Erik Swanson has yet to pitch this season due to a median nerve entrapment in his right arm, but the reliever’s path back to the Blue Jays roster hit a snag in the form of some soreness in his right forearm. The issue prevented Swanson from a planned minor league rehab outing earlier this week, and the good news is that initial tests revealed no structural damage. However, Swanson told The Athletic’s Mitch Bannon and other reporters that more tests are set for Monday, as it hasn’t yet been determined what exactly is causing the forearm discomfort.
Swanson had some bouts with forearm soreness at a few different points in his career, such as in each of the last two Spring Trainings, and also a minor strain that sent him to the injured list for a little over three weeks during the 2020 season when he was pitching with the Mariners. Though the medicals have been clean so far on his current issue, obviously all parties will be cautious in dealing with any forearm-related injury. In the short term, the problem has delayed Swanson’s recovery, and adds more uncertainty over when exactly the reliever will make his 2025 debut.
More from around the AL East…
- Speaking of pitchers on the injured list, Walker Buehler was sidelined earlier this week due to bursitis in his right shoulder. The injury wasn’t thought to be overly serious, and Buehler told reporters (including The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey) today that he would’ve pitched though the discomfort if it had arisen during a late-season scenario. Buehler has a 4.28 ERA over 33 2/3 innings for the Red Sox, as a rough first two starts of the year gave way to a much smoother 2.59 ERA over his last four outings.
- It has been almost a month since Zach Eflin was sidelined by a right lat strain, but the Orioles right-hander has now started a rehab assignment with the team’s high-A affiliate. Eflin looked sharp in tossing four scoreless innings on 58 pitches for Aberdeen today, and while we’ll know more once Eflin recovers, he told the Baltimore Sun’s Matt Weyrich on Saturday that he was hopeful that he’d just need the one rehab outing. While the O’s aren’t going to rush a player back from the IL, the team obviously needs all the help it can get, given how the rotation has been ravaged by injuries and poor performance.
- One of those injured Orioles pitchers came off the 15-day IL today, as Baltimore activated Chayce McDermott and optioned the righty to Triple-A Norfolk. McDermott suffered a right lat strain early in Spring Training and didn’t throw any Grapefruit League innings, and his 2025 workload to date has consisted of two appearances and 5 2/3 innings during a minor league rehab assignment. This assignment to Triple-A will give McDermott more time to fully build himself up, with an eye towards possibly returning to the Show later in 2025. McDermott is a well-regarded pitching prospect who made his MLB debut last July, tossing four innings in his lone big league appearance to date.
It’s early but 18-18 is not what I would have envisioned given the teams they’ve played so far..Losing leads late in games and not coming thru trailing late in games is not a recipe I hope they follow much longer.. Other than that the 2024 Red Sox are doing a fine job this year……..(of mimicking last year)
The losing games late is unfortunately a new problem. The stretch when the offense went ice cold was the other reason for the mediocre start.
One huge help would be if Tanner Houck could find his first half of last season self
Rsox – Houck better bring his A-game Wednesday because he’s facing Mahle and his 1.19 ERA.
At least the Sox defense has settled down a bit.
Olm – Have you seen the upcoming schedule?
Eovaldi tomorrow
Mahle Wednesday
At Royals
At Tigers
Vs Braves
Vs Mets
Quite the 15-game stretch!
BTW 21 Baeza came through with the $1 Tri but it didn’t pay squat. There were 21 signs everywhere last week. In The Accountant movie the first bingo ball called was 21 and Rocket Roger was at Fenway all weekend.
“Still, the Orioles are already in a pretty deep hole, and can’t afford to wait too long. This is not what I expected to be waiting about Baltimore on May 4, but being a deadline seller (rather than buyer) isn’t out of the question”
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I wrote at the end of the offseason that the O’s would be sellers going into the deadline. It was obvious.
6th year of a rebuild and they’re sellers going into the deadline. Not sure I’ve ever seen that. Surely not a good sign.
The question is: How’s the new owner taking this? Last year he stated publicly that he doesn’t have a lot of time to win a championship. Not sure a never-ending rebuild is why he bought in. Would he demand the script be flipped in-season?