The Nationals announced today that righty Jeremy Hellickson has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a shoulder strain. His active roster spot will go to the recently claimed Javy Guerra.
It’s not entirely surprising to see some kind of move on Hellickson, who has endured a miserable start to the season. The 32-year-old has overseen a sudden walk spike, issuing twenty in 39 innings, while dropping a tick on his average fastball and turning in a personal-low 6.0% swinging-strike rate.
Unsurprisingly, the results haven’t been there. Hellickson has a 6.23 ERA that is more or less supported by ERA estimators. The one bright spot is a strong 27.3% soft-contact rate, though that’s more than offset by the fact that Hellickson has already coughed up nine long balls.
Hellickson joins Anibal Sanchez on the injured list, leaving the Nats in a bit of a bind. Erick Fedde is taking the ball tonight; the club will need to find another option to replace Hellickson on Friday. Kyle McGowin and Austin Voth appear the two likeliest candidates.
Notably, Hellickson’s contract contains a hefty incentives package tied directly to the number of games he starts. He has already racked up $600K in extra earnings. With his next start, Hellickson would take down another $200K. The deal maxes out at $4MM in incentives, which would be reached at thirty starts.
The Nats are in deep doo-doo. The relief corps is among the worst in the league, if not *the* worst, and there is no relief (no pun intended) in sight. Max Scherzer’s control and velocity is down a bit and he is looking very hittable this year. Strasburg is actually better than usual, and Corbin is still tough. Offensively, the young stars Soto and Robles are not getting it done, and they have had to rely on Zimmerman (out), Matt Adams (out), Howie Kendrick (35), Brian Dozier (under .200), Adam Eaton, and assorted retreads and prospects to generate any offense.
This figures more and more to be a sell situation for Mike Rizzo and the Nationals, who also must decide on whether to try to extend Anthony Rendon or trade him for prospects.
Hellickson going on DL is “ addition by subtraction “. Nats resemble “dead team walking”. Get ready for big July sell -off as Rendon will not be offered what he deserves by the Lerner’s Martinez gone by July 4th unless Lerners are too cheap to eat this buffoon of a mangers salary