Alex Wood

Injury Notes: Wood, Bellinger, Price, Gallo, Correa, DeSclafani

By Steve Adams | August 22, 2017 at 5:54pm CDT

The Dodgers have placed both Alex Wood and Cody Bellinger on the DL, the team announced Tuesday. Wood is once again dealing with inflammation in his SC (sternoclavicular) joint, though the breakout southpaw is targeting a return for the first weekend of September against the Padres. As for Bellinger, he’s been slowed recently by a right ankle sprain that has been called mild in nature, but he’s already been out of the lineup for two games, allowing the Dodgers to backdate the move by two days. That’d put Bellinger on track to be eligible to return from the DL as soon as next Wednesday. Manager Dave Roberts told reporters today that top prospect Walker Buehler and rehabbing ace Clayton Kershaw are not candidates to start for the Dodgers in place of Wood this weekend (all Twitter links via Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register). Rather, a bullpen game started by Ross Stripling seems the likeliest course. In corresponding roster moves for Wood and Bellinger, the Dodgers have recalled righties Brock Stewart and Josh Ravin.

More injury news from around the game…

The Red Sox are no closer to determining a return date for left-hander David Price, manager John Farrell said in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM today (Twitter link that includes audio). Farrell said it’s still too early to consider bringing Price back in a bullpen capacity, as he’s yet to progress to throwing off a mound. Once he’s able to do that, the Red Sox will be able to gauge a conceivable timeline and weigh their options. Evan Drellich of CSN New England tweets that Price has thrown from 90 feet on flat ground and is slated to throw again tomorrow. It’s now been exactly one month since Price’s last start, as the former Cy Young winner has been battling inflammation in his left elbow.
Joey Gallo has been placed on the 7-day concussion disabled list, the Rangers announced today. Gallo suffered a nondisplaced nasal fracture in a recent collision with teammate Matt Bush (who landed on the 10-day DL as a result) and has also been dealing with concussion-like symptoms. Texas had hoped that he could avoid the DL, but he’ll now be sidelined until at least next Tuesday as a result of today’s move. Gallo was on an otherworldly power binge at the time of his injury, having launched 10 homers in his past 18 games (73 plate appearances) in the month of August. Infielder Phil Gosselin is up from Triple-A Round Rock to take Gallo’s roster spot.
Carlos Correa told reporters today that while he’s not yet certain exactly when he’ll embark on a minor league rehab assignment, he thinks he’ll need about a week’s worth of at-bats in the minors before he’s ready to return (Twitter link via Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle). Correa cited a target of 20 to 30 at-bats before he’d be back up to speed. It’s been just under five weeks since the Astros announced that Correa would miss six to eight weeks with a torn thumb ligament.
Reds right-hander Anthony DeSclafani received a second opinion on his injured right elbow, per Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer. After an initial MRI revealed that there was no ligament damage in his ailing right elbow, DeSclafani sent his scans to Dr. Keith Meister for a second look, and Meister confirmed as much. DeSclafani is on a throwing program and hopes to ramp up quicker than usual to “really be able to test the ligament and get back on the mound,” but Buchanan notes that time could be starting to run out for DeSclafani to take the mound in a Reds uniform this season. DeSclafani has not pitched for the Reds this season due to a sprained UCL in his right elbow and this latest bout of inflammation.

West Notes: Lowrie, Ramirez, Wood, Holland

By Jeff Todd | August 22, 2017 at 11:45am CDT

It seems increasingly plausible that the Athletics may not only keep second baseman Jed Lowrie for the remainder of the season, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle suggests, but also for the 2018 campaign. It seems a foregone conclusion that the club will exercise the veteran’s $6MM club option, though he could still be traded over the winter. Assuming that Lowrie remains in Oakland when the calendar flips to September, the focus will turn to assessing the desirability of retaining him as opposed to turning the reins over to youngster Franklin Barreto. Slusser notes that, despite the team’s general youth movement, there’s a feeling that Barreto could stand to receive a fair bit more developmental time at Triple-A before he is fully exposed to MLB pitching.

Here’s more from out west:

The Angels aren’t sure when they’ll get righty J.C. Ramirez back from an elbow injury, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register writes. Ramirez has been shut down with what has been diagnosed as a strain. “He’s in a no-throw situation as we assess his strength,” says GM Billy Eppler. Ramirez, 29, has been quite the pick-up for the Halos. Since joining the organization last year, he has provided 193 2/3 innings of 3.86 ERA pitching — a distinct turnaround from the marginal results he had produced previously.
It’s likely that Dodgers lefty Alex Wood will skip at least one start, Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times was among those to report (Twitter links). Wood showed a downtick in velocity and coughed up three home runs in his outing yesterday, though he was able to complete six innings. After the game, manager Dave Roberts said that Wood had experienced a recurrence of inflammation in his SC joint. Given the Dodgers’ place in the standings, there’s little reason to take a risk.
Struggling Rockies closer Greg Holland says he’s just not throwing enough “quality pitches,” as Nick Groke of the Denver Post writes. Manager Bud Black suggested there’s no cause for broader concern, while Holland noted that he has “been getting beat with mistakes in the middle of the plate.” The veteran righty was carrying a 1.56 ERA entering play on August 6th, but that number has more than doubled over his last five appearances. Assuming he can figure things out, Holland figures to be a key part of the Rockies’ hopeful run to and through October — and quite an interesting free agent to watch once the season ends.

NL West Notes: Bettis, Gray, Dahl, Walker, Bradley, Wood, Giants

By Jeff Todd | June 2, 2017 at 9:33pm CDT

Rockies righty Chad Bettis is set to report to the club to begin moving toward a return, Nick Groke of the Denver Post reports on Twitter. Bettis, who underwent chemotherapy treatment for testicular cancer, has already been throwing and running. Needless to say, it’s great to see that he’s ready to start working in earnest. Notably, too, Bettis could conceivably represent quite an impactful late-season addition if the Rockies stay in contention and he’s able to move through a rehab assignment.

A quicker path to relief for the Rockies rotation could be in the works, as Jon Gray was able to run on the field for the first time this week, per Groke. Gray is slated to face hitters in a sim game for the first time next week, which suggests he isn’t far from ramping it up in earnest. Groke also notes that the club isn’t interested in utilizing a six-man rotation; presumably, another hurler will step aside to make way for Gray when he’s ready.
The news wasn’t quite as promising for Rockies outfielder David Dahl, who has also missed the entire season thus far after a strong rookie campaign. His rib issues are still causing discomfort, so the club has sent him back to its spring facility to keep exercising and waiting for the problems to subside, per Thomas Harding of MLB.com (via Twitter). With Ian Desmond back, Mark Reynolds still producing, and Gerardo Parra showing much-improved form, the loss of Dahl hasn’t been as significant as might have been feared. Still, he’d represent another offensive threat, and his progress could be quite important if any needs arise between now and the trade deadline.
Diamondbacks righty Taijuan Walker isn’t quite ready to take the ball this weekend, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports on Twitter. Walker says his blister is nearly healed, but isn’t quite to the point that the club is comfortable putting him on the major league mound.
Meanwhile, D-Backs manager Torey Lovullo tells MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM (Twitter link) that the club isn’t interested in moving righty Archie Bradley back to the rotation at this point. That was a topic of discussion when Shelby Miller was lost for the year, says Lovullo, but ultimately the team felt Bradley was too valuable in his current role as a multi-inning-capable reliever. The 24-year-old, a former top prospect, had struggled as a starter in his prior MLB work. But he currently owns a sterling 1.46 ERA through 24 2/3 innings of relief, with 31 strikeouts against just six walks on the year.
Dodgers lefty Alex Wood, who is on the DL with sternum discomfort but was just named the NL pitcher of the month, got some promising news today. As Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times tweets, skipper Dave Roberts says a medical review came back “as benign as possible.” Wood is only expected to miss one more start before he’ll be ready to return.
Things are obviously not going well for the Giants in 2017; indeed, as Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News observes, not only is the major league outfit struggling, but all of the organization’s affiliates are currently sitting in last place. GM Bobby Evans says that may be due in part to the fact that the club has pushed younger players up the ladder somewhat rapidly — especially pitchers. Looking back at the MLB outfit, top righty Johnny Cueto had some notable words on the current atmosphere in the clubhouse. Drawing a distinction to his prior clubs, Cueto says the Giants players tend to be “on their own, just sitting at their locker, very quiet, just by themselves.”

Dodgers Place Alex Wood On DL, Select Contract Of Brandon Morrow

By Steve Adams | May 29, 2017 at 11:00am CDT

The Dodgers are placing left-hander Alex Wood on the 10-day disabled list due to inflammation in his left SC joint, tweets Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. In a corresponding move, the Dodgers have selected the contract of veteran right-hander Brandon Morrow, shifting fellow righty Brock Stewart to the 60-day DL to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.

[Related: Updated Dodgers depth chart]

Wood informed the Dodgers that he felt he could pitch through the issue, but the team elected to proceed with caution, per Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times (Twitter links). McCullough adds that manager Dave Roberts expects Wood to miss just one start, which is critical given his unexpected dominance early in the year.

Indeed, the 26-year-old Wood has been not only one of the Dodgers’ best pitchers in 2017, he’s been one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. Through 48 innings this year, he’s logged a 1.69 ERA with a 60-to-15 K/BB ratio and a superlative 68.7 percent ground-ball rate.

Morrow, 32, has an unsightly 5.71 ERA through his first 17 1/3 innings in Triple-A this season, but his secondary stats are more encouraging; the 10-year veteran has posted a strong 17-to-4 K/BB ratio and a 55.7 percent ground-ball rate.

Morrow was a mainstay on the Blue Jays’ pitching staff from 2010-12, but injuries have significantly slowed down his once-promising career. The former No. 5 overall draft pick was one of baseball’s better pitching prospects before arriving in the Majors with the Mariners back in 2007, and while he’s shown flashes of brilliance at times, he’s been unable to remain consistent. In 784 2/3 big league innings (split between the bullpen and the rotation), Morrow owns a 4.16 ERA with 9.1 K/9, 4.0 BB/9 and 16 saves.

West Notes: Giants, Dodgers, Mariners, Rangers

By Connor Byrne | May 14, 2017 at 12:05pm CDT

Off to a major league-worst 14-24 start, the Giants look like sellers in the making. The problem is that the veterans they could attempt to move are lacking in trade value, observes Buster Olney of ESPN. The best of the bunch is Johnny Cueto, but the offseason opt-out clause in the right-hander’s contract takes away some of his appeal. Then there’s righty Jeff Samardzija, who owns a 5.44 ERA in 46 1/3 innings (albeit with a 3.43 FIP) and is due upward of $60MM through 2020, as well as aging outfielders Hunter Pence and Denard Span. The 34-year-old Pence is making $18.5MM both this year and next, while Span, 33, is on a $9MM salary through 2018 and has a $4MM buyout for 2019.

NL West Notes: Jankowski, Desmond, Hill, Wood, Ethier

By Steve Adams | April 28, 2017 at 9:45am CDT

Padres center fielder Travis Jankowski hit the 10-day disabled list earlier this week with what the team called a “deep bone bruise” in his right foot, but there’s now a concern that Jankowski may have a hairline fracture as well, reports MLB.com’s Barry M. Bloom. If that’s the case, the 25-year-old could be out more than a month. Bloom quotes manager Andy Green as saying the team doctors aren’t yet able to determine if there’s a fracture (perhaps due to the swelling), but they’ll be cautious either way. Even if there’s no fracture, it sounds as if Jankowski can expect to miss more than the minimum 10 days. “They told me I’d be in the boot for another week to 10 days,” Jankowski tells Bloom. Jankowski turned in a marginal performance at the plate in 2016, hitting .245/.332/.313 in 383 plate appearances, but he played strong defense in center field and provided significant baserunning value with 30 steals.

Rich Hill Heads Back To 10-Day DL

By Jeff Todd | April 17, 2017 at 8:14pm CDT

After his blister problem reappeared in his most recent outing, Dodgers lefty Rich Hill is heading back to the DL, per a club announcement. For the time being, corner outfielder/infielder Rob Segedin is headed up to the active roster while Alex Wood will take the open rotation spot.

There’s plenty of uncertainty in Hill’s situation. As things stand, the team is examining ways to treat the ongoing problem, though there’s no timetable at present and it seems there’s little in the way of clear answers. Manager Dave Roberts acknowledged that the organization’s medical staff has been stymied thus far in its efforts to get at the root cause, as MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick reports on Twitter. (Gurnick provided more detail on the confounding issue earlier today.)

The strategy of utilizing the 10-day DL to provide rest obviously wasn’t successful on its own. As Roberts notes, and Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times tweets, “ten days wasn’t enough.” Whether additional rest will provide a solution obviously isn’t known, though presumably that’s one possible action. It’s even possible that the veteran southpaw could move to the bullpen upon his return, Roberts says (as Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register tweets), with the idea presumably being that shorter stints may help alleviate the problem.

Fortunately, the Dodgers do have ample depth built into their plans. Every member of the current MLB staff has at least some significant recent injury on his record, but the current top five seems to be a strong and healthy unit at the moment. Swingman Ross Stripling could also step into the rotation, while Triple-A starters Julio Urias and Joe Gunkel could also be called upon. Scott Kazmir and Brock Stewart both represent additional starting options who are currently on the mend.

While the organization always knew there was some health risk with the 37-year-old Hill, that doesn’t soften the blow. The Dodgers promised Hill $48MM over three years to bring him back into the fold, so while a bullpen move might at least allow him to contribute and stay fresh while the team looks for a permanent fix, such an approach would surely not return value on the contract over the long run.

West Notes: Padres, Astros, Dodgers, Rangers

By charliewilmoth and Connor Byrne | April 8, 2017 at 8:04pm CDT

This year’s Padres are turning “tanking” into an art form, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. The Padres feature three players selected in the Rule 5 Draft, plus an incredibly inexperienced outfield and three starting pitchers who have recently been released. GM A.J. Preller’s strategy this season, Sherman writes, amounts to a “more extreme version of, say, what the Astros and Cubs did” — essentially, being indifferent to winning in the short term in order to get choice draft picks. Notably, Sherman detects a personal tone to criticism of the Padres’ strategy from employees of other organizations, in part because of Preller’s failure to disclose some relevant medical information in past trades, including the deal last season that sent Drew Pomeranz to Boston.

The Astros have liked what they’ve seen so far of Charlie Morton, who signed a two-year, $14MM deal with the team last winter, Tyler Kepner of the New York Times writes. “I do believe that Charlie Morton isn’t a back-of-the-rotation guy,” said GM Jeff Luhnow during Spring Training. “He hit 97 three times in the first inning yesterday, with a lot of sink on his pitches and good secondary stuff. A healthy Charlie Morton could work himself into the conversation with Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers at the top of our rotation.” Morton allowed just two runs and two walks while striking out six in his first start of the year against the Mariners this week, although, uncharacteristically, he allowed 11 fly balls. Morton is excited about his new team’s prospects, Kepner writes. “The whole team is strong,” he says. “I just don’t see how we’re not set up to win.”
With Rich Hill on the disabled list, the Dodgers will reinsert left-hander Alex Wood into their rotation for Monday’s game against the Cubs, manager Dave Roberts announced Saturday (via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com). Wood wasn’t able to crack the Dodgers’ season-opening rotation, but he has enjoyed plenty of success as a starter. The 26-year-old has racked up 458 1/3 frames from the rotation and recorded a 3.40 ERA, 8.01 K/9 and 2.88 BB/9.
Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre is eligible to come off the 10-day DL on Sunday, but the team is unsure if it will activate him, per T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com. “The bottom line is, we are in the information-gathering stage, and how he feels,” manager Jeff Banister said of Beltre, who’s sidelined with a calf injury. “We’ll go from there.” Beltre took live batting practice Saturday, though he’s not yet able to run at full speed. Considering they’re off Monday, the Rangers could opt against activating the 38-year-old in favor of a couple more days of rest.

Ryu, McCarthy Named To Dodgers’ Rotation; Wood To Bullpen

By Jeff Todd | March 29, 2017 at 6:45pm CDT

MARCH 29: Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register tweets that McCarthy has, indeed, been tabbed for the final spot in the rotation. Roberts told the L.A. media today that McCarthy will start the fourth game of the season in Los Angeles, with Ryu getting the nod in Colorado in the following contest. Those decisions land Wood in the bullpen, though certainly, given the injury concerns that constantly surround McCarthy, Ryu and the currently-injured Scott Kazmir, Wood could find himself with a rotation opportunity at some point during the season.

McCullough further tweets that Stripling will not be going to Triple-A but will instead begin the season in long relief. The Dodgers will trot out a rotation of Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill, Kenta Maeda, McCarthy and Ryu with Kenley Jansen, Sergio Romo, Grant Dayton, Luis Avilan, Chris Hatcher, Wood and Stripling in the relief corps.

MARCH 27: The Dodgers will utilize lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu out of the rotation when camp breaks, manager Dave Roberts told reporters including Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter links). That leaves Brandon McCarthy and Alex Wood still battling for the fifth and final rotation job, though both will end up on the MLB roster.

It’s not altogether surprising at this point to hear that Ryu will join the staff, though it’s certainly promising news that the Dodgers think he’s ready to handle the load. He seemingly locked the job up with his outing today, which extended his spring stat line to 14 innings of 2.57 ERA ball, over which he racked up a dozen strikeouts with just one walk.

Ryu, who just turned 30, has basically missed all of the past two seasons with arm issues. And it is certainly an open question whether he can stay healthy for the long haul. But the upside is obvious — he posted a 3.17 ERA with 7.7 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9 over 344 innings from 2013-14 — and there’s little reason not to hand him the ball and see what happens with two years and $14MM left on his contract.

After all, the Dodgers are clearly set up to get what they can out of health risks such as Ryu while covering when the need arises. In this case, one of McCarthy and Wood will be on hand in the bullpen. And while the news seemingly tickets Ross Stripling for Triple-A, he’ll be among the arms ready to step into the rotation. Los Angeles has already stashed a not-so-secret weapon there in outstanding youngster Julio Urias.

West Notes: Giants, Halos, D-backs, Dodgers, Mariners

By Connor Byrne | March 28, 2017 at 8:58pm CDT

The Giants have informed 38-year-old shortstop Jimmy Rollins that he won’t make their roster, Andrew Baggarly of the East Bay Times was among those to report. San Francisco is now awaiting word on whether the longtime Phillie and 2007 NL MVP will accept a minor league assignment, per manager Bruce Bochy, but Baggarly notes that Rollins has a Thursday opt-out in his contract. This could conceivably be the end of the line for Rollins, who posted subpar seasons with the Dodgers and White Sox over the past two years. Chicago released him last June after a 41-game stint on the South Side, and he went on to ink a minors pact with the Giants in December.

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