TODAY: The swelling in Suarez’s hand has already significantly reduced overnight, Thomson told Matt Gelb and other reporters today. Suarez still won’t try throwing for a day or two for precautionary reasons.
JUNE 1: Phillies left-hander Ranger Suarez exited his start against the Cardinals this evening after just two innings of work after he was struck in the hand by a 106 mph line drive off the bat of outfielder Alec Burleson. As noted by Alex Coffey of The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Phillies initially termed the injury a left hand contusion before sending him for testing during the game. Manager Rob Thomson told reporters (including The Athletic’s Matt Gelb) shortly after the game that x-rays on Suarez’s hand were negative, although he was dealing with some swelling.
It’s not currently clear if Suarez’s hand will recover quickly enough for him to make his next start, although Thomson suggested that they “feel pretty lucky” to have seemingly dodged a more serious injury. The manager added that the club currently plans to give Suarez a few days before determining whether he’ll make his next start or if he’ll require a trip to the injured list. The lefty is currently slated to make his next start on June 8 against the Mets as part of the London series. Thanks to the two days off the team will have prior to the start of that series, Suarez was already slated to make his next start on extra rest.
The fact that Suarez appears to have avoided a major injury is surely a huge relief for Phillies fans. The 28-year-old hurler has been among the very best pitchers in all of baseball this year with a sterling 1.75 ERA through his first eleven starts this season, trailing only Reynaldo Lopez and Seth Lugo. That figure is good for a whopping 230 ERA+, and Suarez has enjoyed impressive peripherals that largely back up his excellent performance. In 72 innings of work to this point in the season, Suarez has struck out a career-best 28.4% of batters faced while walking just 5.4% and generating grounders at a whopping 53.8% clip. Among qualified pitchers, that groundball rate ranks seventh in the majors while K-BB% of 22.5% ranks twelfth.
Given how incredibly productive Suarez has been for the Phillies to this point in the season as they’ve surged to an MLB-best 41-18 record, even a brief absence for the lefty would be a noteworthy blow. Fortunately for the club, however, they have an tailor-made replacement option available to them in the event that the lefty does miss a start or two. Right-hander Spencer Turnbull took the ball for three impressive innings following Suarez’s exit, allowing no hits and no walks while striking out six batters. That sensational performance in relief tonight continues what has been a strong season in Philadelphia for Turnbull.
Entering play tonight, the righty had made twelve appearances for the Phillies including six starts and pitched to a fantastic 2.40 ERA with a 3.43 FIP in 41 1/3 innings of work. While Turnbull was pushed out of the rotation by the return of right-hander Taijuan Walker from the injured list earlier this year, the righty has remained an effect multi-inning relief option for the Phillies and after a 49-pitch outing this evening could reasonably take the ball for an abbreviated start in place of Suarez on Saturday in London if necessary.
I know it’s the British, but even they don’t deserve to be subjected to a Taijuan Walker start.
WOW, mahalo for my first and only belly laugh on my sub-standard Saturday!
I hope when he hits FA Texas signs him so they can have Ranger Ranger bobblehead night. Ahahaha!
There will most likely be a small percentage of Brits in attendance, with mostly American tourists and expats filling the seats.
That said, I absolutely agree Taijuan Walker is the least appealing Phillies starter for an international stage. Maybe Spencer Turnbull should take Ranger’s turn? With a name like his, he could’ve been a 19th century British Prime Minister.
Braves are done. Bad team. Even with him out, the division is over.
I said on a message board before the game that the Phillies should trade him for Votto and the comment was ridiculed/laughed at. Being proven right now.
Yeah, still a ridiculous comment.
Getting hit in the hand proves nothing about your silly suggestion.
Manfred- your comment is so stupid it’s not even worth laughing at.
A lot of the times a broken bone is hard to see until the swelling goes down (even with xrays, scans, etc). . I hope he doesn’t have one, but there still could be a break.
I got to see Alec Burleson coming up through college and the minors. When he squares up on a pitch, he absolutely smokes it as a line-drive hitter with power. That ball coming directly back at Ranger had to be a total blur at 106 mph…
Hope Ranger is good to go by the time the Phils get to London. He deserves some spotlight for the ace-like season he’s having so far…
Isn’t this kind of a no brainer to IL him? Both he and Turnbill are on somewhat of IP limits. Suarez has a proven excellent playoff record and is more needed for the post season than a couple pre-all star break starts.
Pop him on the IL, call up Mercado and go from there. He still gets his service time and the pen gets the extra arm while they figure out the overseas situation.
Plus it’s not like he won’t get his plane ticket for the series…
I’m sorry, when was Ranger put on an innings pitched limit for the season? This is the first I’ve heard of it. Turnbull is on a limit because he’s coming back from a lengthy injury recovery. Ranger isn’t.
Not a hard cap per se. Sorry I could have been clearer.
Dombrowski mentioned something in ST @it. Kind of an off handed comment that Ranger has never had a full slate of 30+ and 6+ like he’s headed for now. And then be ready for a deep playoff run.
So they were going to “monitor” him as to keep him the freshest for the Red October we all expect.
Maybe I read too much into it, but I assumed there would be some sort of “Lorenzen” thing in the late summer. But when he said it, it made sense.
Wheeler and Nola have had yrs of it and Walker has always been a starter. Since coming to the majors he’s only been a fulltime starter since ’22 and was nicked abit last year.
I remember when contusions were still called bruises!
*rocks back and forth in rocking chair*
Your reaction is perfectly understandable. It’s a textbook example of contusion confusion.
Well played
Dude is having a Cy Young award-winning season, I hope it’s just a bruise.
Apparently, it is nothing but a bruise. Ranger himself said that it hit the “muscle” part only. Since the injury was advertised as at the bottom of his thumb, I’m assuming he means it was the fleshy part at the bottom inside of his thumb that took the hit. It was reported that he was joking with the press, so I’m guessing he’ll be good to go soon — maybe miss one start.
Good to here the swelling has gone down significantly. Can’t have our ace down for too long. Now if only we could do something about that guy who’s name literally screams what he’s best at doing when pitching. Oh what’s his name….Tai really Juan to know his name.
Another great move by Scottie Harris… cutting Spencer Turnbull.
I sign in here and it takes me to Hockey Rumors?? Can you make this site more easy to maneuver around? Anyways.
Finally have a pitcher with a chance to get 20 wins and yes I do still love the old school stat even though it’s less in control of the starter then when I grew up watching the game in 70s and 80s. I expected arm fatigue or monitoring of innings to stop this. Not a bad luck line drive