Rangers reliever Brock Burke underwent surgery to repair a fractured metacarpal in his right (non-throwing) hand on Thursday, the team announced (X link via Kennedy Landry of MLB.com). It’s unclear precisely how long he’ll be out of action. Texas placed Burke on the 60-day injured list this week, ruling him out until at least the middle of June.
Burke suffered the injury last week when he punched a dugout wall in frustration. That came on the heels of another poor outing in what had been a rough start to the season. The southpaw has given up five runs through his first three innings. Burke had been searching for a rebound after a pedestrian 2023 campaign. In 59 2/3 innings a year ago, he pitched to a 4.37 ERA while allowing nearly two home runs per nine.
As recently as 2022, Burke looked like a potential building block. He led MLB with 82 1/3 relief innings, managing a sub-2.00 ERA with a 27.4% strikeout rate. The former Rays draftee has not managed to repeat that success even though his velocity and swing-and-miss rates haven’t changed much over the last year-plus.
Texas is light on left-handed bullpen options. Jake Latz is the only southpaw currently in the MLB relief group. He’d been excellent over his first nine appearances but took the loss tonight against the Braves after conceding a grand slam to Travis d’Arnaud (his third homer of the game). Antoine Kelly is on the 40-man roster but has yet to reach the majors. Chasen Shreve, Danny Duffy and Blake Taylor are non-roster options with Triple-A Round Rock.
Talk to the hand
If his name was Brog Burg he may not have been injured. Hard consonant name curse.
I put together a care package for him that I’m hoping to deliver in person during pre game next week when the team is back in town. It includes an anger management dvd, bubble wrap, and a book called “The Complete Guide to Pitching for Beginners” by Aaron Myette.
I’m sure this was an immediate reaction of great frustration by him and taken by all too many in the past. Historically,the “dugout wall” nationwide remains undefeated during these incidents. While it’s unfortunate that surgery was necessary in this case hopefully it is, at least temporarily, a valuable lesson learned for any player moving forward. If they’re paying attention at all, that is.
This dude, Zach Plesac, Chris Sale, and Jarred Kelenic need to form a band or something. What should they be called? Inner Demons ? Anger MisManagement ? DisGruntled ?? NeedsTherapy???
Oh crap, they’re gonna send me down soon. Better punch a wall and break my hand so I go on IL and get most of my contract.