The Giants placed LaMonte Wade Jr. back on the injured list with continued inflammation in his left knee, per a team announcement. Outfielder Luis Gonzalez, who was optioned earlier int he week after a hot start to his Giants tenure, is back up to take his place on the roster. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area reports that Wade had an MRI and is slated to see a third-party doctor this coming Monday to get a second opinion. The 28-year-old already missed nearly four weeks of the season due to left knee troubles and has appeared in just 10 games with San Francisco on the year. He’s hitting .240/.375/.360 in a small sample of 32 plate appearances, which is solid thanks to five walks and a hit-by-pitch but a ways off from last year’s pace in the power department. Wade smacked 18 homers, 17 doubles and three triples in just 381 plate appearances with the Giants last season.
While there’s surely concern throughout the Giants organization regarding Wade’s knee, his return to the injured list paves the way for the 26-year-old Gonzalez to try to prove that his .349/.397/.492 start to the season (73 plate appearances) has some legitimacy. No one should expect Gonzalez to maintain a .370 average on the balls he puts into play, but his 8.2% walk rate is solid and his 13.7% strikeout rate is downright tiny by today’s standards. While there’s surely some regression in store, Gonzalez was a prospect of some note in the White Sox system before landing in San Francisco, but he only ever received 13 big league plate appearances with the South Siders.
Some more injury notes worth monitoring around the league…
- A recent MRI performed on Tigers lefty Eduardo Rodriguez didn’t reveal any major damage to his oblique or intercostal muscles, Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic writes. On the one hand, that’s good news, but on the other, it leaves some mystery as to what is ailing the southpaw. Rodriguez left his start against the Rays this week in the first inning, having allowed six of the seven batters he faced to reach base. His fastball velocity was noticeably down, sitting at just 89.8 mph after averaging a bit better than 92 mph through his first seven outings. He’s likely IL-bound, and it seems the Tigers will continue to evaluate him as they search for the root of the issue.
- As if the Tigers’ injury woes weren’t bad enough — Rodriguez is likely IL-bound, where he’ll join Casey Mize, Matt Manning, Tyler Alexander, Michael Pineda and Spencer Turnbull — breakout starter Tarik Skubal exited tonight’s game after taking a 100.4 mph comeback liner off his leg at the end of the fifth inning. The 25-year-old Skubal blanked Cleveland over five frames prior to exiting, dropping his ERA to 2.22 through 42 2/3 frames. He’s fanned 28.4% of his opponents against just a 4.5% walk rate on the season. The Tigers announced that Skubal has been initially diagnosed with only a contusion, but MLB.com’s Jason Beck tweets that he’ll undergo additional testing tomorrow. Skubal tells reporters that he’s optimistic of making his next start, but there’s enough swelling that doctors have yet to perform imaging (hence the additional evaluation tomorrow).
- Mariners catcher Tom Murphy, out since dislocating his shoulder on a tag play at home plate back on May 6, had a setback in his recovery and isn’t expected to come off the injured list anytime soon, tweets Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. Further specifics haven’t been announced by the team just yet, but it’s a notable blow given that Murphy was out to a .303/.439/.455 start to his season, albeit through a small sample of 42 plate appearances. He’s been a .240/.321/.440 hitter overall in 687 plate appearances since joining the Mariners in 2020, and his absence will leave the team reliant on young backstops Cal Raleigh and Luis Torrens, both of whom have struggled immensely at the plate this year.
Did SF have this many injuries so early last year?
I do not think they suffered quite as many injuries in the first few months of last season. But not by much if so, luckily this roster is basically plug and play with depth across most positions.
Reason why they give up guys like Dubon because they are fringe to stick on the roster and replaceable within the organization. Dubon suffered the Estrada effect he won’t be the last this season.
Not sure, maybe not as many, but I think it’s close. Yaz started 2021 on the IL, La Stella was lost early and played less than half a season. Longoria went down in early June. Cueto missed a few starts early in the season. And they lost Moronta after only 4 games. They certainly had their share.
I think injuries are up around the league. I’m guessing it has to do with no offseason protocols to keep strength built. Some guys still worked out, many didn’t
So the Tigers top six starters are all injured at the same time… That has to be a record.
I’ll bet the ‘09 Angels are up there too. And the ‘08 Reds with their injured shortstops.
No, E-Rod isn’t hurt. He just sucks.
He was coming off his two best starts of the season when he got got hurt.
the Tigers might just be cursed
Nah, God was bored and just wanted the Tigers to have the #1 overall pick for three out of five years.
All the injuries, plus Paredes homering twice off of them. Poor Tigers fans.
This just shows how silly all the hand-wringing was over Gonzales being sent down. And also how stupid it would have been to put someone like La Stella on waivers to avoid sending Gonzalez down.
Who knew ? Who knew the Greene injury would be such a catastrophic foretelling of the Tiger’s season so far ? With Cleveland an Minnesota for as far as the eye can see, they could be buried before Greene comes back.
On the positive note ? Please anyone ? The change in 2023 draft is truly Catastrophic for the Tigers this year. A draft lottery for the first 6 spots, then what ? Does the worst team in not in the top 6 start at number 7 ? So, as unlucky as this season has started for Detroit, will they suddenly be lucky at the end of the year ? Good luck with that.
It’s way too early to predict that the Tigers will finish with the worst record in baseball, or even among the bottom six. There’s a lot of talent on this team, the bats will eventually start hitting and the pitchers will (hopefully) get healthy.
Wish in one hand, s#!% in the other. See which one gets filled first.
I have never seen a team lose its entire starting staff to injury 40 games in. Unfreaking believable.
I wouldn’t have thought it was possible.