Here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world today:
1. Cubs await Imanaga imaging:
The Cubs already lost one ace lefty this year when Justin Steele underwent elbow surgery last month. Now, they’re facing another injury scare for their other top southpaw. Shota Imanaga departed in the sixth inning of his start against the Brewers yesterday due to what was immediately termed by the Cubs a hamstring strain. Imanaga is undergoing tests and imaging ahead of Chicago’s decision regarding a trip to the injured list. With Steele and Javier Assad already on the shelf, a third injury in the rotation would put the team’s depth to the test. Jordan Wicks and top prospect Cade Horton are available at Triple-A, while Chris Flexen could step from his role as a long reliever into the rotation, as Colin Rea did when Steele went down a few weeks ago.
2. Blue Jays 40-man roster moves incoming:
Over the weekend, the Blue Jays reportedly signed a pair of right-handers to major league deals: Spencer Turnbull and Jose Urena. The moves should give Toronto bolstered pitching depth once added to the roster. Both are capable of pitching either in the rotation or out of the bullpen. In the meantime, the Jays will need to officially announce the signings and make the corresponding 40-man roster moves that will come with that announcement. Max Scherzer, Nick Sandlin, and Erik Swanson are all currently on the 15-day injured list, though the timetable for their returns isn’t fully clear. If the Jays don’t want to move any of that trio to the 60-day injured list, they’ll either need to designate someone for assignment or work out some sort of trade that clears 40-man roster space before Turnbull and Urena can officially be brought into the fold.
3. Series Preview: Padres @ Yankees
An interleague series between two teams firmly in the mix for the playoffs this year is set to start this evening, when the Padres head to Yankee Stadium at 7:05pm local time. San Diego right-hander Nick Pivetta has enjoyed a brilliant season so far (1.78 ERA in six starts), though now he’ll be tested by Aaron Judge and the rest of the Yankees lineup while squaring off against Carlos Rodon (3.43 ERA in seven starts). Tuesday’s game is expected to pit former Yankee Michael King (2.09 ERA in seven starts) against Clarke Schmidt (5.52 ERA in three starts) after Schmidt’s start was pushed back over the weekend. The series will close out with Dylan Cease (5.61 ERA in seven starts) against Yankees ace Max Fried (1.01 ERA in seven starts). Cease’s ERA went soaring to 7.98 when the A’s pounced on him for nine runs on April 8, but he’s dropped that earned run average in each of his four subsequent starts. Can he make it five in a row? The 22-11 Padres currently sit a half-game behind the division-leading Dodgers and one game ahead of the third-place Giants. The 19-15 Yankees hold a two-game lead in the American League East.
Dont know what the mri says
But merrill suffered hamstring strain & missed exactly 1 month
My guess is imanaga will be back in june
Really looking forward to tonight’s Padres/Yankees game, go get ’em Nick Pivetta!!!
Fever,
As soon as Pivetta left Boston, he turned into a great pitcher with the Padres lol
Acoss – Yep, I had said all offseason he just needed the proper tweaking to reduce his homeruns allowed.
Sure playing half his games in Petco will help, but the talent was always there.
Padres SUCK!
And you are the reason why Dodgers Fans get so much crap.
What do they suck, DodgerG?
I have rodon and pivetta on my fantasy team….this wont go well for one of them…
I have Fried & Cease on mine, so trying to decide who to start this week
Hopefully Rodon,since Pivetta is on my team
Shota is probably out a month, that’s usually the timeframe for a hamstring. Guess Flexen will get the first shot at filling in and then depending how bad it goes, we’ll see what Hoyer does.
Acoss – Cubs have the best RPI in MLB, they will be fine.
Fever,
The offense is really doing it’s job so hopefully it can weather the small storm while Shota is out and with a shaky bullpen.
If Shota is only gone a month, and then comes back fine – they should be fine. But I doubt they really want to call up Horton until after the ASB.
I feel optimistic because it seems they are slowly getting the bullpen figured out.
Hodge, Palencia, Keller – have been solid lately. I’m still on the fence about Pressly.
I’m pessimistic about the Cubs going forward. I look at the situation holistically: I just don’t think a Taillon-Boyd-Brown-Rea-Flexen rotation is the kind of rotation that a team that wins more than it loses features. Fellow Cubs fans, if some other team had that rotation, we’d disregard that team, maybe even laugh at it. We have to step back and be realistic; the Cubs are in trouble.
And the fact that an “easy” part of the schedule is coming up is not something that we should cling to. Even those bad teams are good enough to hit a rotation like that.
I’m with ya dogbone.. I hope they’ll at least give Flexen a shot before bringing up Horton. It might not work, but I didn’t think Rea could fill in and so far, he has done very well. If they can get to summer, maybe Hoyer can pull off a trade.
You know the first guy he’s going to want to trade is Horton right? Horton has a 1.24 ERA so far this year. What are they waiting for? Him to be good? LMAO
Spank the Yanks! LFGSD
Roll over Rodon!
@Fever- Ro-done? At least Soto is gone!
I have it on good authority that the winner of this series will win the WS…
Clip – I thought Sports Authority closed years ago?
Tough place to debut (Queens) if it is Horton who gets the call when Shota’s turn comes up this weekend. As Haray Caray would say, “hold everything.”
Cubs will be going from May Grey to June Doom. It’s their jam.
@hanley c’mon, man. Really?
He’s probably all excited since his Sox won 2 games.
The Yankees are going to struggle this year That doesn’t mean they won’t make the playoffs, possibly win the Division, but there are a lot of holes. Some are the result of injuries/bad luck, some underperformance, some too much of an investment in a player to bench him.
I got a question how can Trent Grisham have been a “salary dump” in the Juan Soto trade when he was (and still is) in arb at that time which means the Padres could have simply non-tendered him if they wanted to “dump” his salary?
Shota shouldn’t run so hard to first base especially with his body..
Bauer accuser arrested 2 Saturdays ago for public intoxication, disorderly conduct, 3rd degree assault, driving on a suspended license and cruelty to animals.
Not surprising that the people he hung around with were also of questionable moral character. He’s been sufficiently blackballed for awhile even if he pitches great overseas.