The Rays had a scare yesterday in regards to outfielder Mallex Smith, who was hospitalized due to a viral infection and has since been placed on the 10-day DL. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times has the full details here, noting that the infection doesn’t seem gravely serious and is a far cry from the severity of the bacterial infection that ended Indians outfielder Leonys Martin’s season. Smith was hitting .307 and functioning as the Rays’ leadoff hitter prior to being hospitalized, so the club will be keeping a close eye on his recovery. For the time being, right-hander Andrew Kittredge will take his spot on the active roster.
Other injury news and updates from around baseball…
- Though recent trends would have led Giants fans to believe Jeff Samardzija would be making a return to the mound in 2018, a new development has made that significantly less likely. Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle hears that Samardzija has suffered a setback in his rehab from a shoulder injury. “There is a little concern there, to be honest,” manager Bruce Bochy said of the right-hander’s shoulder. “There’s some soreness. He’s not real close.” Samardzija has only taken the mound for ten starts so far this season, posting a nauseating 6.25 ERA.
- The Blue Jays don’t expect Troy Tulowitzki to make a return to the field this season, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca tweets. The message comes courtesy of manager John Gibbons. That means Tulo will have missed the entirety of the 2018 season after undergoing surgery on both of his heels at the outset of April. Even last season, Tulo played at replacement level by measure of Fangraphs’ WAR formula. With the shortstop’s lengthy injury history, it’s fair to wonder whether his playing career is in jeopardy.
- Though Michael Pineda was set to make a rehab start on Monday for the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate, Phil Miller of the Star Tribune reports that it’s been canceled in favor of a trip to the doctor. Pineda will undergo an MRI to get to the bottom of the irritation in his right knee. Pineda signed a two-year pact with Minnesota this offseason, even though it was well-known that he wouldn’t pitch for most of the season while recovering from a Tommy John surgery he underwent in 2017.
Shame that Tulo is so injury prone. I love watching him play.
Let’s hope and pray he fully recovers and his career is not over.
Agreed.
As much as I hate to say it. The best thing that could happen to the Jays is Tulo NOT to recover. And finish out his contract on the DL (if his performance in a jays uni next year isnt at his career bests)
If he comes back 100% healthy and can slash 275/375/800 plus 30 ish dingers…..with his known good D. Sure
At least then we can flip him at the deadline for a decent prospect
But how many of us expect that to actually happen
Out of the 2 I hold out more hope Donaldson gets healthy enough to showcase some trade value next season
Tulo isn’t going to retire until that contract is finished or he’s deemed unable to play. I’m one of the few who actually am fine with players doing this because teams are the ones signing these players knowing it is a gamble.
Teams are finally balking at contracts like that for the most part. They rarely add up over the length of the deal. Yeah, I know, some guy may come back using a sIlly WAR/$ valuation to argue otherwise but I think everyone intuitively understands how these contracts are almost all bad by the time they’re complete.
Do they mean this season 2018 for Samardzija? They have 2019
How would samardzija not pitch in 2019… the Injury isn’t THAT serious..
That’s what it says
They changed it to 2018
Hope & Pray. SMH
Tulo will never fully recover from the ankle surgery. DUH!
And Codeeg is spot on-he’s not going to retire!
He’s gonna hope to play SS for the Yankees for one game-THEN RETIRE.
A return to the field would imply he actually made it that far in the first place
Lotsa weird infections this year in MLB. Don’t these guys wash???????
Maybe he doesn’t use the soap, or somebody sneezed/coughed on him.
They do mingle with fans in different cities, and most people are filthy and don’t wash their hands after doing a #2 like Zack Greinke said, so it was probably a disease from one of them.
If Samardjia had chosen the NFL, he would never have played this long or made as much money.
Hopefully Pineda’s knee is a minor issue and easily corrected. He and the Twins could use some good news.
Yep. A little good news would be very welcome.
The best thing for the Jays is to not have Tulo anyways. I feel at this point that running some combination of Gurriel and Diaz out there is a lot better than Tulo
Since Jays aren’t winning anything for a few years anyway, I’d say blow it up even more that has already been done.
In the offseason, trade Smoak, move Tulo to first/DH, Gurriel to SS, Diaz to 2nd, trade Travis&Drury, Donaldson/Martin to 3rd, keep solarte as depth.
And sign/develop/promote/acquire as much elite pitching as they can.
From Tulo Today through Dan Shulman:
Troy Tulowitzki just met with the media in the dugout – to sum it up, Tulo said he still has some discomfort in his heels, some days are better than others, and he could never be sure this year of being able to come back and play on an everyday basis. He says he thinks he will be ready to go for 2019, and welcomes competition for the SS position. When asked if he would consider a position change, he said “I’m a shortstop. If someone’s better than me, I’ll pack my bags and go home”. Added he has had heel discomfort for a couple of yrs, and that assuming he is healthy, he feels he may be able to play SS better than he did before. Says he has been very impressed with some of the young players this year, talking about improvement he has seen in Diaz since spring training, and Gurriel’s talent and work ethic.
My[Jimmer] opinion is that Tulo should being playing first base somewhere. Enough with this selfish whinning attitude that if can’t play short he’ll go home. Team first please.
I have to admit I was kind of taken aback by Tulo’s comments. I loved him on the Rockies, as a Jays fan. My dog is named Troy, my cat is named Taz. It pains me to see that in one breath he’s preaching team first mentality with respect to positional competition – and in the next he’s seemingly crying that he’ll pick up his glove and go home if he doesn’t get what he wants. Maybe I’m taking it out of context or something, but just didn’t think this is who he was.