We checked in on a couple injured Pirates a few hours ago. Here’s the latest on more banged-up Bucs from their director of sports medicine, Todd Tomczyk (courtesy of Adam Berry of MLB.com):
- The Pirates signed outfielder Lonnie Chisenhall to a one-year, $2.75MM deal in the offseason, but he hasn’t played yet and it doesn’t appear he will anytime soon. Chisenhall’s still at home mending from left calf tightness. The 30-year-old opened the season on the injured list because of a finger issue, and not long after he started a rehab assignment April 19, the team shut him down because of the calf problem. The same calf prevented Chisenhall from playing past July 1 last year – his final season with the Indians.
- Catcher Francisco Cervelli, out since May 26 with a concussion, will be reexamined by a neurologist on Thursday. He still hasn’t been cleared for workouts. Cervelli’s season got off to a poor start even before his latest concussion-caused absence, while fellow Pirates backstops Elias Diaz and Jacob Stallings have also posted subpar aggregate production. Diaz has hit well over the past month, though.
- While Reliever Keone Kela hasn’t taken a major league mound since May 4, he could start throwing again Thursday or Friday. Kela had gone on a rehab stint toward the end of last month, but the Pirates halted it May 31 after he suffered a setback in his injured right shoulder. A headline-grabbing acquisition for the Pirates last summer, the 26-year-old Kela has struggled to a 4.63 ERA/5.63 FIP with 8.49 K/9, 3.09 BB/9 and a 37.1 percent groundball rate in 11 2/3 innings this season.
- One of Keone’s fellow righty relievers, Nick Burdi, has returned to throwing. However, he’s still dealing with symptoms from the nerve injury that forced him to the IL almost two months ago. Burdi incurred his injury April 22 in his most recent outing. The flamethrowing 26-year-old had begun the season in encouraging fashion prior to that night, when he allowed five earned runs in a third of an inning and saw his ERA go from 4.32 to 9.35. Although an ERA that ugly is hard to ignore, it’s worth noting Burdi has put up a stellar 17:3 K:BB ratio in 8 2/3 innings this season.
I thought that the dot in the i in Budweiser was the ball
lol me too
LMFAOOOOO
The Chisenhall signing was one of the strangest moves of the offseason. The Pirates really didn’t need an outfielder, have serious budget restraints (or claim to at least) and he is almost always hurt. Their GM makes a lot of head scratching moves. They should move on.
haha. Their GM has done a great job, considering the payroll he is working with. Chisenhall was cheap, and was only supposed to play until Polanco got back. The Kela and Archer deals weren’t head scratchers until hindsight. They have been the bad outliers in this. Most of Huntington’s head scratching moves have actually worked out. (Dickerson, Lyles, Liriano, Burnett, Melky, Nova (kind of), JA Happ, etc.)
I wouldn’t say a great job. Probably a decent job with signing or trading for reclamation projects. The drafting and developing have been fairly poor. The Archer trade has set the team back significantly.
The Archer trade was a head scratcher immediately
It was simply a win now move. Huntington needed to do something to raise the morale of the clubhouse and get fans to come back to the ballpark because the Cole and McCutxhen trades upset them.
Unfortunately, it’s backfired
They went from an empty ballpark to a sellout for Archers first start after the trade. It was well recieved at the time. Unfortunately not so much now
At least part of Archer’s problem is the fact that the pitching coaches are having him throw his awful sinker way more often than he used to. It doesn’t help that he can’t hit the strike zone, but every time he throws the sinker, it ends up in the left field stands. Pitchers like Glasnow and Archer aren’t sinker ballers, they need to be let loose. Glasnow dropped it once he got to Tampa, and it’s done him a lot of good.
That’s true of Glasnow, but Archer is simply done. He’s lost velocity and command and hasn’t been better than 4 ERA for four straight seasons. This was entirely predictable, and NH knew it. He gave into the yinzers and should lose his job for it. Unbelievably imbecilic trade.
Wrong. Huntington should’ve rebuilt with real prospects instead of below-avg mlb players.
He turned down Giolito & Reynaldo for Cutch, then desperately tried to solve starting pitching by trading house for Archer.
No direction at all. Just looping to .500 on repeat and underachieving when he was handed a WS capable team in 2011
Archers first game was not a sell out.
Was a Wednesday with plenty of open seats.
Huntington started with the team in 2007 not 2011.
How did the Archer trade “set them back significantly.” Meadows was the 4th OF last year & still would be this year; besides, Reynolds is pretty much the same. Glasnow may have done well this year, maybe not. Glad he’s doing well in the American League, maybe that’s it. But he was terrible at Pittsburgh. Archer isn’t great, but he’s a starter; one of two not on the IL.
He’s a starter with a 5.79 ERA. If the Pirates wanted someone to go out and throw a 5.79 ERA, they could have kept Ivan Nova, or signed Clay Buchholz, Michael Pineda, or Jorge de la Rosa. You don’t trade away three top prospects, including two with star potential, for a pitcher performing below replacement level. It’s a massive set back. Regardless of how those two might have performed, they are still top prospects, and it was a dumb trade.
I think they signed him because Gregory Polanco was going to miss the first month of the season and they needed an extra corner outfielder. They weren’t banking on a Melky Cabrera resurgence and Bryan Reynolds to this good.
Huntington has made a lot of great moves as GM. He operates winder the parameters of his budget, but he’s made a lot of moves that lead to the Pirates resurgence in 2012. I encourage you to look them up
Weren’t banking on Reynolds, yet takes all the credit for bringing him in..
Total joke of a GM.
If not the GM who traded for Reynolds, put him on the active roster and recalled him to the MLB team…who exactly should get “all the credit for bringing him in…”?
He didn’t do anything to help them in 2010-2012 era.. slowly let everyone leave for minimal return.
Never got a competent RF besides a quarter year of Byrd. Brought in washed up guys like Burnett and Liriano who worked out by weren’t clever additions by any means.
Name one prime star he’s added in the past decade that wasn’t drafted .. I’ll wait…
If signing overpriced stars to contracts based on past performance is the sign of a good GM then anyone can do the job.
Huntington has found some real gems dumpster diving and helped to develop or revamp them into good players. He has also generally done well in trades (obvious exception would be the Archer trade), in the draft, and in the international market. Consider the state of the team prior to him joining them versus where they are now and have been during his tenure.
Felipe Vazquez.
I feel bad for Chisenhall… in 2016 he started to figure things out at the plate and then the calf issues started. It looks like he won’t be able to shake the issues and he will be yet another Indians first round pick that didn’t live up to expectations.
I was intrigued to see what he could do in Pittsburgh. I know he’s taken a lot of grief for his inability to stay healthy, but if he could have been able to play to start the season he would have had a nice chance to showcase himself, either for the Pirates or as future trade bait. It didn’t happen and now with the logjam of talent in the Pirate outfield it likely won’t happen regardless of when he heals.
Hard to believe that 21st century sports medicine hasn’t been able to solve Chisenhall’s perpetual calf issues.
When you have minimal payroll and waste it on Chisenhal, yet get benefit of the doubt that you’re working under minimal payroll..
Could’ve spent that money on Adam Jones or Tim Beckham.
Because their 0.3 bWAR and 0.4 bWAR respectively are game changers
If Chisenhall comes back, he might have to play a lot of third base versus lefties