Aug. 29: Trumbo will indeed undergo season-ending surgery, Showalter told reporters Wednesday (Twitter link via Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun). Trumbo received opinions from the Orioles’ medical staff and Dr. James Andrews, among others, before ultimately electing to go under the knife.
Aug. 24: Orioles slugger Mark Trumbo is weighing knee surgery that would end his season. Indeed, he indicated today that he’s leaning toward undergoing a procedure, as Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com was among those to tweet.
While it seems increasingly likely that Trumbo will have the work done, that has still yet to be decided conclusively. He’s still planning to receive further medical opinions and manager Buck Showalter suggested there’s still some possibility that he’ll suit up this year, as Dan Connolly of The Athletic reports on Twitter.
It’s still not fully clear just what the issue is, or what kind of procedure is under consideration, but Trumbo is said to have been dealing with issues in the joint all year long. Presumably, the hope is to avoid any further damage and to give him a head start on an offseason recovery program.
The balky knee hasn’t stopped Trumbo from turning in a productive run at the plate in August. On the year, he’s carrying a solid .261/.313/.452 slash with 17 home runs, though that’s not really the level of output Trumbo needs to be a productive player given his deficiencies in other areas.
The knee troubles, perhaps, are showing up primarily in the field. The 32-year-old has never been regarded as a very good fielder, of course. But his metrics reached a new low this season. In just 152 1/3 innings in right field, Trumbo ran up -7 defensive runs saved and graded at -31.1 UZR/150. Understandably, the Orioles have preferred to utilize him as a DH.
Since signing a three-year, $37.5MM contract to return to Baltimore in the 2016-17 offseason, Trumbo has played below replacement level in the aggregate. He’s owed hefty $13.5MM for 2019. While partial no-trade protection presents one barrier to a deal, the larger issue for the rebuilding O’s is that few other teams are likely to have much interest in taking on any significant portion of that salary. These health issues don’t help. Whether or not surgery is required, it seems all but certain that the Orioles will have to hope that Trumbo has a productive run to open the 2019 season and can be flipped at some point next summer.
Ok, and? How much does it weigh?
I kneed to check on that.
The wait is killing us, etc.
Sucks for Trumbo who by all accounts is a good guy.
And he’s been reasonably productive while on the field. But if he’s getting his knees worked on, his below average defense very well could become unplayable.
How will they possibly weather this storm?
The season could very well be doomed now……
Davis and Mancini are heating up now. I think they’ve still got a shot. Just make up 55 games in 32 days. They’ve got this!
How much does his defense cost him in war. His ops is above average yet only .3 war. but I wonder if his 20 games on the field made his war go down? I’m sure it’s not gonna be over 1 since he’s a DH…
The question is how many years will it take to make Baltimore competitive again..or even a .500 Team again? Even if they decide to keep some International FA money and use it, this team has already lost, or will lose at the end of this season, any veteran player with true talent left.
They are either going to have to spend big bucks in MLB Free Agency or commit to an entire tear down and rebuild. If the go the rebuild route, they are 4-5 years away from fielding a competitive team. You know the Sox & Yankees will figure out how to stay competitive, and Tampa might have the best young talent in baseball. So the only realistic goal Baltimore has over the next 3 seasons is to finish in 4th place in the AL East ahead of Toronto. And that will be a tall task itself as Toronto has somewhat capable management running their team.
Poor O’s… such a proud franchise turned into this steaming pile of crap. Thanks Peter!
They’ve always been a steaming pile of crap to be honest. They WERE the St Louis Browns at one time. With a brief stretch from 1965 to 1979 they never really we’re competitive. The ’88 seasons horrible start is probably their worst season ever. My hats off to all Orioles fans. A good Orioles team would be great for east coast MLB baseball.
They won the WS in 83 so your argument is already shot. The orioles were a competitive ball club more often than not until the turn of the decade. This decade hasn’t been so kind.