Checking in on the latest notable injury news from the National League…
- Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon finally earned his first All-Star nod this season, but the 29-year-old is going to miss the game, as Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com was among those to tweet. Rendon will instead rest his ailing hamstring and quad, two areas that have nagged him since the Nationals’ series against the Reds from May 31 to June 2. Despite having to play through pain over the past month-plus, Rendon’s performance has remained stellar for the surging Nats. He’s hitting .304/.389/.615 (152 wRC+) with 20 home runs through 316 plate appearances.
- The Dodgers offered updates on a slew of injured players today, with Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register among those covering the news (all links to Twitter). Backstop Will Smith and righty Tony Gonsolin, present depth pieces with bright long-term outlooks, are each headed to the injured list. The former has a strained right oblique and will be placed on the MLB IL, having not played since being sent down. The latter is dealing with a left hamstring issue and will go on ice for a stretch to avoid any complications. Meanwhile, the club is awaiting the returns of infielders David Freese and Corey Seager. The former is just waiting for his hamstring to heal up; he’ll seemingly remain out through the All-Star break. The latter is also not a candidate for activation before the mid-summer festivities but could rejoin the club immediately thereafter.
- Pirates southpaw Steven Brault exited his start against the Brewers on Friday with an ominous-sounding issue – left shoulder discomfort – per Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The severity of Brault’s injury isn’t known yet, but he’s not feeling great at the moment, Will Graves of The Associated Press tweets. Should Brault require a stint on the IL, he’d become the fifth notable Pittsburgh starter to go on the shelf this season. Jameson Taillon, Chris Archer, Trevor Williams and Jordan Lyles have all missed various amounts of time. The onslaught of starter injuries is a key reason the Pirates have turned to the swingman Brault, who has done a decent job over 60 2/3 innings. Across 15 appearances and nine starts, he owns a 4.15 ERA/4.53 FIP with 7.86 K/9, though he has walked a hefty 4.75 per nine.
Too bad about Will Smith. Guess Barnes will stay on the roster another few weeks. Send him packing !
They announced at the end of the Brewer broadcast tonight that Trevor Williams is not starting tomorrow as he is going on paternity leave. The Pirates are calling someone up from AAA.
trevor williams is likely out until after the break (non-injury) ant musgrove was out this season too.
The Chris Archer trade was, in fact, the worst thing to happen to the Pirates, but not for the obvious reasons.
Call it “The Curse of Tyler Glasnow”.
Michael Feliz is awful.
Clay Holmes is awful.
Dovydous Neverauskus is awful.
They all have great stuff. They all had a lot of success in the minors. And they are all garbage at the major league level. Just like Glasnow. And yet, NONE of them look as bad as Glasnow did here, he was worse and look what happened with him.
Glasnow leaving and becoming good after they gave up on him is bad.
NOT GIVING UP on guys like Holmes, Feliz and Neverauskaus because of The Ghost of Glasnow would be FAR worse.
How long should you let bad pitchers lose important games for you because they might be good one day?
If the Pirates bullpen was only half as bad as they’ve been this year, they are in first place right now, even with all of the other injuries.
Have to correct you in one thing FWTJBT……if Holmes is awful, and Feliz is awful and no disagreement here, then wouldn’t that make Neverauskus awful awful awful? He’s never, in my mind, actually done the job when called upon…..never. When he gets the call I know games basically over.
I did almost type the word “especially” in front of Neverauskaus’ “awful”. Then I thought, “is Feliz really any better?” and just stuck with awful. across the board.
Of the three, I have the most hope for Holmes figuring things out, but…
They should all be in AAA.
Grab any DFA (like Chris Stratton) you can find and give Searage a chance with them instead of running those 3 out again and again.
Right. Holmes has had a couple of decent outings. Feliz……maybe one or two. Neverout….still waiting. If their bullpen was anything they’d be in first with that offense.
Holmes and Feliz at least have some promise, and until Kela comes back and/or they acquire a reliever they might as well see what they can do with an actual chance. Never-outs-gets is toast though.
I’ve heard a few people say on the Fan today that Feliz has turned it around. Maybe he has, I gave up on him awhile back and haven’t paid attention.
If Feliz gives them something, plus Musgrove as a rotation fixture and Moran quietly on pace for a 20 HR, 80-100 RBI without even being a full time player….
Pretty good return for a guy with an ERA over 4 for consecutive seasons with only two years left on his deal.
Is Kela a free agent after this year or next? I guess it doesn’t matter, there probably isn’t time for him to ramp up enough to show something to be a trade chip even if he is a FA after this year.
They need to look really hard for the second coming of 2015 JA Happ, a guy everyone thinks is junk who they get for nothing and turn into something pretty good. 2016 Ivan Nova, even.
Or (just tossing out a name as an example, I haven’t paid enough attention to know if he’d be worth it) a young guy who hasn’t panned out and whose team has soured on him like Daniel Norris.
Kela is a FA after next year, and probably has more upside than any other readily available option that wouldn’t cost a significant prospect.
And yes, I fully believe that NH’s strength is finding undervalued guys, mainly pitchers, and that’s what they should do here. They should in no way sacrifice any major future pieces for this year’s team, but they also shouldn’t have last year either.
Good one! I like:
Never-ask-us (to pitch).
This is Rendon’s first all star selection? Wow, never would have guessed
Best player in MLB that no one knows about.
And thanks to the Nats being very hot he’s staying put at the deadline. I got a feeling they will ultimately get an extension worked out.
The Dodgers need Freese back. Pederson is not a good first baseman.
They are using the luxury of a big lead in the division to experiment with Pederson at first. He isn’t doing too badly considering this is normally something to be worked out in Spring Training. Not sure this will change a lot when Freese comes back since he isn’t exactly an every day player so it will probably turn into a platoon situation. First base has been weird for the Dodgers this year. It’s been manned by at least five players, off the top of my head.
I bet Shane Baez looks good for the Pirates right about now? All hail to our savior Chris Archer!
Baz is in A+ ball. He wouldn’t be much help to the Pirates. However, I DO share your Archer sentiment. Maybe he and Shelby Miller should send each other consoling notes.