The Rays announced Monday that they’ve placed second baseman Joey Wendle on the 10-day injured list due to a strained left hamstring and recalled Christian Arroyo from Triple-A Durham in his place. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, who first reported the moves, tweets that Wendle has a “moderate” strain that the player himself described as “not too, too bad.” Wendle won’t know how long he’s going to be shelved until he tests the injured leg in a few days’ time, though. The 28-year-old Wendle finished fourth in AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2018 after hitting .300/.354/.435 with seven homers, 33 doubles, six triples and 16 stolen bases. The Tampa Bay infield has plenty of depth between Brandon Lowe, Daniel Robertson and the newly recalled Arroyo, though Wendle was quietly one of the team’s better all-around players in 2018.
A bit more from the division…
- The Blue Jays announced that they’ve put lefty Clayton Richard on the 10-day IL due to a stress reaction in his left knee. In a corresponding move, right-hander Sean Reid-Foley has been recalled from Triple-A and will start tonight’s game for Toronto. The Jays didn’t provide a timeline for Richard’s return, but a stress reaction has the potential to keep him sidelined for a substantial period. In Reid-Foley, Toronto will be getting another look at one of its more promising young arms; the 23-year-old was the team’s second-round pick back in 2014 and pitched to a combined 3.26 ERA with 10.5 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9 in 129 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A last season.
- Beyond that move, the Jays revealed a wide-ranging series of medical updates Monday afternoon. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. began taking some at-bats in extended Spring Training games this weekend, tweets Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. He’ll still need to get back into his routine at third base and play in some rehab games before he emerges as an option at the MLB level. TSN’s Scott Mitchell tweets that Clay Buchholz will throw tomorrow and could start for Triple-A Buffalo on April 7, which signals that the veteran righty is on track to join his new club sooner rather than later. Ryan Tepera and Ryan Borucki are throwing ’pen sessions, meanwhile, and could return by month’s end. Bud Norris’ timeline is less concrete, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. Norris is still throwing in the 90-91 mph range — well south of his usual mid-90s heat. He did get a late start by signing in mid-March, so he’ll continue to build up arm strength without a set return date in focus just yet.
- David O’Brien of The Athletic tweets that the Braves plan to active southpaw A.J. Minter on Thursday — the first day he’s eligible. (Minter’s IL stint was backdated the maximum three days at the start of the season.) Mike Foltynewicz could join the rotation as soon as April 14 after making a pair of rehab outings, O’Brien adds. Right-hander Darren O’Day, unfortunately, is shutting down for a “couple weeks” due to ongoing forearm issues. Given that update, it seems as though it’ll be tough for the veteran O’Day to be ready before month’s end. O’Day missed the majority of the 2018 season due to a hyperextended elbow.
God so many injuries
It’s league-wide and seems to get worse every year.
Fangraphs and Rotoworld have some interesting numbers on this…. The total # of days spent on the DL varies widely by year, but it has definitely gone up this decade.
2002 – 2010, the average is about 20,000.
2010: 22,911
2012: 30,408
2014: 25,839
2016: 31,229
2018: 33,591
Some of it can be chalked up to the increases in Tommy John surgery…. but the reality is that the average pitch speed has gone up. Before 2000, less than 50% of pitchers threw a fastball over 90. Now it’s 80%.
I love a good hard fastball as much as the next guy, but you can’t tell me that pitchers and position players alike aren’t pushing themselves a lot harder than they used to, either in order to throw that hard, or in order to catch up to that kind of heat.
Some of the bump in 2018 is probably teams gaming the new 10-day system to rest players while missing minimal time. The Dodgers were highlighted for doing this but I’m sure other teams took advantage as well.
I would also say that a big part of it is an increase in injury prevention/awareness. If a pitcher today says his shoulder is sore it’s an automatic trip to the dl as a precaution where as even as little as 5-10 years ago teams weren’t as cautious and might have you throw 2 or 3 more games just to see if it gets worse.
They didn’t even put on here yet Jacob deGrom will need Tommy John surgery…
April Fool’s
so O’day missed 2018 because of a hyperextended elbow?! I thought it was because of a torn hamstring? Plus this recent delay was because of a hand problem wasn’t it where did forearm come from?! Seems no one knows what truly going on and safe to assume O’day wont be contributing to the bullpen any time soon cause we sure need it smh….
nvm, it was reported last it was his forearm not his hand. But why were we told torn hamstring last year, hyperextended elbow is completely new is it not?!
I love it when people say help is on the way. Minter is not great. Folty walks/goes 5 innings, no different from any other pitcher on this team. Gausman is average. All their rookie pitchers have proven nothing other than they can not be relied on.
This team is FAR from being a good team. The entire pitching staff, including the rotation needs an overhaul.
AND no Kimbrel will not save them. This is not basketball, where one person can win you games.
Ted Turner is on the way!
Honestly, the only thing that keeping me sane is that this negativity will either,
1. Force LM to sell the team
2. Force them to act and spend money
Getting swept only enhances the chances of something coming sooner.
I was having a bad day and in need of a good laugh. Thank for you posting today sir.
I like number 1, thank God it’s the cubs and not the Mets or Nats right now.. Not saying we will be beat them but getting swept again by a divisional foe would really put this failed offseason under a bigger microscope..
It’s one thing being negative and another being a realist, stay the course and good things will come “hopefully”. Mediocrity is not an option once “the rebuild” is supposed to be close to being completed and thinking we could shop an every aisle..
Realmuto, Harper, and Corbin while Segura and McCuthen were BIG TIME icings on the cake in terms of lengthening that lineup and defense!
From a Braves fan, major kudos to them! They knew what it would take and went after it for everybody involved..
From anyone with a brain this off season was horrible, but it will not cause a riot and it will not change anything. Casual fans don’t even remember that we won the division last year. Most are happy to see Nick back
If you don’t call a Foltynewicz, whom finished 8th in CY voting, a “help” to a pitching staff, I’m sure every other team in baseball would be happy to have him.
Perfect. Trade him while his value is at its highest!
Your user name is fitting. Keep crying that the sky is falling, it never gets old since nobody here puts any worth on what you say.
This ESPN crew can’t quit bickering with each other all nite so they keep going to other games commentary…
I understand the Braves Cubs game is blowout, but they’re going to these other games at top of the innings even..
It’s fine if you want to show the other games split-screen, but IMHO they shouldn’t be switching commentary unless it’s down to a walk-off..
Time to switch to fsso and let frenchy’s lullaby. (It’s just not the same without Joe, but I’ve listened to him 120 games a year for so long..)
So negative! These same “horrible” pitchers the Braves won with last year.
Braves are a total @^%t show. Worst offseason by any team since the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth. Won’t hear anything negative about them on MLB on SiriusXM. Liberty Media owns the Braves and 2/3 of Sirius.
They had a bad offseason but that’s a bit of a stretch. I think it was worse a few years ago when we got rid of a playoff team for prospects.
#fireAA.
So glad we spent $9 mil on O’Day in that trade.
Has Donaldson hit the ball out of the infield yet? He’s so late on everything it’s sad. Awesome that we benched Camargo for this.
AA is literally a one man wrecking crew. At least Wren and Coppy tried to cheat to make the Braves better.
Speaking as a Toronto baseball fan, I dearly hope AA has learned the importance of developing position players in the last few years. The only everyday major-leaguer that came up through the seven years of the Anthopolous-led Jays farm system is Kevin Pillar. That’s -it-.
That is what happens when you primarily draft pitchers.
Exactly, make your fan base wait for 5-7 years to hype them up like Jojo Reyes, Kyle Davies, Tommy Hanson (god rest his soul), jair jurrjens, Teheran, and watch them fan out or become number 3 or 4’s at best..
Last time I remember taking top talent position players were Heyward at #7 and then Braxton Davidson more recently..
Long story short, the domestic drafting dept is counting on you soroka, Wilson, Anderson and wright more than ever!
Other than Sanchez, Stroman, Guerrero! But that’s it.
Sanchez and Stroman are not position players. Guerrero has yet to play a major league game. That was Warren’s point. Nice try Max.
Oh come on, Max. Sanchez and Stroman aren’t even position players.
Vladdy Jr was the #1 international prospect in 2015, signing him at 16 is an easy decision for any team to make….. that doesn’t count as “developing”.
You got Gausman for free and you’re complaining about O’day’s salary?
I didnt like trading joey wendle trade but lowtie was coming off a great season and wendle wouldve been back in AAA at age 26/27 stuck there. Hopefully the catching prospect they got in jonah heim at least could be a decent backup type
The Rays have solid infield depth, with Arroyo, Solak and Fox, tho they’re more offensively oriented. Wendle showed outstanding defensive capabilities last year, and in an IF that’s defensively shaky, that hurts. But it looks minimal, and they should be able to outlast it.
Span Jackson Keuchel Kimbrel May be getting jobs soon
Let’s hope Sean Reid Foley can get some good coaching. He can be really good if he gets some decent coaching. Right now he often has no idea where the ball is going after it leaves his hand.