Veteran righty Pat Neshek has undergone surgery to repair his injured right hamstring, Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports on Twitter. Neshek had been weighing a procedure against other potential courses of action.
Obviously, this news means that the hurler isn’t going to return to the field of play in 2019. It’s all but certain he won’t be back with the Phillies next year, at least not under his existing contract. The club will surely pay him a $750K buyout rather than picking up an option at $7MM.
Whether Neshek will attempt to work back and continue pitching remains to be seen. He doesn’t have anything to prove after 13 productive years in the majors, even if this last campaign did not go according to plan. But the crafty hurler would be sure to find an opportunity to compete for a job in camp if he’s interested.
This was Neshek’s worst campaign in quite some time. He ended up with a 5.00 ERA over 18 innings with just nine strikeouts and five home runs allowed. But he had been on an extended run of productivity before that, including an injury-shortened ’18 effort in Philadelphia in which he pitched to a 2.59 ERA over 24 1/3 innings.
In other Philly bullpen news, the club is seeing progress from righties Juan Nicasio and Seranthony Dominguez, though it still seems that any contributions will come quite late (if at all). The former got back on the bump today while the latter is ten days out from his first work from the hill. Though Nicasio is slated to reach free agency at season’s end, Dominguez could be an important part of the 2020 Phillies relief corps if he can continue to make progress with his elbow health.
The guy has some amazing career numbers. Someone should take a chance on him next year.