Francisco Liriano

Injury Notes: Liriano, Story, Maeda, Braun, Red Sox

By Steve Adams | May 11, 2017 at 5:44pm CDT

The Blue Jays announced that left-hander Francisco Liriano has been placed on the 10-day disabled list due to inflammation in his left shoulder. Righty Leonel Campos has been called up from Triple-A Buffalo in a corresponding move. While Liriano becomes the third Blue Jays starter to land on the disabled list (joining J.A. Happ and Aaron Sanchez), Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith tweets that the team is hopeful that Liriano won’t need to spend more than the minimum 10 days on the shelf. Right-hander Mike Bolsinger will remain in the rotation and make what would’ve been Liriano’s next scheduled start on Monday, per Nicholson-Smith.

A few more notable injury updates from around the league…

The Rockies have placed shortstop Trevor Story on the 10-day DL due to a strained left shoulder, as Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post reports. Story initially suffered the injury two nights ago in at-bat against the Cubs, though his struggles at the plate have been an ongoing issue since Opening Day. Story took Major League Baseball by storm in 2016 when he hit 27 homers through just 415 plate appearances as a rookie, though a torn ligament in his thumb cut his season short in early August. It’s possible that there are some lingering effects of that issue, as Story has batted a woeful .180/.289/.396 with a 37.5 percent strikeout rate through his first 33 games in 2017.
The Dodgers have lost yet another starter to the disabled list, as right-hander Kenta Maeda has been placed on the 10-day disabled list due to tightness in his left hamstring. Maeda, who took a shutout into the ninth inning of last night’s game, has been excellent over his past three outings (2.21 ERA, 21-to-4 K/BB ratio in 20 1/3 innings) following a rough start to the season. There’s no word on precisely how long Maeda will be sidelined just yet, though he joins Rich Hill, Scott Kazmir, Brandon McCarthy and Brock Stewart on the L.A. disabled list.
Brewers slugger Ryan Braun is likely headed to the disabled list, per Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (Twitter links). Braun recently had an MRI on a strained calf and has also been dealing with some forearm discomfort, and a short trip to the DL would allow him to rest up both issues. “I can’t really run or throw,” Braun told reporters (via Haudricourt). “Hopefully, if I get [a] little bit of downtime I’ll be able to get back to full strength.” That doesn’t sound like there’s a lengthy trip in order, but it certainly does seem to suggest that a DL placement is looming.
Carson Smith is throwing a pair of bullpen sessions this week for the Red Sox, writes WEEI’s Rob Bradford, but fellow right-hander Tyler Thornburg doesn’t appear to be that far along. Both Smith and Thornburg were acquired over the past two offseasons in an effort to help build a bridge to Craig Kimbrel, but injuries have prevented the Sox from reaping any value from either trade. ““With Tyler, we’ll still trying to get him through some more aggressive flatground work,” manager John Farrell told reporters earlier this week. “…“It’s been a little bit of a puzzle for all involved here including Tyler, because the MRI’s that he’s gone through, while showing a little bit of an impingement, hasn’t revealed anything more structural than that.”

AL Notes: Blue Jays, Yankees, A’s, Red Sox

By Connor Byrne | April 16, 2017 at 12:19pm CDT

With Toronto off to a 2-9 start, executives from rival teams are already wondering which players the Blue Jays might shop in the coming months if they don’t turn their season around, according to Buster Olney of ESPN.com. Olney lists several possibilities, the most prominent being onetime MVP-winning third baseman Josh Donaldson, who’s currently on the disabled list with a calf injury. Three members of the Jays’ rotation – J.A. Happ, Marco Estrada and Francisco Liriano – as well as right fielder Jose Bautista and shortstop Troy Tulowitzki are also candidates to end up on the move, per Olney.

Injury Notes: Salazar, Strasburg, Liriano, Pagan, Young

By Jeff Todd | October 12, 2016 at 9:55am CDT

The Indians continue to see progress from right Danny Salazar, as ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick reports. He is readying for a sim game today or tomorrow as he works to return from a forearm strain, after which Cleveland will determine whether he’s ready to work from the bullpen in the upcoming ALCS. That would provide the Indians with a notable boost to a bullpen that figures to be a key to the team’s chances.

Here are a few more injury notes from around the game:

As they hope for their own trip to the league championship round, the Nationals don’t appear to have quite as much cause for optimism for their own injured starter, Stephen Strasburg, as MLB.com’s Jamal Collier reports. Manager Dusty Baker said that Strasburg, who’s dealing with forearm problems, was throwing well in a pen session but elected to cut it short after experiencing discomfort. Baker did suggest it wasn’t a true setback, and Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post notes on Twitter that Strasburg was tossing from flat ground yesterday. That seems to suggest there’s at least a glimmer of hope that he’d be available if the team reaches the NLCS, though perhaps a hypothetical World Series return would be more plausible.
The Blue Jays appear set to utilize lefty Francisco Liriano in the ALCS after he reported positive developments after being struck by a liner in the divisional series, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca reports on Twitter. Liriano says he’s symptom-free and ready to go this weekend. The 32-year-old pitched well down the stretch while working mostly as a starter, but has been used from the pen thus far in the postseason. He’ll likely factor as an important swingman as the Jays seek to move on to the playoffs’ final round.
Giants outfielder Angel Pagan was hopeful he’d be able to go for last night’s thrilling NLDS Game 4, Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News reported. His back spasms had him at day-to-day status, the veteran said. Ultimately, though, Pagan did not appear in the contest, in which San Francisco suffered another stunning bullpen meltdown to end its season. The 35-year-old’s five-year run with the Giants may be over, with the seemingly minor back issue not doing much to damper a nice bounceback campaign. Over 543 plate appearances on the year, he posted a sturdy .277/.331/.418 batting line with 15 steals and a dozen home runs. The switch-hitting Pagan was particularly good against right-handed pitching, and seems likely to draw a fair bit of interest as a center field-capable fourth outfielder on the open market.
Royals righty Chris Young underwent surgery to what the team described as his “bilateral core and right-sided adductor,” per a club announcement (via MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan; Twitter links). He’s only expected to need eight weeks to recover, meaning that the procedure shouldn’t have much of an impact on his ramp-up next spring.

AL East Notes: Jays, Liriano, Red Sox, Dombrowski

By Connor Byrne | October 8, 2016 at 6:45pm CDT

There is no timetable for the return of Blue Jays left-hander Francisco Liriano, who suffered a concussion in the club’s 5-3 win over Texas on Friday, per team trainer George Poulis (via Jeff Blair of Sportsnet). The injury is the result of an eighth-inning Carlos Gomez line drive that struck the back of Liriano’s head and knocked him out of the game after he retired one batter and allowed two earned runs, two hits and a walk. The Jays could drop Liriano from their ALDS roster and get him back for the ALCS if they ultimately close out the Rangers, whom they lead 2-0 in the best-of-five series. Liriano would first have to pass Major League Baseball’s concussion protocol, however.

Now the latest from Boston:

In an expansive interview with Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com, Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski expressed confidence about the club’s long-term outlook. The Red Sox are “pretty solidified” from a position player perspective, said Dombrowski, though he acknowledged that trying to replace what retiring designated hitter David Ortiz has brought to the table as a producer and leader will be nearly impossible. Dombrowski also noted that the Sox have five starting pitchers – David Price, Rick Porcello, Steven Wright, Eduardo Rodriguez and Drew Pomeranz – under control for the next couple years. It remains to be seen where that will leave Clay Buchholz, who will attempt to keep the Red Sox alive when he starts Game 3 of the ALDS in Cleveland on Sunday. The Red Sox will have a decision to make after the season on Buchholz’s $13.5MM club option. Buchholz spent time in the bullpen this year, and Dombrowski doesn’t seem worried about his group of relievers going forward. “The bullpen, we’ve got (Craig) Kimbrel set up and some other good arms out there. We’re going to lose some bullpen guys, but that’s not quite as big an area [to fill],” added Dombrowski. Koji Uehara, Brad Ziegler, Junichi Tazawa, all of whom have experienced success in Boston, are each scheduled to hit the open market after the season.
The Red Sox finished third in the AL in wins and first in run differential during the regular season, but with the team facing a sweep, Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald wonders if Dombrowski did enough to bolster the roster over the summer. In-season trade pickups Pomeranz, Fernando Abad and Aaron Hill haven’t contributed as much as Boston hoped they would since acquiring them, with Abad having missed the cut for Boston’s ALDS roster. Drellich asked Dombrowski if he should have made more significant summer deals, but the executive is content with the moves he made. “No, I’m comfortable with what we did, sure,” he said. “I don’t know what you mean ‘bigger.’ We led the league in runs scored, we were one of the best in pitching.”

AL Notes: Liriano, Joyner, Wallace

By charliewilmoth | October 8, 2016 at 11:52am CDT

Blue Jays lefty Francisco Liriano was cleared to return home to Toronto with his team after being struck by Carlos Gomez’s eighth-inning line drive in Game 2 of the ALDS Friday, as Shi Davidi of Sportsnet and others have noted. The ball hit Liriano in the back of the head as he turned away, and it caromed into right center field. “I know what he’s going through right now, hoping for the best for the results,” says fellow Jays hurler J.A. Happ, who fractured his skull after taking a line drive to the head in 2013. “[B]ut yeah, that was scary.” Here’s more from the American League.

The Tigers have announced that hitting coach Wally Joyner will not return in 2017, as he intends to pursue “other interests in the game of baseball.” Assistant hitting coach David Newhan’s role with the team will be determined once the team finds a replacement for Joyner. Other key Tigers coaches (including pitching coach Rich Dubee, bench coach Gene Lamont, first base coach Omar Vizquel, third base coach Dave Clark, bullpen coach Mick Billmeyer and defensive coordinator Matt Martin) will return. The Tigers exercised manager Brad Ausmus’ 2017 option earlier this week. Under Joyner and Newhan, the Tigers had one of MLB’s better offenses in 2016, batting .267/.331/.438, although it should perhaps be noted that having Miguel Cabrera in the middle of their lineup gave them a hefty head start.
Orioles pitching coach Dave Wallace, who retired from his full-time role earlier this week, will be missed, Rich Dubroff of CSNmidatlantic.com writes. Wallace had no connections with Buck Showalter or Dan Duquette when the Orioles hired him three years ago, but his hiring turned out to be a boon for Orioles pitchers like Chris Tillman, Wei-Yin Chen and Brad Brach, along with younger hurlers like Kevin Gausman and Dylan Bundy. Perhaps the best orange and black feather in Wallace’s cap is that of Zach Britton, who transformed from a struggling (and out-of-options) starter to a dominant closer soon after Wallace arrived.

AL Notes: Liriano, Royals, Mariners

By charliewilmoth | September 24, 2016 at 10:39am CDT

After struggling through the first four months of the season with the Pirates, lefty Francisco Liriano has enjoyed success since coming to the Blue Jays in a deadline trade, writes Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith. Nicholson-Smith notes that, since the trade, Liriano has gotten opposing batters to swing at pitches outside the strike zone 35.1% of the time, up from 27.8% with the Bucs. “He’s always had one of the better arms in baseball. He’s one of those guys that can always dominate teams and he really hasn’t lost a whole lot,” says manager John Gibbons. In seven starts with Toronto, Liriano has a 3.35 ERA, 8.8 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9. If he can maintain similar numbers in 2017, he’ll be more than worth his $13.7MM salary, which means that the Blue Jays will likely come out significantly ahead in the trade that brought Liriano to Toronto, in which they also received prospects Reese McGuire and Harold Ramirez while giving up only righty Drew Hutchison, who hasn’t been impressive in the Pirates organization so far. Here’s more from the American League.

In the coming offseason, the Royals will discuss how best to use righty Joakim Soria and lefty Matt Strahm, MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan writes. Soria signed a three-year deal last winter and has had an uneven first season in his return to Kansas City, posting a 4.12 ERA with 9.1 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9. It sounds like he’ll be back in the Royals’ bullpen next year, although the team isn’t sure in what capacity. “[W]e’re going to be very active trying to make sure our bullpen gets back to what it has been. Joakim can be a big part of it,” says GM Dayton Moore. “I know it hasn’t been the type of year that he expected.” Strahm, in contrast, has had an outstanding rookie season in the bullpen, allowing just two runs while striking out 26 batters in his first 19 big-league innings. Strahm spent part of the season as a starter at Double-A Northwest Arkansas, though, and the Royals say they’ll continue to consider him as a starter and that it isn’t guaranteed he’ll break camp with the team.
The Mariners have announced that they’ve named Justin Hollander their director of baseball operations. The 37-year-old Hollander had previously worked with Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto with the Angels, and last year Hollander served as that organization’s director of player personnel.

AL East Notes: Sox Pen, Wright, Hicks, Holder, Liriano

By Jeff Todd | September 2, 2016 at 9:55pm CDT

The Red Sox were thwarted in their efforts to bolster the bullpen during August, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said today, as Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald reports. That’s largely what the organization expected, he said, with blocking maneuvers becoming common in the revocable waiver trade period. “The one thing that comes to light on this is that we said after July 31, there’s been nobody that’s been making it through waivers,” Dombrowski explained. “So as we said at the time, you’re going to have to make your moves, try to help you, before the trading deadline. And that was really the case.”

Central Notes: Pirates, Tribe, Napoli, Cardinals

By Connor Byrne | August 6, 2016 at 8:09pm CDT

The Pirates have taken plenty of flak since sending left-hander Francisco Liriano and a pair of prospects – outfielder Harold Ramirez and catcher Reese McGuire – to the Blue Jays on Monday for right-hander Drew Hutchison. General manager Neal Huntington explained the Bucs’ thinking Saturday, telling Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh-Tribune Review, “Our primary motivation was to acquire Drew Hutchison. … Instead, it came out that we moved two prospects to move Liriano’s contract. Now I can’t tell you that wasn’t a part of the motivation, but the primary motivation was to acquire a quality pitcher.” The 25-year-old Hutchison has spent the vast majority of the season in the minors and owns a below-average 4.92 ERA in 406 1/3 major league innings, but he has recorded a solid 15.1 K-BB percentage and is controllable through 2018. The Pirates were particularly mindful of the latter factor upon acquiring him. “Mediocre pitching is getting paid a lot of money. As we look forward, whether it’s the trade market or free agent market, the challenge of acquiring quality, controllable, productive starting pitching … is hard to do,” said Huntington. As for Liriano, Huntington expects him to do well “where hitters are unfamiliar with him, in a new environment, with new scouting reports,” but the GM believes the opposition in the National League became too accustomed to the 32-year-old.

Deadline Notes: Yankees, Sanchez, Peavy, Moore, Rangers, Liriano

By Jeff Todd | August 2, 2016 at 11:16pm CDT

Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner had a long and interesting chat the Michael Kay Show (audio link) in which he discussed his organization’s rare sale-side moves at the deadline. Carrying three ace closers, he said, was an “incredible luxury, but not a necessity,” which seemingly helped to ease his mind in parting with Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman. He further explained that the organization didn’t simply decide at some point that it would undergo a sale, but instead considered each individual move on its own merit as opportunities arose. Generally, he emphasized that he looked closely at every player in every deal and suggested that the group of trades has helped position the organization for the near-future and beyond. There’s plenty more in the interview, which is well worth a full listen.

Here are few more notes coming off of the trade deadline …

As has been expected, the Yankees will call up catcher Gary Sanchez once again, per Shane Hennigan of the Scranton Times-Tribune (via Twitter). It’s not yet clear whether he’ll just provide a temporary DH option — as he did earlier in the season — or stick for good, but Steinbrenner did note that the organization believes he’s ready for extended big league time. The owner emphasized that fans can expect to see several fresh faces down the stretch as the Yankees look to see what they have in the upper-level prospects they have been developing — not to mention those just added over the last several days.
The Giants have moved veteran righty Jake Peavy to the bullpen to accommodate the acquisition of Matt Moore, as Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News reports. Though Peavy has worked almost exclusively in the rotation over his long career, he seemingly took the news quite well. San Francisco has liked what it has seen of late from Matt Cain, who was the other candidate to move to a relief role, and thinks that Peavy will be better able to handle the transition, skipper Bruce Bochy explained.
Speaking of Moore, the Rangers turned their attention elsewhere given the Rays’ asking price on the lefty, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). Texas would have needed to send not only Lewis Brinson and Luis Ortiz — each of whom were packaged to acquire Jonathan Lucroy and Jeremy Jeffress — but also Jurickson Profar, per the report.
Part of the calculus for the Blue Jays’ acquisition of Francisco Liriano was the opportunity for him to work again with backstop Russell Martin, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca explains. Both GM Ross Atkins and manager John Gibbons noted the importance of that connection, and Martin offered glowing reports of Liriano’s stuff. As Atkins put it: “The experience of Russ and the familiarity, if we come up with a plan we should expect some correction. This is not on Russ Martin by any means, but we did see that as an added benefit.”

Central Notes: Salazar, Volquez, Pirates, Reds

By Steve Adams | August 2, 2016 at 12:34pm CDT

Indians right-hander Danny Salazar is headed for what the club is calling a precautionary MRI due to discomfort in his right elbow, as MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian writes. “There’s something in my elbow,” said Salazar following a rough outing against the Twins on Monday. “I don’t know what it is. We don’t know. I think we’re going to find out tomorrow.” Manager Terry Francona said that Salazar’s elbow has been bothering him for at least a couple of weeks. Salazar had Tommy John surgery prior to making his big league debut and said the discomfort he feels in his elbow feels “totally different” than the pain he felt when he tore his ulnar collateral ligament. Nonetheless, there’s clearly some cause for concern, especially due to a recent decline in Salazar’s velocity (as Bastian highlights in his column).

A few more notes from the game’s Central divisions…

The Royals’ decision to stand pat at yesterday’s trade deadline was a surprise to some, considering the fact that Kansas City has fallen to 50-55 and has at best a narrow window to make the postseason. General manager Dayton Moore spoke about the team’s lack of trades with Sam Mellinger of the Kansas City Star, stating that he wants to give his players a chance to “dig back out of this mess we’re in.” More interesting, perhaps, was his take on righty Edinson Volquez, who has a mutual option on his contract for the 2017 season that figures to be declined one way or another. While he wouldn’t firmly commit to the notion, Moore suggested that the team could very well make Volquez a qualifying offer at season’s end, which is projected to be worth $16.7MM, as ESPN’s Buster Olney recently reported. Said Moore of Volquez: “We’ll see. Obviously we have to evaluate that, but that’s certainly a part of our thinking.”
The Pirates had a tough decision when determining whether the club was better-served by betting on Francisco Liriano returning to form or acquiring multiple years of Drew Hutchison and creating some financial flexibility, GM Neal Huntington explained to MLB.com’s Adam Berry. As Berry notes, the financial flexibility the Pirates gained by shedding the remaining money on Liriano’s contract will be significant in 2017 when Gerrit Cole and Tony Watson, among others, are due arbitration raises and other players signed to extensions see their salaries naturally escalate. Huntington said that the Pirates have liked Hutchison and right-hander Ivan Nova (also acquired at yesterday’s non-waiver deadline) for quite some time, adding that while it was difficult to part with outfield prospect Harold Ramirez and catching prospect Reese McGuire, the team dealt from positions of depth. Berry adds that the Bucs talked with the Rays about their starters at length but were asked for a minimum of two of their top five prospects in return — too lofty a price for Huntington’s liking.
Reds president of baseball operations Walt Jocketty spoke with the Cincinnati Enquirer’s C. Trent Rosecrans about the difficulty of trading away a homegrown slugger like Jay Bruce even in the midst of a rebuild. “It was extremely tough to make the deal,” said Jocketty. “We’ve talked about it for some time, but until it actually happens, it doesn’t set in. …It was tough to say goodbye to him.” Reports on Monday indicated that medical concerns over one of the minor leaguers that was said to be in the initial iteration of the Bruce deal — said to be centered around outfielder Brandon Nimmo — slowed the deal. Rosecrans,though, hears that multiple prospects that would’ve come to the Reds failed to live up to the Reds’ medical standards, leading to further discussion. Jocketty also spoke a bit about Zack Cozart, who was reportedly nearly traded to Seattle, stating that Cozart isn’t someone the team is actively looking to move. Rosecrans adds that talks with the Mariners did take place but fell apart over the course of the day.

« Previous Page

Load More Posts

Show all

Headlines

Francisco Liriano

Navigation

MLBTR INFO

Connect