Red Sox pitcher Darwinzon Hernández recently underwent surgery to repair a meniscus tear in his right knee, the team informed reporters (including Ian Browne of MLB.com). While the club didn’t provide a specific timetable for his return, he’ll be out of action for the foreseeable future.
Hernández hasn’t appeared in the majors this season. The hard-throwing southpaw has spent the whole year on optional assignment to Triple-A Worcester, where he recently suffered the injury. Hernández had technically been working as a starting pitcher with the WooSox, opening seven of his eight appearances. He hadn’t worked more than three frames in any individual outing, though, positioning him as more of a multi-inning relief option for the MLB team.
That’ll be put on hold while he recovers from this procedure. It’s a hit to the Sox’s bullpen depth, as Hernández had been a frequently-used middle innings option for skipper Alex Cora in recent seasons. He tallied a personal-high 40 innings across 48 appearances last year, posting a 3.38 ERA. That solid run prevention mark masked control variability, as Hernández walked a far too high 17% of opposing hitters. That was also the case in 2019, when he walked 17.7% of batters faced over 30 1/3 frames as a rookie.
The 25-year-old has shown high-octane stuff alongside those strike-throwing woes. He averaged a bit north of 95 MPH on his heater and struck out 29.7% of batters faced last season. Both marks were actually down a bit from his 2019-20 numbers, but there’s little question the Venezuela native can miss bats at the MLB level if he’s around the strike zone.
Hernández has been placed on the minor league injured list for now, but he’ll continue to occupy a spot on the Red Sox’s 40-man roster. If Boston wants to remove him from the 40-man while he recovers, they could recall him and place him on the major league 60-day IL. That’d require paying him an MLB salary and allowing him to accrue major league service time, however, so the front office will presumably not make that call before the need for a roster spot becomes acute.
This is really unfortunate, I’ve always liked Hernandez and had hoped to see what he could do if he improved his control. It’s shaping up to be a lost season for him, bummer.
This picture is an awesome choice
Huh?
My elbow hurts looking at it..
Compared to other injuries usually reported in MLBTR, this should not be a big deal. While all surgeries can have negative consequences, a torn meniscus in a 25 year old athlete is normally amongst the easiest to return from.
Dewey – At 25 year old it is not serious, he can come back just fine (especially if it is a tear and not fully torn), but at 61 years old it is a clicking, pooping problem that can give way especially on stairs.
You don’t have tell me. I have had three surgeries, the first was simply the meniscus repair. Then came ACL reconstruction and a third was to stabilize the knee, clean it out and remove a screw that failed to calcify.
No more 2 story homes for you I hope?
Lol. I share a home with my wife and up the one who has to gimp upstairs to use the second bathroom.
Lol. I share a home with my wife and I’m the one who has to gimp upstairs to use the second bathroom.
He was once called the closer of the future for the Sox (I heard it somewhere), but that has yet to be. Still,he seemed like he had done pretty well, definitely better than Barnes and Brasier, so I hope he has a speedy recovery.
Pwndroia – I agree that Darwinzon is better than Barnes and Brasier, but at this point Barnes and Brasier are a very, very low bars for Darwinzon. They are only suited for games in which the Red Sox are loosing by 4 or 5 runs or more. In other words they are unpitchable (without giving up multiple runs)!
Darwinzon will never be a reliable MLB option unless he cuts his walks by about 75 %. He will never be more than low leverage mop up.
(I heard it somewhere)
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You might have heard it from me. I couldn’t believe how unhittable he was when he first came up. He had 57 Ks in 30.1 IPs. Even with a small sample size, that’s really elite. He had 7.7 BB9. I was hoping he’d maintain some of his K% while reducing his BB9 to something around 4. Instead, his BB9 has remained at 7.0, and his K% has gone down to 12.2.
If it was me, I’d fix the knee and bury the guy in AA and tear him apart. At a very minimum, he has 60 Ks in 106 ABs against lefties. That’s insane.
I mean, Brasier is in his mid-30s, a prototypical journeyman. Not the best comparision.
The only reason I compared was because Cora uses those guys like it’s a high leverage situation…
Pwndroia – I agree, I do not understand why Cora kept going to Brasier with men on base, because the inherited runners scored damn near every time he was brought in! His ERA looks fine, but that is little consequence when the Red Sox were loosing games! (and the pitcher he replaced was have their ERA blow up).
I saw a stat that for May Brasier was 449th out of 449 pitchers in the MLB (I think it was for ERA).
Unhittable “stuff”. If he ever gets some control …
The man has no control. Electric stuff he could be a great one if he got command of the strike zone. He can afford to maybe take a little off that fastball if it will help him control it. I wish him the best in his recovery.
If I had a dollar for every hardthrowing reliever who couldn’t find the strike zone … I’d be doing better than the stock market.
So true Fever. I had a friend back in the 80s clocked out at 94 which was great back in the day. Scouts were looking at him but each private session, he was too wild to earn an offer. Sadly, he developed a chronic condition that zapped his strength and passed away at the age of 51 years ago.
dewey – Sorry to hear, 51 is way too young.
I also knew a local guy, Steve Dalkowski, the epitome of “Wild Thing”. So sad he couldn’t control where the ball went, to this day many believe he was the hardest thrower of all time. He certainly got the attention of Ted Williams.
theguardian.com/sport/2020/nov/24/steve-dalkowski-…
My only time on the mound in little league, I walked my only three batters. Wish I was born now. Overthrowing is worth big money.
How on Earth did guys like Glavine and Maddux ever manage to have HOF careers? One of life’s great mysteries I guess …