The Dodgers have placed right-hander Brusdar Graterol on the 10-day injured list with forearm tightness, per a club announcement. To take Graterol’s roster spot, the Dodgers recalled righty Edwin Uceta.
A forearm issue is particularly unwelcome news regarding Graterol, who underwent Tommy John surgery as a Twins prospect in 2016 and also battled shoulder problems as a member of the organization. Minnesota bid adieu to the flamethrowing Graterol before last season, when it sent him to Los Angeles in a trade centering on righty Kenta Maeda.
Graterol emerged as an important part of the Dodgers’ bullpen during his first year with the organization. He totaled 23 1/3 innings of 3.09 ERA/3.70 SIERA pitching, and though his 99 mph fastball velocity only led to a 14.8 strikeout percentage, he offset that with elite groundball and walk percentages of 62.3 and 3.4, respectively. Graterol added another 7 2/3 innings of three-run ball during the Dodgers’ postseason run to the World Series.
Health setbacks have stood in the way this season for the 22-year-old Graterol, who opened the campaign on the IL after battling COVID-19. Graterol didn’t make his first appearance until April 18, and he has since allowed three earned runs on three hits with two walks and a strikeout over three outings and 1 1/3 frames. He’s now the third Dodgers reliever to land on the shelf in the past week, joining Corey Knebel and David Price.
The Dodgers will now get their first major league look at the 23-year-old Uceta, who divided the 2019 minors season between High-A and Double-A. Uceta thrived during that 123 1/3-inning span, in which he recorded a 2.77 ERA and racked up 141 strikeouts against 49 walks. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen ranked Uceta 35th among Dodgers farmhands over the winter, writing that he could turn into a No. 4 or 5 starter at the MLB level.
Don’t know who but someone said that Graterol and Crochet would go on the IL a lot because of how hard they throw. I know it’s super early but doesn’t seem to bad of a prediction now
Damn. That’s almost never good. Hopefully he gets spared. Having TJS 2x before 23 would be some crap luck
I wouldn’t say luck of any kind is involved. The guy goes out there throwing 101mph sinkers. Pitchers like that are basically a walking Tommy John surgery. Unless your name happens to be Jacob deGrom.
It’s a lot less the velocity and a lot more he’s not using his whole frame. Plenty of guys throw 100, but they know how to generate power from their frame
At this point, he’ll be lucky if he didn’t re tear his UCL. Certainly he’s hoping for some luck right now
Degrom had TJS
When a pitcher’s K-rate drops so low, you always have to be suspicious. Now, after 1000s of columns from Boston writers, about what a big mistake Downs instead of Graterol was, I expect a whole lot of silence.
Honestly, that’s overblown. The dodgers had him pitch in the same manner they had Dustin May and many other young guys pitch last few years. Trust your stuff’s movement, throw it down the middle and instead of going for K, go for soft contact
Graterol’s K rate was terrible because his offspeed pitches aren’t up to snuff. He’s 22. That’s pretty standard
Boston didn’t want him because the media was upset he wasn’t a starting pitching prospect and they blew them up for only getting a reliever for Mookie. That’s on the media for ripping the reported trade so hard. If he can avoid TJS #2, he still has a very bright future ahead
The red sox scuttled him in the trade as not passing muster in medical review.
If that claim was baseless you know the mlbpa would have filed grievance.
Different doctors could disagree about risk level, but everyone admitted SOMETHING was there that raised flags, as emphasized by lack of said grievance. So clearly the issue wasn’t 100% fabricated. The only question was what the expected impact was.
GA, I’m fairly sure they scuttled it over his shoulder impingement. Which was a known injury before the trade
But they seemed fine with Graterol until his name was leaked, and the media started to rip Henry for moving Mookie for a reliever. Graterol had been a starter prior to that in MiLB, but the multiple arm injuries led the media to call him just a reliever. Suddenly his shoulder was worrisome. Up to you to decide when that all played out. I have my opinion
I’m not going to say the mookie sweepstakes wasn’t a ****show – it certainly was. For many reasons. It’s also done at this point and he seems happy.
But, among other examples, there was a guy named Brady Aiken where one team had an opinion about ligament durability that wasn’t shared by some other clubs. And we know how that played out.
Clearly the clubs in 2020 couldn’t comment about exactly what it was in the medicals that gave some guys more concerns than others in their opinion making. Impingement? Maybe. Something beyond that? Also maybe. I’ve always been skeptical the impingement was the whole story just because everyone knew about it from his time in the majors.
“ I’ve always been skeptical the impingement was the whole story just because everyone knew about it from his time in the majors.”
If you accept the following line of thinking:
Henry{BoSox owner} floated the package to a trusted source to see how bad the flak would be from the media. When it was as bad or worse than he expected, he made Bloom kill the deal and medicals was the easiest path, given the same media was quoting his medicals for reasons to know Graterol wouldn’t start long term…
Then it’s not hard to imagine it was “just” the impingement, and the real killer was the media’s reaction
But either way, I agree we don’t know everything. I’ll add this also. The dodgers don’t seem like a team who’d take damaged goods. Maybe they missed one, but the fact that LA was so willing to bring Graterol in, even with those same medicals, further helps me think it’s more likely the media pushback that was a bigger kill to deal #1 than Graterol’s shoulder
These kind of conspiracy theories are irresponsible without hard evidence. You don’t get make accusations on the basis of flimsy inductive reasoning, and anyone who does needs to be called out.
The team had an assessment of his talent profile, and as with literally every trade ever got the full detailed medicals and a chance at closer examination when the trade was agreed to in principle. And just as with many baseball trades agreed to in principle, the team didn’t like what it saw upon that closer look. Many trades have fallen apart under such a circumstance, and others have been adjusted, and this one was adjusted.
Having this be a not-uncommon occurrence around the league and yet arbitrarily decide that THIS ONE unlike all the others was a team getting cold feet to a media reaction is just wrong. If we’re going to be inductive, here’s some: the clickbait media was happy to embrace a tin hat conspiracy theory for clicks. It knew many Boston fans were unhappy with Betta being traded and many non-Boston fans we’re enjoying that reaction, so the media fabricating a “the team got scared by the reaction and backed out of the deal unless it got more” line.
Impossible to be true? No. But just because something has a small chance of being true doesn’t mean it’s moral and reasonable to give it a spot on the podium. “I have my opinion” doesn’t change the fact that it’s an irresponsible and not nearly sufficiently justified one.
I have a really hard time believing that the Red Sox made decisions completely based on public reaction. If they cared that much, they probably wouldn’t have traded Betts in the first place.
Irresponsible?
Guessing front office motives is what this comment section was made for.
Nothing said was even controversial
BeforeMcCourt
Boston didn’t want him because the media was upset he wasn’t a starting pitching prospect
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That’s wrong on several layers.
1-The trade was about Verdugo. I’m guessing Graterol was about 20-25% of the package value.
2-When the trade started, the assumption was that Graterol would be a starter, not an RP. He was always a starter in the minors. It was only scuttled when the medicals indicated that Graterol would likely not be more than an RP. That was the end of his value.
At the end of the day, neither Downs (whom I like) or Graterol weren’t enough for the RS FO to worry about. The RS aren’t a team overly concerned with what the media thinks.
Man this sucks. That’s like 6 pen guys on the IL now.
and Twins “fans” panicked when he was traded….just another player made of glass from the Terry Ryan era.
Worrisome
Hopefully FO decision to trade Floro, not resign Mcgee, will not haunt thr dodgers in October because BP look weak compare to 2019 & 2020
its still early and they can make moves to recitfy the BP…. joe kelly will be back…. gonsolin will pitch eventually, price will be back…so i know it looks bleak now, but it the long term it’ll be okay.
I don’t think “bleak” is quite the word, but your message is right on. Even with last night’s loss to Lauer, at 16-10 LA is on pace for 99 win season. I know that’s a tad below expectations of fans, but that’s not bad with all the handicaps.
Pain
Unfortunately Brusdar Graterol will always have arm issues. He has to learn to use his legs.
twitter.com/Ben13Porter/status/1386503550818267136…
Can LA volunteer to be the first MLB team with a laser strike zone? These umpires are so consistently bad it’s not even funny anymore
Bazooka just isn’t that great of a pitcher so it’s not that much of a loss.
This is proving so far to be a good trade for the Twins
Hello darkness my old friend