Brewers hurler Jimmy Nelson is pausing his throwing program owing to “arm fatigue discomfort,” president of baseball operations David Stearns tells reporters including Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. All involved say they’re unconcerned with the development, with manager Craig Counsell labeling it “a very minor setback.” It has been a long road back already for Nelson, who hasn’t thrown a competitive inning since undergoing a labrum procedure in September of 2017. He’ll need to wait a while longer before taking the bump in a Spring Training contest, with the club understandably maintaining a conservative plan in light of his health history.
More health notes from around the game …
- The Phillies say that outfielder Odubel Herrera is dealing with a grade 1 hamstring strain, Matt Breen of Philly.com reports on Twitter. He’s said to be “coming along,” though skipper Gabe Kapler couldn’t specify when Herrera will be ready to take the field. It’s not a terribly worrying injury at the outset of camp, though it will limit Herrera’s opportunities to get in a groove after a disappointing 2018 season. The wild card in the situation is the Phils’ ongoing pursuit of Bryce Harper and their as-yet-unknown plans for shuffling the outfield deck if they sign him. The injury might impact Herrera’s marketability, if he’s a player the team would consider moving to make way for Harper.
- Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson is readying for his first Spring Training game action at the end of the week, per Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter). That seems to represent a positive sign for a player who underwent wrist surgery at the conclusion of the 2018 campaign. Swanson had a quiet but reasonably promising 2018 campaign, with sparkling glovework and baserunning making up for still-lagging production at the plate. Swanson produced only a .238/.304/.395 slash (80 wRC+) with 14 home runs and ten steals over 533 plate appearances, but that represented a step forward after a rough 2017 effort. He’ll open camp with a presumption of at least semi-regular playing time, but could face pressure from Johan Camargo over the course of the season.
- Hip surgery is on the table for Royals righty Trevor Oaks, Rustin Dodd of The Athletic reports (subscription link). If it is determined that he needs to go under the knife for a labrum tear, the 25-year-old will miss a significant portion of the season to come. Oaks turned in 128 1/3 innings of 3.23 ERA ball at Triple-A last year after he was acquired in last winter’s Scott Alexander swap. He managed only 4.9 K/9 with 3.1 BB/9 on the year, though did post a 50.2% groundball rate (which actually lags his well-above-average minor-league career groundball numbers). Oaks also made a brief MLB debut in 2018. As Dodd explains, it didn’t seem likely that he’d crack the active roster to open the coming campaign. Nevertheless, the loss would dent the Royals’ rotation depth.
I think we’re gonna see Dansby break out this year. Not gonna hit .300 with 30 HRs but .275 with 20 seems within reach. I’d take that from my SS.
it’s gonnnna rain… (eeyore voice)…
Don’t quit your day job chief.
lol Chief, will do Guy.
Thanks for the advice Bud…what’s another one? oh yeah….talk at ya later Bro….Any others?
If he can hit in the .260s and provide HRs in the mid to upper teens range while still providing outstanding defense and and great hustle, I will be excited. I love the way he plays the game.
swan will be a bust…mark my word
Which word?
Based on?
Dude its not 2016…not really predicting anything we haven’t seen.
Alex freak8ng Bregman was the #2 pick lol
I totally agree. The guy is an absolute stud. He will be among the best all around SS in the NL very very soon. And I hate the Braves.
Come on’ Swanson, let’s go and good luck!!!
Swim… Swammy… Swanson?
Swanson is not going to lose a spot to Camargo. Swanson was doing just fine last year until he got hurt and tried to play through it.
He’ll be a solid offensive SS and a great defensive one.
I didn’t say “lose a spot.” I said he “could face pressure from” Camargo.
My view is Swanson could ultimately cede some playing time if he continues to struggle at the plate and Camargo needs a place to slot in the lineup more consistently. Evidently you know more than I do about the future.
^mic drop…boom
I know Swanson is a superior defender and is going to be rolled out there, regardless of what Camargo does.
If Atlanta really held stock in Camargo as an every day player, they wouldn’t have spent $23m on Donaldson.
MLBTR has shat on the Braves and Swanson for the last year. Accusing them of not trying win bc they didn’t blow a seasons budget by 11/23/18 and continuing to dress down Swanson’s superior defense in favor of a super-utility role player. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad Camargo is a Brave, but he’s more easily replaceable than Swanson.
What does “face pressure” mean if it doesn’t mean being replaced by Camargo?
We have been telling incredulous Braves fans that Camargo isn’t likely an everyday guy for years, actually.
“Face pressure” means Dansby could cede playing time, especially against right-handed pitching. Really, I’m not sure why “could face pressure” would be seen as anything but an obvious possibility.
Camargo is an interesting utility player. I gather Dansby is seen by the Braves as the superior defender at short (metrics love him and I certainly have no reason to dispute that), but it’s also true that projection systems rather strongly expect Camargo to be a superior hitter based upon his clearly superior track record to this point.
Is Dansby really comparably irreplaceable? Compare Jose Iglesias’s 2018 season and compare it to Swanson’s. Iglesias is a magical defender who topped Swanson with the bat last year … and just got a minor league deal. Perhaps Dansby still has a ceiling to reach with the bat, but he’s already 25 and his reasonably anticipated profile is useful, not special.
Frankly, the two look like a really good platoon match. Not sure why you view that as dressing down a certain player or suggesting one would replace the other. There’s no either/or.
What’s the reason(s) why the Atlanta Braves have lost 11 of their last 12 postseason series? I know it has nothing to do with this Dansby/Camargo topic but I’d like an outsider’s opinion.
Nice one Jeff! Lol
Just fine until he got hurt? So he had a good few weeks? Sorry, not buying that BS with his wrist. Management will come up with 20 million reasons why something failed. “He’s been hurt for 6 months…this time, he’ll be better…” yeah right. Johan > Craphead Dansby
Nelson is done. Can’t believe they signed him for $3.7M for 2019 after labrum surgery last year. And now having problems again.
Exactly. Most people have no idea just how brutal that surgery is for pitchers in particular. Once you’re older than around 16-18 it gets exponentially worse. Add rotator issues with it and anyone believing Nelson will be a anything but a shell of himself is chasing unicorns.
I’ve been holding out hope that he could beat the long odds, but this is definitely not looking good. All reports had been positive during the off-season, so there’s a chance that this is just a hiccup in the recovery process. Having a healthy Nelson would be exactly what this staff needs…I’m keeping my fingers crossed
the is the first time in years we’ve said this as Braves fans in a long time…the offense and position players are not the main concern. Starting pitching and bullpen are the concerns
I’ve been clamoring for offense thru all the rebuild and salary dumps and we actually have it now…but dont have the other parts which no team is perfect
I wouldn’t say starting pitching is a concern. It’s just a young rotation. I think Folty and Newk progress a bit, Gausman and Teheran give their norm, and the 5th spot goes to Touki unless he can’t halt the walks. There’s so much upside and depth that even without a true across, the staff is solid.
Out of all the guys in the rotation Gausman is the one I’m most looking forward to seeing this season. I tried to catch every one of his starts after the trade and really liked what I saw in him.
I totally agree. I would say our bullpen is the biggest concern. I felt like most games where a concern after our starting pitching was done last year. Sure, SP can be improved but there is a lot of potential there that you can see improving. But that bullpen is rough
I agree with all that. We better hope the starters last more than 5 innings this year unlike last cause we didn’t do a thing to improve the pen. Hopefully O’day helps but I never seen him pitch. I’m not a big fan of letting some of these young arms try out as starter then just throwing them in the pen if dosen’t work out, doesn’t seem to work most times but I could be wrong.
I like Johan Camargo ove Dansby Swanson but Cargo is likely super sub.
I would think Odubel Herrera wont get traded over Williams or Altherr.
Oaks having hip surgery doesn’t mean much especially since he’s 10th on my KCR SP depth chart.
Hip surgery probably means quite a bit to Master Oaks.
If Dansby can be league average at the plate, I’ll take it. I don’t think he’ll ever be the star people thought he could be during his prospect days, but he has Brandon Crawford-level potential which is a darn good (occasional All-Star) shortstop.
Without the walk rate of Crawford, maybe
Coming up, everyone thought Swanson was more bat than glove. So far, he has proven the opposite.
Eh, he showed a lot last year before playing with the injury. He’ll do just fine. But his D has picked up.
You can thank Ron Washington for a lot of the improvements.
As a brewers fan I’d like to see us sign Gio to a 2 year deal. He’s a perfect long reliever and can be that emergency starter if Nelson isn’t ready or reinjures his arm.
If Nelson isn’t ready to go I think they have an acceptable candidate in one of the young guys. Woodruff, Peralta, and burnes won’t all make the rotation when camps breaks. they can just shuffle one in and get about the same production out of them that gio would give them
Ready to go? How about changing the actual narrative on Nelson to “ever pitching at the MLB level again”. Stop wishing against reality.
@twentyforty
Dude, you are the most consistently negative commenter I have ever heard. You’re a Cubs fan, if I remember correctly, but for some reason you hunt out all Brewer articles and make doomsday predictions/guarantees and negative remarks about anything and everything related to the team. I remember all last offseason about how constantly ripped the Brewers, saying they were going to flop with that pitching staff how could they be so stupid for not signing Arietta. Now you apparently went out this offseason and got your PhD, then somehow gained direct knowledge of Nelson’s medicals. Just what exactly is your beef with the Brewers and/or the City of Milwaukee?
I think even without Nelson were still sitting ok I believe Brown, Houser, and Derby can help fill in as starters. Anything from Nelson this year is a plus. Ashby could be this years Peralta. I hope our main goal right now is finding homes for Anderson and Thames before opening day but then again I like Anderson attitude so far this year
I think Anderson can right the ship. thames just doesn’t have a spot in the lineup anymore.
Chacin, Anderson and Burnes are almost assuredly locks for the rotation. That still leaves Davies, Peralta, Woodruff and possibly even Tomlin to fill out the last two spots.
Brown might still need some development. Houser and Derby? Seriously?
Yeah Houser and Derby . Houser is a good reliever for us and in the second half last year he switched to starting and was successful there too. I’m not asking 30 starts I’m asking 10 total for both of them at the max if at all. The Brewers do have a couple of pitchers coming back from injuries that put up some nice numbers last year but as most of us know it doesn’t take much for the baseball world to completely forget about you. Bickford, Devin Williams, and Nathan Kirby could very well help this team out this year like Taylor Williams did two years ago .
Man, they have six #3-4 SPs.
If Swanson has a poor season it can be blamed on his wrist.