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NL Injury Notes: Soroka, Mikolas, Kelly, Martinez

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Mike Soroka threw two innings in “simulated game conditions” this morning, reports David O’Brien of the Athletic. That marks a key milestone in the 23-year-old’s recovery from the ruptured Achilles that ended his 2020 season last August. It remains unclear precisely when Soroka will be ready to pitch this year, although O’Brien notes there has been “widespread speculation” of a late April or early May return. Soroka has a 2.86 ERA/4.33 SIERA over his first 214 big league innings.

The latest on some other health situations around the National League:

  • Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas had been expected to throw a bullpen session today, but that’ll be pushed back to Wednesday, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat were among those to note. Manager Mike Shildt said the right-hander feels good but wouldn’t guarantee Mikolas will be ready for Opening Day. Mikolas missed the entire 2020 season after undergoing surgery to repair the flexor tendon in his forearm, but the current issue is a “creaky” shoulder, notes Zachary Silver of MLB.com.
  • Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly looks unlikely to be ready for Opening Day, per Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link). The right-hander has been dealing with shoulder soreness, but he has been able to throw a few bullpen sessions recently, per Juan Toribio of MLB.com. The hard-throwing Kelly spent a month on the injured list last season with shoulder inflammation.
  • José Martínez has a “twisted left knee” after colliding with an umpire during today’s Spring Training contest, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com was among those to report. He’ll likely go for an MRI tomorrow. The Mets signed the 32-year-old Martínez this winter after he struggled through a down 2020 season split between the Rays and Cubs. A significant injury would be a blow to his chances of earning a backup first base/corner outfield role this spring.

Dodgers Place Caleb Ferguson On 10-Day Injured List

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6:59pm: Ferguson suffered “a pretty good tear,” per Roberts (via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com). The Dodgers are preparing to go without Ferguson for the postseason.

4:38pm: Ferguson’s season appears to be over. Manager Dave Roberts told Sportsnet LA that Ferguson has UCL damage, Pedro Moura of The Athletic tweets. There’s no decision yet on whether Ferguson will undergo Tommy John surgery, but he has already had the procedure once in the past.

3:22pm: The Dodgers announced that left-handed reliever Caleb Ferguson is headed to the 10-day injured list with an elbow issue. They recalled righty Josh Sborz in a corresponding move.

This is a tough loss for the Dodgers’ bullpen, though it’s unclear whether Ferguson will be OK by the time the playoffs start in a couple weeks. Their relief corps has been among the best in the majors, ranking second in ERA and FIP, thanks in part to Ferguson. The 24-year-old has thrown 18 2/3 innings of 2.89 ERA/3.58 FIP ball with 13.02 K/9, 1.45 BB/9 and a 54.5 percent groundball rate this season, all while averaging over 95 mph on his fastball and handling right-handed hitters (.287 weighted on-base average) and lefties (.278) alike.

Even without Ferguson, the Dodgers still boast plenty of capable arms in their bullpen, including Blake Treinen, Kenley Jansen, Victor Gonzalez, Dylan Floro, Jake McGee and Adam Kolarek. And the Dodgers are officially getting back Joe Kelly, whom they reinstated from the injured list Sept. 10 after he missed a month with right shoulder inflammation. Kelly was initially ineligible to pitch after he returned, though, as he had to serve a five-game suspension that’s now up.

Dodgers Place Walker Buehler On 10-Day Injured List

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The Dodgers have placed starter Walker Buehler on the 10-day injured list with a blister and activated reliever Joe Kelly, Ken Gurnick of MLB.com tweets.

This is the second blister-related IL placement in recent weeks for Buehler, whom they first placed on the shelf Aug. 27. The right-hander made a quick return with five shutout innings in a win over the Diamondbacks on Sept. 2, but Buehler gave up five runs (two earned) to the D-backs in 2 2/3 frames on Tuesday. The Dodgers still managed to win that game, though, and at 32-12, they look like shoo-ins to capture the National League’s top seed as the playoffs approach.

Considering where the Dodgers are in the standings, it makes sense for the team to be cautious with Buehler – a key part of a rotation that has been among the league’s best in 2020. While Buehler hasn’t revisited his 2018-19 form, he, Clayton Kershaw, Tony Gonsolin, Dustin May and Julio Urias have still made up a formidable group.

As for Kelly, he’s back after going to the IL on Aug. 10 with right shoulder inflammation. Kelly won’t be available to pitch immediately, though, as he’ll first have to serve a five-game suspension stemming from a dustup with the Astros on July 28.

Pitching Notes: Hader, Bumgarner, Pearson, Dodgers, Beeks, Wright

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On a night in which White Sox ace Lucas Giolito fired the first no-hitter of 2020, let’s check in on several other notable pitchers…

  • The Brewers are “listening” to offers for star reliever Josh Hader, but it’s not likely the club will trade the 26-year-old left-hander before the Aug. 31 deadline, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic writes (subscription link). Milwaukee was also willing to entertain proposals for Hader last winter, but it elected to retain him heading into this year – his first of four potential arbitration seasons. For a bargain price this season (a prorated $4.1MM), Hader has given the Brewers 9 1/3 scoreless, hitless innings with 13 strikeouts and five walks. He’s obviously not someone the Brewers are going to give up for anything less than a massive offer.
  • After throwing a 70-pitch bullpen session Sunday, Diamondbacks southpaw Madison Bumgarner could be closing in on a return from the injured list, per Steve Gilbert of MLB.com. Bumgarner has been on the IL since Aug. 9 with a mid-back strain, but he came out of his bullpen session unscathed, which manager Torey Lovullo called “very encouraging news.” The former Giant’s first season as a Diamondback has been anything but encouraging, though. After inking a five-year, $85MM contract in the offseason, Bumgarner has logged a 9.35 ERA/8.79 FIP with 6.75 K/9, 3.63 BB/9 and a 23.7 percent groundball rate in 17 1/3 innings. The 31-year-old averaged a career-worst 87.8 mph on his fastball during that four-start stretch, but Lovullo revealed Bumgarner’s “velo ticked up a little bit” during sim games.
  • Right-hander Nate Pearson, whom the Blue Jays placed on the IL on Aug. 19, has been diagnosed with a flexor strain, according to Scott Mitchell of TSN. He’s hoping to play catch this weekend, Mitchell reports, though it remains unclear if the rookie will return in 2020. Pearson struggled to a 6.61 ERA/7.60 FIP with 7.71 K/9 and 6.61 BB/9 over four starts and 16 1/3 frames before going on the shelf.
  • Dodgers righty Joe Kelly has been on the IL since Aug. 10 with shoulder inflammation, and a return isn’t imminent for the reliever. Manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday (via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com) that Kelly remains “a ways away” from rejoining the Dodgers. When Kelly does come back, he’ll have to serve a five-game suspension stemming from a July 28 dustup with the Astros. Meanwhile, Dodgers lefty Alex Wood won’t come off the IL before the end of the month, Gurnick tweets. Wood, who’s also dealing with shoulder inflammation, has only made one appearance this year (on July 25).
  • The Rays’ injury-laden pitching staff may have lost yet another hurler Tuesday, when southpaw Jalen Beeks left their game with an elbow/forearm issue. Manager Kevin Cash didn’t come off as optimistic afterward, saying (via Juan Toribio of MLB.com), “It sounded similar to Kitt, but we don’t know anything yet.” Cash was referring to righty Andrew Kittredge, who went on the 45-day IL on Aug. 12 with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament. A similar fate would be a season-ender for Beeks, who has been terrific in 2020. The 27-year-old has notched a 3.26 ERA and a much more impressive 1.74 FIP with 12.1 K/9 against 1.86 BB/9 across 19 1/3 innings.
  • Veteran knuckleballer Steven Wright hasn’t taken a major league mound since July 13, 2019, but the former Red Sox righty informed Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe that he’s not ready to call it a career. “I just don’t want to sit back in a few years and wish I had tried it,” said the soon-to-be 36-year-old Wright, who threw 35 pitches from a mound last week and told Abraham, “I’m throwing two bullpens a week and I’m feeling healthy for the first time since 2016.” Wright was an All-Star that year, but he then faced knee problems, Tommy John surgery, a performance-enhancing drugs suspension and an arrest on domestic violence charges (which led to a 15-game ban) during the ensuing seasons.

Joe Kelly Suspension Reduced On Appeal

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Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly has succeeded in appealing his eight-game suspension. The ban will now span five contests. Jared Carrabis of Barstool Sports first reported the news on Twitter, with Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel of ESPN.com confirming that report (via Twitter).

Kelly was suspended after a well-publicized bench-clearing incident during a game with the Astros. He was deemed to have thrown in the area of the head of Houston third baseman Alex Bregman. The suspension also reflected Kelly’s taunting thereafter.

More recently, Kelly hit the injured list with inflammation in his right shoulder. He’ll still need to serve out his suspension once he’s ready for activation, though it seems possible the Dodgers will be able to manage the timing to blunt the impact of the ban.

Dodgers Place Joe Kelly On Injured List

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The Dodgers announced that right-handed reliever Joe Kelly has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to inflammation in his right shoulder. No timeline for his return was provided. The Dodgers have recalled lefty Adam Kolarek in his place.

Kelly is still facing an eight-game suspension after throwing a fastball near Alex Bregman’s head and swapping verbal jabs with Carlos Correa, all of which eventually led to bench-clearing confrontation. He’s in the process of appealing the punishment, and a hearing on that front is set for today, tweets Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times.

The 32-year-old Kelly had a rough first season in L.A., pitching to a 4.56 ERA in 51 1/3 frames after inking a three-year, $25MM deal in the preceding offseason. He was hit hard in the playoffs as well. This year, he’s rattled off 6 1/3 shutout innings to begin the shortened campaign, although the five walks he’s yielded in that time are still a red flag. Kelly’s 97.1 mph average fastball in 2020 is still well above the league average, but it’s down about two miles per hour from its 2017 peak and down nearly a mile per hour off last year’s mark.

With Kelly out until at least next week, the Dodgers will lean move heavily on fellow righties Blake Treinen, Pedro Baez and Brusdar Graterol to set up for closer Kenley Jansen. Kolarek will give the club a fourth southpaw option to match up with opposing lineups, joining Caleb Ferguson, Scott Alexander and Jake McGee.

MLB Suspends Joe Kelly, Dave Roberts

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Major League Baseball has issued suspensions in the wake of last night’s bench-clearing action between the Dodgers and Astros. Los Angeles righty Joe Kelly was suspended for eight games and manager Dave Roberts received a single-game ban.

Kelly will appeal his suspension, so it’s not going into effect right away. Roberts will go ahead and sit out this evening’s game. His counterpart, Astros skipper Dusty Baker, will be fined for what went down between the two clubs.

In Kelly’s case, the league made several factual determinations that drove the decision. Kelly was deemed to have thrown “in the area of the head” and also to have “taunted” in a manner that spurred the clearing of the benches. The statement also noted that he had previously been suspended for such an incident.

Dodgers Notes: Kelly, Muncy, Hill

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Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly has recently regained the form he exhibited in last season’s postseason, as his 2.51 ERA in 32.1 innings since June 1st is exactly what L.A. brass had in mind when the club inked him to a three-year/$25MM deal this past winter. Unfortunately, Kelly’s recent performance has been maintained despite nagging lower-body issues, with manager Dave Roberts telling MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick today that said issues will limit Kelly’s usage leading into the playoffs (link). The Dodgers wrapped up the NL West over a week ago, so it stands to reason that Roberts would currently opt for kid gloves in handling his banged-up players.

A few other L.A. notes courtesy of Ken Gurnick today…

  • Utilityman Max Muncy suffered a quad injury in Friday night’s 12-5 victory over Colorado on Friday, but Roberts defines him as “playable” for tonight’s game, with an expected return to the starting lineup slated for Sunday (link). It was only days ago that the 29-year-old Muncy returned from a fractured wrist, so it’s imperative that the club gets him right for October. After exploding into public consciousness in 2018 with a ridiculous .263/.391/.582 campaign (162 wRC+), Muncy has proven to be far from a one-year wonder in 2019. His .248/.368/.510 line through 562 at-bats has been good enough for a 131 wRC+ on the year.
  • It’s been a yo-yo season for starter Rich Hill, as the lanky 39-year-old has been off-and-on the IL with dizzying frequency in 2019. When healthy, Hill has been characteristically effective–as evidenced by a 2.68 ERA/4.30 FIP through 11 starts–but the lefty has been sidelined since Sept 12 with a strained left MCL. That injury was sustained in his first start back after an elbow issue precluded him from appearing in three month’s worth of games. Now, however, comes word that Hill is again ready to retake the mound, as Gurnick hears that Hill will start Tuesday’s tilt at San Diego (link). Despite the injury issues, we heard early in the year that the hurler was interested in continuing his career beyond 2019–his final season under contract with Los Angeles.

 

Injury Notes: Tauchman, Moose, Laureano, Kelly

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Mike Tauchman departed during the fourth inning of Sunday night’s game with what the Yankees described as left calf tightness.  The outfielder suffered the injury while fielding a Brock Holt single, though he told reporters (including James Wagner of the New York Times) that he had recently been dealing with a sore calf and thought he was beyond the problem after a pair of pain-free games.  Tauchman will undergo an MRI on Monday in New York to determine the extent of the issue.

One of many unsung heroes who have stepped up in the wake of a cavalcade of Yankees injuries, Tauchman hit his 13th homer of the season Sunday, improving his slash line to .277/.361/.504 (128 wRC+) over 296 plate appearances.  After two seasons as a spare-parts outfielder with the Rockies, Tauchman has broken out in a major way, which would make it all the more unfortunate if a potential injured list stint were to cut into his availability for the postseason roster.  If Tauchman does have to miss time, the Yankees still have Clint Frazier and Cameron Maybin (himself just returned from a wrist injury) as left field options, and Giancarlo Stanton looms as a potential late-season reinforcement at some point in September.

More on other injury situations from around the game…

  • “I can’t take a swing without pain,” Mike Moustakas told reporters (including JR Radcliffe of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) about the deep wrist bruise that has limited him to a non-hitting role.  “I can hit flips, I can hit BP, and there’s still pain there, but that’s not what’s concerning. It’s when I swing and miss or I check swing and I have to hold my bat.”  The Brewers third baseman sat out seven games within a recent nine-game stretch while trying to recover, and has appeared in each of the club’s last two games but only as a defensive replacement.  While he is happy to help in any way possible while recovering, Moustakas is understandably eager to more fully contribute, and hopes he is getting close to feeling normal at the plate.  “When I’m in an at-bat facing a major league pitcher, you don’t want to be thinking about how bad your hand hurts when you’re trying to hit,” Moustakas said.  “You want to have a clear mind and go out there able to compete. I wasn’t able to do that the last week or so.“
  • As Ramon Laureano works his way back to full health after suffering a stress reaction in his right shin, Athletics manager Bob Melvin told reporters (including Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle) that Laureano will likely play in only two of every three games.  “This probably isn’t going to be an everyday proposition for him for a while,” Melvin said.  Laureano didn’t go through a rehab assignment before returning from his five-week stint on the IL, and left Saturday’s game after suffering a cramp in his right leg.
  • Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly has been battling a lower-body injury, manager Dave Roberts told J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group and other reporters.  The problem is “not a red flag for us,” Roberts said, though he noted that Kelly’s delivery is still being somewhat altered by the injury.  Kelly pitched on Saturday after sitting out the Dodgers’ previous five games.  After signing a three-year, $25MM free agent deal with Los Angeles over the winter, Kelly badly struggled over his first two-plus months but then stabilized things, posting a 2.00 ERA over his last 27 innings (28 outings).

AL Notes: Machado, Yankees, Tigers, White Sox

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The market for Manny Machado is by most accounts down to three teams, though perhaps it’s not too late for others to get involved. Interestingly, the Yankees are still the least aggressive of that group, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today (Twitter links), who suggests that the New York powerhouse has not yet and may not ever put more than $200MM on the table for one of the game’s best players. Meanwhile, the White Sox have now made two intriguing acquisitions of players with close personal ties to Machado, with Jon Jay joining Yonder Alonso on the South Side. And the Phillies are reportedly lining up a second offer to present to Machado.

  • Ken Davidoff of the New York Post looks further at the Yanks’ thus-far tepid pursuit of Machado, noting that the club hasn’t yet even made him a formal offer. Clearly, there’s a point at which the Bronx Bombers would be thrilled to land Machado, but there isn’t much indication at this point that the team is going to bid up a massive, long-term guarantee. Meanwhile, the club’s recent signing of veteran Troy Tulowitzki may have been an interesting development, but it likely won’t have any kind of impact on the possible pursuit of Machado. As Davidoff notes, Tulo is hardly a clear difference-maker at this stage of his career. And the veteran himself tells MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch (via Twitter) that he’d be thrilled to have Machado join him in New York.
  • In years past, we might have been wondering whether the Tigers might be a surprise entrant to the Machado market. But the Detroit org is now deep in a rebuild, the timing of which is unclear. As Evan Woodbery of MLive.com writes, that’s by design. While the club has intentionally not put any dates on its anticipated return to competition, though, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have some in mind. As GM Al Avila has acknowledged, the club’s ledger will be clear of some hefty obligations after the 2020 season. In the meantime, there’s still quite a lot to be done to build a new competitive core.
  • In other Tigers news, the club has added former MLB infielder Josh Wilson, albeit in a non-playing capacity. The 37-year-old is an eight-year big-league veteran who played his final season with the Detroit organization back in 2015. Wilson will begin his new career in the game in a scouting capacity. As Lynn Henning of the Detroit News covers, the club also announced a series of other staffing moves.
  • The White Sox are hoping their own rebound will occur much more quickly than that of their division rivals. Accordingly, the team is not only pursuing Machado but continues to hunt for quality veteran pieces to plug into its roster. Before agreeing to sign Kelvin Herrera yesterday, the Sox “were among the finalists” to ink fellow hard-throwing, right-handed reliever Joe Kelly, according to Rob Bradford of WEEI.com (via Twitter). Kelly, of course, landed with the Dodgers for three years and $25MM. Clearly, the White Sox have knocked down quite a few doors this winter. It’ll be fascinating to see what other players they end up adding to the MLB roster.
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