Third baseman Anthony Rendon departed the Nationals’ loss to the Marlins on Saturday after taking a 95 mph Jose Urena fastball off the left elbow. Fortunately for Rendon and the Nationals, X-rays came back negative, Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post tweets. It’s unclear whether Rendon will avoid the injured list, though, as manager Dave Martinez said the Nats will reevaluate the 28-year-old Sunday morning. An IL stint would be another unlucky development for the Nationals, who are already missing injured shortstop Trea Turner along the left side of their infield. They’ve gone just 9-10 thanks in part to Turner’s absence, though Rendon has tried his best to lift the team with an all-world showing thus far. Rendon’s consistently great output in Washington may help him land a contract extension.
- A hamstring injury forced Cubs left-hander Jon Lester to the IL on April 9, though it appears the well-respected hurler is nearing a return. The Cubs could activate Lester during their upcoming series against the Dodgers, which runs from Tuesday to Thursday, the Associated Press relays. The 35-year-old looked “very good” during a 45-pitch sim game Saturday, according to manager Joe Maddon. The Maddon-led Cubs haven’t needed a replacement starter since Lester went down, instead relying on Cole Hamels, Kyle Hendricks, Jose Quintana and the struggling Yu Darvish, but that will change Sunday when Tyler Chatwood takes the ball against Arizona. Chatwood fell on his face as a starter during a walk-happy 2018, the first season of a three-year, $38MM contract, and has continued to exhibit control problems as a reliever this season.
- The Orioles brought righty Alex Cobb off the IL on Saturday to make his first start since a right lumbar strain sent him to the shelf on April 6. In hindsight, the Orioles probably wish they’d have started someone else. Cobb endured one of the worst outings in his career in a loss to the Twins, who thrashed him for nine earned runs on 10 hits and three homers in 2 2/3 frames. It continued a subpar Orioles tenure for Cobb, now in the second season of a four-year, $57MM contract. The rebuilding Orioles would likely jump at the chance to deal him, but Cobb’s ongoing woes won’t make it easy to find a taker.
- The Angels are off to a dreary start, in part because their rotation is banged up yet again. Oft-injured starters Tyler Skaggs, Andrew Heaney and Nick Tropeano are making progress, though, per reports from Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register and Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. Skaggs, on the IL since April 15 because of a left ankle sprain, enjoyed a productive bullpen session Saturday and may return as early as Tuesday. Heaney’s still a ways off because of elbow issues, though he could get back on a mound within the next week, Fletcher writes, and manager Brad Ausmus said Saturday his rehab has been “all positive so far.” Tropeano, who’s on the mend from a right shoulder strain, threw a four-inning sim game Saturday and is nearing activation. The Angels will option Tropeano to Triple-A Salt Lake when he does exit the IL, Bollinger suggests.
Skaggs and Heaney are so injury prone it’s hard to be excited about them coming back. Hopefully they can stay healthy.
Is anyone surprised by all those injuries to the Angels’ pitchers? Most of them have been back and forth between injuries after injuries. If they ever want to contend they will have to get more quality and quantity of pitchers because they have zero hope of reaching the Playoffs with the pitchers on their roster. Seriously it has been their problem for YEARS.
It takes a long time to home cook a new crop of propsects especially post JeDi. I think the Angels are doing the best with what they have. All the top teams have majority home grown talent and its a huge reason Epplers (minus for simmonds) has been reluctant to sell prospects.
And Simmons’ historic glove, youth, and control at the time were the selling points
Agreed on the trading prospects part. But they can sign free agents! While Arte keeps talking about it isn’t about the luxury tax they don’t go hard enough after the top quality pitchers and end up with the mediocre pitching staff.
Urena loves taking out a team’s best hitter with a mid-90s fastball to the elbow. Lookin forward to seeing you soon, Jose.
I bet they skip him every single time they face the Braves this season.
I bet they won’t. Using your logic, Acuña, Harper, & Alonso better be ready.
I feel like the angels have been in a tough spot it seems like they want to both rebuild and try to stay competitive for trout and the fans I feel like the angels should rebuild and start selling off anyone they canter
The injury bug started when they signed Josh Hamilton imo
Knew Cobb contract likely bad, but didn’t know this soon.
Ubaldo 2.0
The Cubs have been treading water at 9-10. The Pirates aren’t for real leading the division, the Cardinals pitching is being proven thin, and the Brewers can’t slug their way out of everything. In the end the Cubs will be the last one standing to win the division.
I have no dog in this hunt but the Cubs are a 3rd place team in that division.
Hence my treading water. If you think that the Cardinals are better you’re seriously misinformed, and haven’t been watching the games. Plus the brutal schedule the Cubs had to endure at the beginning of the season is a big part of the way they started.
I have no reason to deviate from my original prediction at the beginning of the season and that is the Cubs finish 3rd (Cards, Brewers, Cubs) It will end up between the Cards and Brewers for the division as the Cubs finish 8 games out with a record of 82 and 80.
Angels dreadful start due in part to poor pitching health, yet again, and frankly they are just not very good. Beyond Trout and Simmons, hello?
David Fletcher is pretty nice.
Unproven commodity and clearly not enough to seriously compete. Not sure what Eppler was smoking, but the addition of Cahill and Harvey were hardly game changers.
Harvey’s cooked!
David722, you are 100% correct. The Angels are just not good.
Just don’t tell Angel clown that.
The Angels pitching…. injuries or no injuries it just not good.
I’m as big an Angels fan as anyone else. I don’t blame Eppler but do Arte. The last few years the Angels have been paying the price for HIS free agent mistakes plus his keeping the payroll at the 160 million range. Using the we will add if in contention in August.
Well with Albert’s dead wieght contract they need to be in the 190 million range to content and be deep enough. One or two players don’t win championships in baseball.
Time to man up Arte and pay for your many mistakes.
SHOULD HAVE TRADED TROUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why?
The best def SS in the game the best CF in the game and the worst pitching staff
Actually the bull pen is one of the best in the league. 4 starters are on the IL, 3 of which will be back over the next few days to weeks. Getting them back should help the rotation.
Horrible Cobb contract. Nobody is going to want to deal for him.
cut Heaney
cut Skaggs
cut Tropeano
cut these pitchers who can’t hang.
tired of them.