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Luis Severino Headed For MRI

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Yankees starter Luis Severino is slated to undergo an MRI and further medical examination, manager Aaron Boone tells reporters including George A. King III of the New York Post (via Twitter). Severino has been on the injured list since the start of the season for inflammation in his rotator cuff.

Severino’s rehab was “stalled” over the past week, as Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News puts it (Twitter link), with Severino not yet feeling up to mound work. The lack of progress was evidently worrying enough that Dr. Christopher Ahmad — a noted surgeon and the Yankees’ head physician — will take a closer look.

Notably, there’s no indication that Severino has experienced new discomfort or a specific setback. That’s the silver lining. But this is obviously a suboptimal development for a club that has been racked by injuries and would prefer to have Severino leading the rotation.

The hope all along has been that Severino would rest up a bit, work through a progression, and make it back to the MLB hill by early May. The timeline hasn’t yet changed significantly, but it seems he’s now behind schedule. And it remains to be seen what the imaging will show.

AL Notes: Sano, Clevinger, Yankees, Beltran, Pedroia

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Injured Twins slugger Miguel Sano has resumed baseball activities and could begin a rehab assignment “within a week,” manager Rocco Baldelli said Sunday (via Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com). That would put Sano on track for a return to Major League action sometime in early May. Sano’s on the mend from a cut on his lower-right Achilles, which has left third base to free-agent pickup Marwin Gonzalez and Ehire Adrianza. They’ve struggled mightily across a combined 33 plate appearances, having totaled a meager three hits (two singles and a double). Sano wasn’t nearly that woeful last year, but the 2017 All-Star’s .199/.281/.398 line in 299 plate appearances was still a major letdown. A bounce-back showing from the 25-year-old upon his return could help the Twins challenge the Indians for the AL Central crown.

Here’s the latest news from around the American League…

  • Indians righty Mike Clevinger left Sunday’s start against the Blue Jays prematurely, throwing just 75 pitches over 5 innings of work. Mandy Bell of MLB.com later revealed that Clevinger’s early exit was indeed injury-related, as he experienced upper back tightness. Bell added in a subsequent Tweet that Clevinger said he will be ready to make his next scheduled start.
  • Former All-Star outfielder Carlos Beltran has excelled in his new role with the Yankees, writes James Wagner of The New York Times. Following his exceptional playing career, Beltran has brought his passion to an advisory role in Brian Cashman’s front office, where he develops scouting reports and offers counsel to younger players. Beltran, who had been considered for the Yankees’ vacant manager position prior to the 2018 season, would seem to have a chance to manage a Major League ballclub or serve as a primary decision-maker in a front office, if that’s what he wants.
  • Longtime Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia should be available for the team’s home opener on Tuesday, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Assuming that all goes well in today’s game with Low-A Greenville, in which Pedroia will play all nine innings, he should be ready to be activated ahead of the reigning World Champions’ return to Fenway Park. He will be re-evaluated after Sunday’s game, but there is optimism that Boston will have its veteran second baseman back in the near future.

Injury Notes: Indians, Lindor, Brewers, Jeffress, Yankees, Andujar

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Lower-body injuries have kept the Indians’ starting middle infield – shortstop Francisco Lindor (high left ankle sprain) and second baseman Jason Kipnis (right calf strain) – from taking the field this season. The latter is making progress in his Triple-A rehab assignment, though there’s still no timetable for his return, Mandy Bell of MLB.com writes. Lindor, who’s out until at least late April, is only doing light workouts at the moment, but “he’s getting better every day,” manager Terry Francona said. The Indians will reevaluate Lindor during the upcoming week, Bell reports. The absences of Lindor and Kipnis have forced the Tribe to deploy Eric Stamets, Brad Miller and Max Moroff as their main middle infielders. Unfortunately for Cleveland, those three have produced abysmal results, having combined for a paltry four hits (three singles and a double) in 57 plate appearances.

  • Barring any setbacks in his Triple-A rehab stint, reliever Jeremy Jeffress will rejoin the Brewers next weekend, according to manager Craig Counsell (via Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). The return of Jeffress, who hasn’t debuted this year on account of right shoulder weakness, will be a welcome one for a Milwaukee team that lost fellow late-game option Corey Knebel to season-ending Tommy John surgery last week. The reigning National League Central champions have nevertheless rolled to a 7-2 start, though their bullpen has lacked a complement to the untouchable Josh Hader. Jeffress filled that role with aplomb in 2018, during which he notched a near-spotless 1.29 ERA with 10.45 K/9, 3.17 BB/9 and a 56.4 percent groundball rate in 76 2/3 innings.
  • Yankees third baseman Miguel Andujar expressed optimism earlier this week that he wouldn’t need to undergo season-ending surgery on his right shoulder. Manager Aaron Boone was similarly enthusiastic Saturday, George A. King III of the New York Post relays. While Boone acknowledged that surgery remains an option, he left open the possibility that this injury won’t lead to a long-term absence and added, “We are optimistic just because of the strength he is showing in all his testing.’’ Andujar’s still not swinging a bat, but whether he returns will depend more on how well he throws when he’s cleared to do so, per Boone. Without Andujar and shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, the injury-stricken Yankees have turned to veteran second baseman DJ LeMahieu to man third and Tyler Wade to handle the keystone. LeMahieu has thrived in the early portion of a two-year, $24MM contract, whereas Wade has been in over his head thus far in 2019.
  • Left-hander CC Sabathia, yet another Yankee on the injured list, could rejoin the team’s rotation next weekend, Boone said (also via King). In the meantime, the 38-year-old Sabathia – who’s working back from offseason heart surgery – will throw 60 to 70 pitches in a low-level minor league game Monday. Sabathia will bump either Domingo German or Jonathan Loaisiga from the Yankees’ starting five. Both right-handers did well in their initial starts of the season, but neither went past the five-inning mark.

Yankees Select Giovanny Urshela, Option Thairo Estrada To Minors

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Per a team release, the Yankees have selected the contract of INF Giovanny Urshela from AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and signed him to a major league contract. INF Thairo Estrada will head back to Scranton, while SS Didi Gregorius heads to the 60-day DL to make room for Urshela on the 40-man.

Long regarded as a premier hot-corner defender, Urshela will look to offer much-needed stability to a Yankee infield in shambles. With Gregorius, Miguel Andujar and the ever-fragile Troy Tulowitzki on the shelf, the club has been furiously plugging holes – Estrada and Tyler Wade were summoned from Triple-A, and Gold Glove second baseman DJ LeMahieu was uprooted from his natural habitat to help fill the void at third.

The 27-year-old Urshela has been an out-making specialist in the big leagues, slashing just .225/.274/.315 over 499 career MLB plate appearances. The 2018 late-season Yankee acquisition also spent time in the Blue Jays and Indians systems last year, where he slashed a combined .286/.326/.393 in 240 PA. Since 2014’s AAA breakout, where the Colombian clubbed 60 extra-base hits in a full-season’s worth of plate appearances, Urshela hasn’t found much success at the dish.

It was a brief big-league stay for Estrada (he didn’t once make it to the plate for the Bombers), who’s a well-regarded utility prospect in some circles. A gunshot wound and surgery-gone-wrong destroyed his 2018 campaign, so the 23-year-old will hope to patch things up in the season to come.

Yankees Sign Cliff Pennington

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The Yankees have announced that they’ve signed veteran infielder Cliff Pennington to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The deal was first reported by Pinstriped Prospects.

Pennington, 34, was with the Athletics in Spring Training and traveled with them to Tokyo as a non-roster player, but Oakland cut him loose at the end of March. Pennington split the 2018 season between the Reds and Rangers organizations, appearing in 16 games with Cincinnati and tallying 34 plate appearances. The rest of his season was spent between the two clubs’ top minor league affiliates. Prior to that, Pennington had been playing with the Angels on a two-year contract, primarily serving as a utility infielder.

That utility role is one that Pennington has settled into over the course of an 11-year big league career. He’s shown plenty of versatility, with nearly 5000 innings at shortstop, 1600 innings at second base, 350 at third base and some brief work in the corner outfield. In that time, he’s drawn excellent reviews for his glovework at second base and solid marks for his defense at shortstop. A switch-hitter, Pennington is a lifetime .242/.309/.339 hitter in 3142 trips to the plate.

The veteran Pennington will provide the injury-plagued Yankees with some depth all over the diamond. New York opened the season without shortstop Didi Gregorius, who is recovering from  Tommy John surgery, and has since seen both Miguel Andujar and Troy Tulowitzki land on the injured list. The former of those two injury situations is particularly troubling, as Andujar has been diagnosed with a small tear in the labrum of his right shoulder. While Andujar is currently opting for physical therapy and rehab, the possibility of surgery looms.

AL East Notes: Hicks, Bogaerts, Red Sox, Davis

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Yankees center fielder Aaron Hicks was cleared to resume baseball activities today and, according to manager Aaron Boone, won’t need a rehab stint that mirrors Spring Training’s six-week length (Twitter link via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). However, Hicks is still multiple weeks away from surfacing as an option for the injury-plagued Yankees, whose outfield currently consists of Aaron Judge, Brett Gardner and Clint Frazier. Hicks, Giancarlo Stanton and Jacoby Ellsbury are among the 11 players New York currently has on the injured list.

More from the AL East…

  • WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford explores the manner in which Xander Bogaerts’ $120MM extension with the Red Sox came together. As agent Scott Boras explained, the Sox had made previous overtures during Bogaerts’ arbitration seasons, but the two sides had never been on the same page. Part of that, per Boras, was a belief that Bogaerts’ offense was eventually going to jump to the level it did last season. A greater driving factor, as Boras tells it, was Boston’s eventual willingness to include an opt-out clause to sweeten the deal. The opt-out not only gives Bogaerts the chance to reevaluate the Red Sox in a few years but more importantly provides him another bite at the free-agent apple. “He’s going to be a 29-year-old free agent,” Boras said. Both president of baseball ops Dave Dombrowski and Boras noted that Bogaerts had a strong desire to stay in Boston, which pushed the deal across the finish line in the end.
  • Chris Davis’ season is already off to a nightmare start, Peter Schmuck of the Baltimore Sun writes. The 33-year-old is off to an 0-for-17 start with 11 strikeouts and four walks through 21 plate appearances, including three punchouts in today’s home opener. Davis spoke to reporters after the game and conceded that he wasn’t surprised to be met with a chorus of boos after his third strikeout of the game but noted that it was still “tough” to hear even if Orioles fans are rightful in expressing their displeasure. Rookie manager Brandon Hyde voiced support of the beleaguered slugger and said he plans to continue playing Davis and trying to put him in advantageous matchups to get him going. Davis’ teammates spoke positively of him as well. “He’s one of the better teammates that I’ve had in my time in the big leagues,” said Alex Cobb. “I know he cares so much. To feel that in front of your own fans, I can’t even imagine.”

Yankees Acquire Jake Barrett

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The Yankees announced today that they have claimed righty Jake Barrett off waivers from the Pirates. Fellow right-hander Ben Heller was shifted to the 60-day injured  list while he continues to recover from Tommy John surgery.

Barrett already spent the offseason bouncing between rosters; now he’s doing so again to open the season. He’ll start things off at Triple-A with the New York organization, where he’ll represent a depth option should a need arise in the big league pen.

As we’ve now discussed several times in recent months, Barrett is looking to rediscover the form he showed back in 2016, when as a 24-year-old rookie, he gave the Diamondbacks 59 1/3 innings of 3.49 ERA ball with nearly a strikeout per inning. He’s posted a 5.03 ERA in 34 big league innings since that time and spent most of 2018 at Triple-A, pitching to a 2.87 ERA with 11.3 K/9 and 4.9 BB/9 over 53 1/3 innings.

Yankees Place Troy Tulowitzki On Injured List

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The Yankees announced Thursday that they’ve officially placed shortstop Troy Tulowitzki on the 10-day injured list. Infield prospect Thairo Estrada was recalled to take his place on the 25-man roster (as MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported would be the case).

Tulowitzki, 34, is the 11th player the Yankees have placed on the injured list already in 2019. The former All-Star and MVP candidate has been plagued by injuries to his lower half in recent years and missed all of the 2018 season recovering from surgery to remove bone spurs in both of his heels. He’s belted a home run and a double thus far in his 13 plate appearances with the Yankees but didn’t manage to stave off the injury bug for long. The team has yet to comment on how long he’ll be sidelined, though manager Aaron Boone was quick to suggest after yesterday’s game that an IL trip was quite likely.

The injury to Tulo opens the door for Estrada to make his big league debut. Ranked 19th among Yankees farmhands by MLB.com and 26th by Fangraphs, the 23-year-old Estrada has faced a more uphill battle in reaching the bigs than most players. He looked to be progressing toward a potential promotion heading into the 2018 season but was shot in the hip during a robbery attempt in his native Venezuela last offseason, which ultimately required a pair of surgeries. Both MLB.com and Fangraphs peg him as a potential utility infielder. His last full, healthy season in 2017 resulted in a solid .301/.353/.392 slash through 122 games in Double-A ball.

Estrada’s promotion to the Majors doesn’t necessarily lock him into regular at-bats while Tulowitzki is on the shelf. The Yankees have DJ LeMahieu and Gleyber Torres both healthy, and that pairing will surely receive everyday at-bats at present. But with Miguel Andujar also on the injured list, Estrada and Tyler Wade should have ample opportunity for playing time — perhaps in a platoon setting, as Estrada’s right-handed bat complements the left-handed-hitting Wade.

AL East Notes: Red Sox, Estrada, Diaz

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Though the Red Sox have hammered out extensions with free-agents-to-be Chris Sale and Xander Bogaerts in recent weeks, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski strongly suggested that the team won’t be negotiating any additional deals, Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald reports. The team has no ongoing discussions, per Dombrowski, who added that he is “pretty certain” there will not be another extension brokered this season. The Sox initially placed an Opening Day deadline on wrapping up negotiations, though the Bogaerts deal was announced a few days into the season. As Dombrowski explains, talks with Bogaerts were advanced enough that the team was confident they wouldn’t linger into the season.

A bit more from the division…

  • The Yankees will recall infielder Thairo Estrada to replace Troy Tulowitzki on the active roster tomorrow, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports (via Twitter). That all but confirms that Tulowitzki, who strained his left calf muscle in today’s game, will land on the 10-day injured list (as skipper Aaron Boone had already said was likely). Estrada, 23. missed much of the 2018 season after being shot in the hip during a robbery attempt in his native Venezuela prior to the season. The promising young infielder thankfully survived without serious damage and even returned to the field for 18 late-season games and another 19 games in the Arizona Fall League. Ranked as the team’s No. 19 prospect on MLB.com, Estrada hit .301/.353/.392 at the Double-A level in his last full season in 2017.
  • The ankle injury suffered by Yandy Diaz in Tuesday’s game doesn’t appear to be serious, and the Rays are confident he’ll be able to return to the lineup Friday, writes Juan Toribio of MLB.com. Diaz could have been available off the bench but didn’t appear in today’s game against the Rockies. The 27-year-old is off to a fast start with his new organization, having slashed .333/.440/.619 with a homer and three doubles through his first 25 plate appearances after being acquired from the Indians organization in the Jake Bauers/Edwin Encarnacion three-team swap this offseason.

Injury/Rehab Notes: Tulo, Lamb, Jeffress, Heaney

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Yankees shortstop Troy Tulowitzki exited Tuesday’s game with a left calf strain and will “almost certainly” head to the injured list, manager Aaron Boone tells reporters (Twitter link via the YES Network’s Jack Curry). If and when Tulo does hit the IL, he’ll bring the Yankees’ total to a staggering 11 players on the shelf, including two left-side infielders in as many days. Third baseman Miguel Andujar went on the injured list due to a labrum tear yesterday, and with both him and Tulowitzki out of the picture, the Yankees will be relying on a mix of Gleyber Torres, DJ LeMahieu and Tyler Wade around the infield. Young Thairo Estrada is already on the 40-man roster and could get a call to help provide some depth while Tulowitzki is out. There’s no firm timetable for Tulo just yet.

Some more notable health updates from around baseball…

  • Diamondbacks infielder Jake Lamb pulled up lame while legging out a double in this afternoon’s game, and the early diagnosis is a strained left quadriceps, per The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan (Twitter link). Lamb will undergo an MRI tomorrow to further evaluate the severity of the injury. If Lamb is to miss time with the injury, the D-backs can increase Christian Walker’s role at first base and perhaps mix in Alex Avila a bit as well. The 28-year-old Lamb has gotten off to a slow start in 2019 as he looks to rebound from a 2018 campaign that was ruined by shoulder troubles.
  • Brewers righty Jeremy Jeffress is slated to begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A San Antonio tomorrow, tweets MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy. He’s been sidelined with some weakness in his shoulder but hasn’t been diagnosed with any structural damage or significant injury. Jeffress has been building strength since being slowed down in mid-March and will test out his shoulder over a series of appearances with San Antonio. President of baseball operations David Stearns recently suggested that mid or late April could be a reasonable return date for Jeffress, whose importance to the team only increased with the revelation that Corey Knebel will miss the entire 2019 season as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.
  • The Angels announced yesterday that a CT scan revealed “chronic changes to the elbow” in left-hander Andrew Heaney. Ominous as that sounds, Heaney will be cleared to resume a throwing program within the next week to 10 days. He’s also undergoing a cortisone shot to help combat the discomfort in his elbow. The good news for the Angels is that there seemingly wasn’t any evidence of structural damage regarding Heaney’s ulnar collateral ligament. Heaney has yet to appear in a game this season and was limited to just 1 2/3 innings early in Spring Training, so even once he does resume a throwing program, he’ll still be several weeks from surfacing as an option in the Halos’ rotation.
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