5:32pm: Not so fast on Pina, who says he’ll require at least four weeks to recover from surgery and is hoping he’ll return if the Brewers make the playoffs (via Haudricourt).
4:21pm: Pina will undergo season-ending surgery, manager Craig Counsell told Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other reporters.
3:31pm: The Brewers announced that they’ve designated right-hander Justin Grimm for assignment and placed catcher Manny Pina on the 10-day injured list due to a torn meniscus in his right knee. Pina sustained the injury on a pickoff play last night, MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy tweets. Catcher Jacob Nottingham has been recalled from the alternate training site to replace Pina on the active roster.
Grimm, 32, has appeared in four games for the Brewers this year but surrendered multiple runs in three of those appearances. He’s been tagged for nine runs on nine hits (four homers) and four walks with six punchouts in 4 2/3 frames. Although he was once a quality relief option with the division-rival Cubs — 3.36 ERA and 3.20 FIP in 171 innings from 2014-16 — Grimm has seen his results decline precipitously since that stretch. He’s logged 77 1/3 innings in the Majors over the past four seasons and struggled to an alarming 7.33 ERA.
As for Pina, it’s a tough blow for the Brewers and the 33-year-old backstop alike. He’s out to a .231/.333/.410 slash to begin the season — solid production for any catcher, let alone a backup — but will now likely miss the remainder of the year. Even speedy recoveries from a meniscus tear can take a month, and for a catcher, any knee issue carries additional difficulty. Pina has been the Brewers’ backup catcher dating back to 2017, providing solid glovework and respectable OBP skills and pop for a reserve catcher. Since 2017, he’s a .257/.317/.411 hitter.
Nottingham has gotten brief looks in each of the past two seasons — nine games apiece — and will now step in as the primary backup to Omar Narvaez. He’s a .231/.355/.385 hitter in 31 MLB plate appearances and a .250/.326/.421 hitter in 528 PAs at the Triple-A level.
Piña was their primary catcher in 2017 and 2018, not a backup until Grandal last year.
I thought the same, or co-starter with Vogt. Primary but backup/2nd string on the depth chart
You are a one trick pony buy at least your correction is baseball related.
*but
i think of justin grimm as somewhat good but there has only been two or maybe three years where he’s been an acceptable major league reliever
It’s a Grimm day…
Oh, brother…..
May we interest you in a Jason Castro?
Sucks to type that I’d wanted Castro on the Angels for a while. But, a lefty with decent pop and walk rate is nice to have behind the plate, even off the bench, for a playoff run.
Omar is a Lefty, were good.
I had hoped the Brewer’s would do better this year but what are you going to do when one of the two best players in baseball has a slow start? There’s no replacing his production. You just ride with him until he gets out of it. I imagane there are other reasons but that is the one that stands out the most.
I wonder why they went DFA and 10, instead of no DFA and 45.
There comes a point when a guy shouldn’t be on major league rosters. If you have as poor as results as Grimm, why is he getting major league work? Especially from a half decent team. Needs to be AAA fodder.
It would only make sense if he was a lefty. He really should have been out of baseball 2 or 3 years ago. Seriously can’t remember the last time he made an appearance without being lit up to some extent.
The life of a lefty pitcher is amazing to me. I love the fact that as a Pirates fan, Zach Duke and Oliver Perez are still pitching. I seen their potential and ultimately struggles and they’re damn near 40.
Now it sucks for Pina absolutely but now let’s give Nottingham his fair share of at bats as a catcher and firstbase. Find out what we got in him. Yes im going to say it. Its time to go with Erceg, Ray, and Taylor too.
So you’re ready to begin tanking and by making their offense even worse than it already is?
Btw even with an offense ranked in the bottom 10 the Brewers are only on game out of the playoffs.
No not ready to tank at all but I’m not ready to go and sacrifice having some very good players for the next 5 to 6 years. A lot of people last year felt we didn’t have much good pitching and were ready to run Burnes, Peralta and others. They didn’t panic and walk away from them. Now look at it. There are a lot of teams that would die to have Woodruff, Burnes, Houser, and probably Peralta at the top of there rotation for the next 4 yrs. The guys I mentioned aren’t in our future plans that I think they should cut but the ones that we should bring up could very well be another Grisham if given an opportunity.
Man that was tough to read at the end there. You have a stroke?
No my wife telling me I spend too much time thinking about and following the Brewers lol