Rays reliever Garrett Cleavinger suffered a knee injury during the 10th inning of today’s 7-6 victory over the Yankees. Manager Kevin Cash told reporters (including Kristie Ackert of the Tampa Bay Times) that Cleavinger’s knee “grabbed on him” during a critical rundown play that eventually saw Aaron Hicks thrown out at home plate while trying to score the go-ahead run. More will be known once Cleavinger undergoes testing, but Cash indicated that the left-hander will likely be placed on the 15-day injured list.
Like most hurlers on the league-leading Rays, Cleavinger is having a nice season, with a 3.00 ERA over 15 appearances and 12 innings pitched. A 13% walk rate and a .160 BABIP are red flags, but Cleavinger is missing a lot of bats (30.4% strikeout rate) and is doing an excellent job of inducing soft contact. Tampa has Colin Poche, Jalen Beeks, and Josh Fleming already in the bullpen as other left-handed options, though Fleming has recently been enlisted into bulk pitcher duty. If the Rays aren’t concerned about keeping the lefty/righty balance in their pen, they can turn to any number of arms in the farm system, and hopefully Cleavinger won’t be sidelined for too long.
More from around the AL East…
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has missed the Blue Jays’ last two games due to soreness in his left wrist, though MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson tweets that Guerrero was feeling slightly better today. Naturally the Jays are being as cautious as possible with the star slugger, while also hoping that Guerrero can avoid an IL stint altogether. Toronto has off-days on both Monday and Thursday this week, and manager John Schneider said Guerrero will be re-evaluated prior to the Jays’ game Tuesday with the Phillies.
- Luis Severino is slated for a Triple-A rehab start on Wednesday or Thursday this week, as the Yankees right-hander gets closer to making his 2023 debut. Severino suffered a right lat strain near the end of Spring Training that resulted in a season-opening stint on the 15-day IL, though he told reporters (including Greg Joyce of the New York Post) that he felt the Yankees were being too conservative in his rehab plan. For instance, Severino thought he could’ve started his rehab assignment last week rather than throwing a 40-pitch simulated game, as he felt working in a proper game environment with a pitch clock was more helpful in getting him ready for a big league return. New York manager Aaron Boone said that Severino will need to make at least two rehab starts before being reinstated from the IL, so given the team’s cautious approach, Severino might not be back until the Yankees’ May 23-25 series with the Orioles.
I saw the Clevinger play. That’s why they don’t want pitchers in the rundown play.
If I were in a rundown, I’d total Clevenger. Make the Pete Rose/Ray Fosse thing look like a game of tag.
Wrong Clevenger.
It’s Cleavenger.
Sorry.
Pitchers do more running than anyone on the team. At least they used to.
The Yankees get a 3 game break vs the A’s then it’s 4 against TB and 4 against Toronto. Lose the series vs the Rays and Jays and it could lead to a lost season.
@lamars- It’s way early to say that’s the case, but things are not looking great right now. Getting a healthy Sevvy back next week would help the Yankees win more games, obviously.
A team can be below .500 in August and still have a solid shot at the third wild card spot and win the world series from there.
And it’s looking like everybody who isn’t last in the AL East will make the playoffs. Maybe it’ll be the year of the first 4th place world championship banner.
@Captain-
Agreed, the reason why I said losing those series COULD lead to a losing season. Assuming the Yankees swept the A’s (3-0) that would put them at 21-17 and losing back to back series vs the Rays and Jays (2-6) would put them at 23-23.
By no means does that record make for a lost season but it would make it that much harder for them to have any chance at winning the division. And with Orioles and Red Sox both over .500 and the Angels currently leading the 4th spot for the wild card. It could put immense pressure on the Yankees.
Now granted we have to see how the Red Sox, Orioles and Angels perform during that exact period.
“A team can be below .500 in August and still have a solid shot at the third wild card spot and win the world series from there”.
Not when there are 3 teams playing over .500 standing in front of you. They would have to expect those teams to collapse or the other team would have to have a hell of a run for the rest of the season.
I agree Captain. Getting back Severino and Aaron Judge will be a big boost to the team. it would also be nice if Aaron Boone would stop making his bone headed bullpen or lineup decisions, or whoever is making such decisions, probably not even him ,but the front office.
The third wild card is going to be an 84-88 win team, statistics make anything else unlikely. The Blue Jays won 93 games and the division in 2015 while being below .500 July 28th.
Heck, you could enter September below .500 and still easily win 85 games and a world championship. You could be below .500 in late September, and all it takes is a 10 game winning streak. A .500 team giving up is stupid.
Re: Severino–Boone and Cashman know this season is lost. No point in restarting Severino before he’s ready, especially since you need to make 25/40 man roster moves, and the Yankees need as many warm bodies as they can get.
The season is lost? We’re a week into May and the Yankees still have a winning record despite their injuries. You Yankees haters are comical
I’m a lifetime Yankees fan.
A $300 million dollar payroll for an 18-17 team is comical.
And not in a good way.
We haven’t seen the team close to full strength yet. Let’s wait until at least Memorial Day to be concerned about records
I’m not actually concerned.
I’m just resigned to the fact that the current front office, as constructed, and the team, as constructed, isn’t going anywhere.
The Yankees record since last June 30, is barely .500.
Some self-inflicted, but some bad luck as well.
We could spend all day talking about Cashman’s blunders, especially over the past two years, but that’s a story for another day.
Things don’t look too promising right now but if, and I know it’s a big if, they can finally get healthy, I believe this can still be a very good team
I agree with that as well.
Ronk325,
Things look quite negative at this point, but as you point out it’s still early May. And one thing we’re reminded of last year if you get into the Playoffs anything can happen. To be one game over .500 at this point is disappointing to say the least, however, given all of their injuries it’s understandable. Given the health history and the age of some of their injured players, the team should have been much more prepared for injuries. They did Not build a robust roster, so many of the players that were available (Michael Wacha for example) they made no attempt at signing.
I’m not trying to make excuses for Cashman, but preparing for three injuries in the rotation is tough. German and Schmidt have looked better recently but Brito looks like a dud. The pitching staff has still help their own for the most part, all things considered.
The offense is where the lack of depth really shows. They knew LF was an area of need but still neglected it other than a few minor league free agents. Losing Stanton for an extended period, although that should be accounted for every season, then Judge recently has further exposed an already thin lineup. I have faith in Volpe putting it together but perhaps too much faith was put into him this early into his career.
Gleyber is the guy I’m most disappointed in overall. His defense has been ugly so far and aside from a strong first week he hasn’t hit either. I really wanted the team to sell high on him in the offseason and it looks like they missed their chance
Yes the Yankees keep saying that, but yet they get the same result in the postseason every year, for them. They meet the Astros, and then go home. Whether the Astros are cheating or not. That is not a crapshoot. there’s some consistency to that. You still need to try to be as good as you can be. And the Yankees do not do that. They get themselves good enough, to get to the postseason ,but that’s about it. They do not go all out to get over the top. That’s my opinion.
The Yankees situation is not great by any means, especially with TB soaring like a SpaceX rocket. Still, with all the adversity (and piss-poor line-up) they are managing to hang in just above .500, as bad as they’ve been and as hard as it is to imagine. And it’s May 7, so… Judge is back soon and Severino is just around the bend, apparently. Depending on their schedule, maybe they can hold .500 until Severino gets back. Then, with Sevy, maybe they can hold .500 until Rodon shows up (IF he shows up). Assuming Rodon gets back by July, they should still have a good shot at a Wild Card spot. TB would really have to taper off, about the way the Yanks did second half of last year, in order for the Yanks to have a shot at them. Never say never, I just wouldn’t put any money on it, not now at least.
There seems to be some disconnect with Sevy and Cashman/Boone. It’s the second time that Sevy has publicly opined that the Yankees are holding him back in rehab. I don’t know why any of it needs to be public.
YBC: I have a feeling it’s because it’s Sevy’s walk year. He wants to be out there putting up good numbers so he’ll earn a more lucrative free agent contract. In that regard, I suppose I can’t blame him.
Yes youre right. Same happened last year.
Yanks have a 6-zip lead and Cy Young on the mound! What could go wrong?
So how does Cashman leave Cole in for 6 runs like that? I don’t get it. I think if you analyze the losses this year you will find situations like this, and situations where a pitcher like Schmidt has given you five good innings, which is a miracle, and you bring him back in, expect him to give you a good third time through the line up. Then he gives up like three quick runs (without boo from Boone) and his good five innings are gone and the lead is gone. I know a lot of people like to leave pitchers in, especially the third time through the order, but frankly I don’t think there are much more than about fifteen pitchers in all of baseball who can go though the order three times with statistical confidence behind them. As for the situation today with Cole, this wasn’t that but it was another case where Boone is like a deer in the headlights. A strong lead fades and fades…and he doesn’t react. Before you know it, it’s done. Cole’s good work is completely lost. Not one shred of it preserved. I think we’re going to see a lot more of this. It could be as significant as the injuries going forward. Boone’s hook, man. It’s completely defective.
With Cole, he has been very effective so far this year. But teams study that and figure what he’s doing that’s different. Then they prepare themselves for this year’s version of Cole. He’s a really good pitcher regardless of what he is doing, but, if teams are really scientific about it, they might be able to predict his approach. When pitchers go through the lineup three times, they have set up the hitters appropriately over the course of the game. Now, it’s a bit more of “empty the tank” for as long as you can until reinforcements (bullpen) come to take over. Boone has a habit of overusing his effective pitchers, both as starters and especially in the bullpen. This might have been a game to give Cole a break and let some guys pick up the rest of the game, but this is the Rays. They come at you relentlessly, that’s why they’re so tough. All in all, it’s hindsight now. And there you have it, no sour words, no attitude, just thoughts. It’s like a new me. Maybe, I mean, we can hope.
Not content to hurt his own team with his OPS+ of 7, Aaron Hicks has decided to branch out and hurt other teams as well.