, Fowler need to start heating up. This was terrible play against the Pirates over the weekend.