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Injury Notes: Kendrick, Bumgarner, Mauer, Moore, Souza, Cuthbert

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Things got even worse for the Nationals today; Howie Kendrick appeared to sustain a serious injury while chasing down a Max Muncy fly ball. Kendrick was carted off the field, and was seen pointing to his ankle area. Jamal Collier of MLB.com reports that he’s off to get an MRI. The Nationals are already dealing with injuries to a number of other key players, including Ryan Zimmerman, Adam Eaton, Matt Wieters and Brian Goodwin, and can ill afford to lose another player from their outfield for an extended period of time. They’ll likely be anxious as they await further news on Kendrick.

More injury news from around MLB today…

  • Giants lefty Madison Bumgarner considers his fractured left hand to be “95% or more” healed, according to a tweet from MLB.com’s Chris Haft. He’s on track to throw live batting practice on Tuesday and begin a rehab assignment on Saturday. Meanwhile, Haft says, Johnny Cueto will head to the club’s rehab facility in Arizona. The Giants will hope for the best-case scenarios as far as the timetables of these two players; their depleted rotation is a chief factor in the club’s sub-.500 record on the season.
  • Joe Mauer is headed to the Twins’ DL with concussion symptoms once again, according to LaVelle E. Neal of the Star Tribute. He reportedly did well in regards to concussion tests last night, but is apparently experiencing some sensitivity to light along with some balance issues. Mauer, who has dealt with concussion issues in years past, is walking at a 16.8% clip so far this season en route to a .404 OBP. According to chief baseball officer Derek Falvey (via MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger), the club is “not saying at this time that Joe has a concussion.”
  • The Rangers have placed lefty Matt Moore on the 10-day disabled list with what the club is calling right knee soreness. The move will make room for fellow righty Ariel Jurado, who will make the jump from Double-A to debut in the majors tonight. Jurado has a 2.57 ERA in 35 minor league innings this year, but with a 5.31 FIP that strongly disagrees with those results. He posted a 4.59 ERA at Double-A last season, with 5.45 K/9.
  • Diamondbacks outfielder Steven Souza will avoid the DL for the time being, says Zach Buchanan of The Athletic. A key offseason acquisition by the Dbacks, Souza has already spent the bulk of the season on the DL after suffering a pectoral strain upon diving for a ball in the outfield. Fortunately, it seems as though some minor pec soreness will not require a second DL stint for the time being.
  • The Royals have placed Cheslor Cuthbert on the 10-day DL with a lower back strain, recalling fellow infielder Ramon Torres from Triple-A Omaha in a corresponding move. Cuthbert is a career .252/.308/.383 hitter, and is performing especially poorly this season, as evidenced by his -0.5 fWAR for 2018. However, Torres seems unlikely to provide any significant upgrade; he’s hitting just .229/.280/.307 at the Triple-A level so far this season.

Nationals Select Mark Reynolds, Ryan Zimmerman Headed For DL

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3:00pm: The Reynolds and Zimmerman moves are official, and the Nationals have also moved reliever Joaquin Benoit to the 60-day DL. The right-handed Benoit, whom the Nats signed to a one-year, $1MM deal in free agency, hasn’t pitched yet this season on account of a forearm strain.

12:39pm: Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post tweets that Mark Reynolds has been spotted in the Nationals’ clubhouse, implying that the club has selected his contract and is likely to move Ryan Zimmerman to the disabled list. Indeed, Dan Kolko of MASN tweets that Reynolds is on the lineup card for today’s game while Zimmerman’s name is absent. Washington signed Reynolds to a minors deal early in April.

Despite a reasonably good .267/.352/.487 batting line with 30 homers last season, the 34-year-old Reynolds wasn’t able to attract a suitor for a major league deal this past offseason. More mysterious is the fact that Reynolds ended up signing a minors deal with the Nationals of all teams, as they already had Matt Adams and Zimmerman and haven’t got the benefit of a DH slot in the lineup.

It appears that he’ll get a big-league opportunity for now, though it’s not clear for how long. Zimmerman reportedly suffered a back injury during Wednesday’s game, and since the move is retroactive to Thursday he’ll be able to return as soon as May 20th. That would likely leave Reynolds the odd man out, considering Adams’ torrid pace.

The 33-year-old Zimmerman enjoyed a strong bounce-back season last year, posting 3.3 fWAR while crushing 36 homers in 576 plate appearances to go along with a whopping 136 wRC+. But he’s followed that up with an uninspiring .217/.280/.409 batting line to date and will now need to rest up a bit before he gets a chance to turn those numbers around.

NL East Notes: Zimmerman, Madson, Acuna, Conforto

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The Marlins’ victory over the Padres last night put them at 64-63 on the season, the first time Miami has been over the .500 mark since April 26.  The Marlins have now won 22 of their last 34 games and have quietly moved to just 4.5 games back of the Rockies for the last NL wild card slot.  Miami’s surge has been fueled by hot streaks from several hitters, though Giancarlo Stanton is setting the pace with an extraordinary .368/.455/.977 slash line and 16 homers over his last 101 PA.  As surprising as it would be to see a team that has been in seller mode all summer suddenly become buyers, it wouldn’t be out of the question to see the Marlins make a low-level trade addition before August is over if the Fish feel they have a legitimate postseason shot.  Here’s the latest from around the NL East…

  • Ryan Zimmerman missed Friday’s game due to a shoulder injury, and Nationals manager Dusty Baker told MLB.com’s Jamal Collier and other reporters that Zimmerman also isn’t expected to be in today’s lineup.  Baker did express hope that the first baseman would be back on Sunday, so it doesn’t yet appear that this could another significant DL absence for the injury-riddled Nats.  Zimmerman hurt his shoulder on a slide into home plate during Thursday’s game.
  • The right index finger injury that sent Ryan Madson to the DL last week could’ve been caused by his increased usage of the curveball this season, a source theorizes to Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post.  Madson has received treatment to calm the inflammation of the tendon sheath that runs through his index finger’s knuckle, and he recently visited a hand specialist.  The big-picture news is that while Madson’s DL stint will likely extend beyond the minimum 10 days, the Nationals expect him to be back in action before the postseason.
  • Ronald Acuna’s tear through the Braves’ farm system probably won’t result in a September callup, Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes.  The 19-year-old outfielder began the season in high-A ball and been promoted up to Triple-A, raking all the while — Acuna has a combined .325/.376/.533 slash line, 20 homers and 41 steals over 558 combined plate appearances at three minor league levels.  This performance had firmly placed Acuna near the top of several midseason prospects rankings (MLB.com rates him the eighth-best prospect in the game, Baseball America 10th and Baseball Prospectus 11th).  While the Braves have been aggressive in promoting their top prospects, Bradley feels there isn’t any need to rush Acuna to the big leagues quite so soon, though Acuna may well be in line for regular duty for Atlanta as early as Opening Day 2018.
  • Michael Conforto’s posterior capsule tear in his left shoulder will be re-evaluated on Monday, though Newsday’s Marc Carig and Mike Puma of the New York Post hear from medical professionals that Conforto could be sidelined for several months if he undergoes surgery.  It’s important to note that neither of the doctors cited by Carig and Puma have personally examined Conforto and are basing their opinions simply on prior knowledge of similar injuries.  That said, both doctors commented on the unusual nature of Conforto’s injury, which came after swinging and missing a pitch.  “The problem in this case is that this player dislocated his shoulder without any major trauma,” Dr. Armin Tehrany of Manhattan Orthopedic Care told Carig. “It was his non-dominant arm. He was just swinging a bat. And that alone led to the dislocation, which means that the likelihood that it happens again after he heals is very high.”  Dr. Tehrany believes Conforto could face a four-to-six month rehab process if he opts for surgery, while Dr. Umer Dasti of the Ridgewood Orthopedic Group tells Puma that a six-to-12 month timeline could be necessary.  The latter projection, as Puma notes, would have a significant impact on the Mets’ offseason plans, as the team would likely have to check into acquiring another notable bat if Conforto is sidelined for a good chunk of 2018.

Nationals Notes: Turner, Zimmerman, Ramos, Melancon, Hernandez, Revere

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Nats GM Mike Rizzo spoke with the press today about the offseason to come, as Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com reports. He expressed satisfaction with the “good, steady brand of baseball” that the club displayed, while acknowledging the disappointment of failing to advance in the playoffs. Rizzo wasn’t keen to offer up much in the way of details on the team’s planning, but did provide some insight. Here are the highlights from his press conference and a few more notes on the team:

  • Rizzo praised his roster’s versatility, suggesting that it allows “a lot of different directions to improve our ballclub.” Trea Turner, in particular, could occupy a middle infield role or play in center — leaving the Nats free to pursue a center fielder, shortstop, or perhaps even a corner outfielder (while moving Bryce Harper to center). As Rizzo put it, Turner’s presence “allows us to build around that, meaning that it gives us more options in the marketplace to improve the ballclub.”
  • One thing that won’t occur is a permanent move of Turner to second base, with Daniel Murphy taking over for Ryan Zimmerman at first. “No, Zim’s our first baseman going into this offseason and spring training,” Rizzo said. The veteran struggled to a .218/.272/.370 batting line this year, by far his worst as a big leaguer, but he made plenty of hard contact (34.7%) and may have been unfortunate to carry a .248 BABIP.
  • The Nats have some notable free agents, of course, including catcher Wilson Ramos and closer Mark Melancon. Rizzo wouldn’t commit to a strategy on the burly backstop, whose season ended with ACL surgery. The plan is to “do all the due diligence on the medicals” before making a call on issuing Ramos a qualifying offer and deciding whether to pursue him.
  • As for Melancon, Rizzo offered effusive praise for his work on the mound and presence in the clubhouse. Looking ahead, though, Rizzo suggested that he isn’t locked into Melancon or the other top relief options on the market. “It’s a broad, deep reliever market this year, and Mark is one of the elite relievers in the marketplace,” he said. “In a perfect world, you’d always like to have a guy that’s done it in the most competitive situations, but that’s not always possible. We’ve got a lot of options as far as guys with plus stuff and plus makeup, and it’s a deep relief market this year. So there’s different avenues to go and different routes that are attractive to us.” One possible internal candidate for ninth-inning duties, righty Shawn Kelley, is expected to be fully healthy after leaving the team’s final game with what looked to be a concerning injury, though it seems fair to expect the organization to pursue a closer regardless.
  • The Nationals’ decision to ink Cuban outfielder Yadiel Hernandez was somewhat uncharacteristic, as Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post explores. Washington has largely sat out the market for Cuban players, but chose to take a limited risk ($200K bonus without promising a MLB roster spot) on the 29-year-old. Hernandez was worth the risk, per VP of international ops Johnny DiPuglia, because “he’s a legit left-handed hitter who grinds at-bats” and is capable of playing center field. Depending upon how the offseason progresses, Hernandez could conceivably position himself as a depth or even a bench piece, though the team hasn’t staked much on that possibility. “We thought we’d take a chance on him,” said DiPuglia. “He’s got a profile for us. We’ll find out.”
  • One reason to add Hernandez? The fact that the team has an expensive decision to make on left-handed-hitting center fielder Ben Revere, who projects to earn $6.3MM in arbitration even after a dreadful campaign. Zuckerman looks at Revere’s 2016 season and the options for the Nats. From my perspective, there’s no real chance that the team will trust Revere with the regular job in center, making it hard to imagine that it will stake over $6MM on him. That’s especially true given the presence of Brian Goodwin, a former top prospect who made strides at Triple-A and showed well in his first taste of the majors.

 

Nationals Reinstate Ryan Zimmerman, Jose Lobaton

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The Nationals have announced that they’ve reinstated first baseman Ryan Zimmerman and catcher Jose Lobaton from the DL. To clear space for the pair on their active roster, they’ve optioned righty A.J. Cole and catcher Pedro Severino to Triple-A Syracuse.

[Related: Updated Washington Nationals Depth Chart]

Zimmerman went on the disabled list two weeks ago with a left wrist contusion suffered after he was hit by a pitch. He’s had a poor season, batting just .222/.284/.394 in 335 plate appearances, but Clint Robinson hasn’t done much better while soaking up at-bats in Zimmerman’s absence, so there is no reason to think Zimmerman won’t continue to receive plenty of playing time.

Lobaton, meanwhile, will replace Severino as the backup to Wilson Ramos. Lobaton had been on the DL since late July with elbow tendinitis. He has batted .194/.301/.361 this season, although he gets good marks for his pitch-framing.

MLB Clears Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Howard Of PED Allegations From Al Jazeera Documentary

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Major League Baseball announced today that it has completed its investigation into allegations made by news outlet Al Jazeera in the documentary, “The Dark Side,” which claimed that Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman and Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard used performance enhancing drugs, finding neither player guilty of any violation. The league’s official statement reads as follows:

“The Office of the Commissioner has completed its investigation into the statements made by Charlie Sly concerning players Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies and Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals in the Al Jazeera documentary ’The Dark Side.’ This thorough investigation did not find any violations of the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program by either Howard or Zimmerman. Both Howard and Zimmerman fully cooperated with the Office of the Commissioner’s investigation. Mr. Sly did not agree to speak with the Commissioner’s Office or provide requested information.”

The news comes as very little surprise, as several holes were quickly punctured in the story almost immediately upon the documentary’s release. Al Jazeera enlisted British hurdler Liam Collins to go undercover in an effort to expose users of performance enhancing drugs, and within mere hours of the documentary’s release, Charlie Sly — the key witness and a former pharmacy intern — recanted all of the comments made, telling ESPN that they were “absolutely false and incorrect” and were intended to “pull one over on Collins to see if he had any idea of what he was talking about.” Unsurprisingly, both Howard and Zimmerman filed defamation lawsuits against Al Jazeera, and both players said in statements released today that they fully intend to continue with those legal actions.

Those statements by both Howard and Zimmerman have been released to many in the media, including ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick (links to Twitter). Said Howard: “The accusations from Al Jazeera came out of nowhere, and I was shocked and outraged by their false claims. I welcomed the investigation by Major League Baseball as an opportunity to clear my name. I was fully cooperative and transparent in the process, and MLB’s findings validate what I have said publicly. I am glad that this part of the process has concluded, and I look forward to holding the responsible people accountable for these false and defamatory claims in my ongoing litigation against Al Jazeera and its reporters.”

Zimmerman’s comments are similar in nature: “I understand why Major League Baseball found it necessary to explore this matter, and I appreciate that MLB, after a thorough investigation, was able to publicly affirm my innocence. Throughout my life and career, I have been true to myself, my family, the Nationals organization and my community. It is not right that a so-called news organization and its personnel can publicly make false accusations that damage my reputation and call into question my integrity without any consequences whatsoever. As I said in January when I filed my defamation lawsuit, I am determined to hold Al Jazeera and its reporters accountable for their defamatory actions.”

The documentary in question also made claims against former big league catcher Taylor Teagarden and NFL legend Peyton Manning. However, unlike the other players alleged to have used PEDs, Teagarden himself was recorded on camera discussing PED usage and accordingly received an 80-game suspension from Major League Baseball. Manning, meanwhile, was cleared of any PED use by the NFL in a similar fashion last month (as can be seen over at MLBTR’s sister site, Pro Football Rumors).

Injury Notes: Norris, Hill, Zimmerman, Jennings

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Here are several injury notes from around the game.

  • The Dodgers have announced that they’ve placed Bud Norris on the 15-day DL with a mild back strain (retroactive to August 1) and recalled fellow righty Ross Stripling to take his place. As SB Nation’s Eric Stephen points out (on Twitter), Norris is the 26th Dodger to head to the DL this season. Stripling will start for the Dodgers today against the Red Sox. Norris has posted a 4.34 ERA, 9.9 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 in 29 innings with Los Angeles since arriving in a late-June trade with the Braves.
  • The Dodgers’ need to reshuffle their rotation goes beyond Norris right now, too, as new acquisition Rich Hill has been scratched from his start on Sunday (as the Los Angeles Times’ Mike DiGiovanna tweets) due to remnants of his blister problem. Brandon McCarthy will take Hill’s place. Hill remains on the DL, where he’s been since he was still in the Athletics organization. He hopes to make his Dodgers debut Friday, as FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal tweets.
  • The Nationals have placed first baseman Ryan Zimmerman on the 15-day DL with a left wrist contusion, MASN’s Dan Kolko tweets. Zimmerman was hit by a pitch last Sunday and has not played since. To replace him on the active roster, outfielder Brian Goodwin will begin his first stint in the big leagues. It’s been a tough season for the 31-year-old Zimmerman, who has hit just .222/.284/.394 in 335 plate appearances. The 25-year-old Goodwin, a former first-round pick and top prospect, was hitting .284/.350/.434 for Triple-A Syracuse.
  • The Rays have announced that they’ve placed Desmond Jennings on the 15-day DL with a left knee contusion, activating fellow outfielder Mikie Mahtook (hand) from the DL to take his place. It’s been a very rough go for the 29-year-old Jennings, who’s batted just .200/.281/.350 in 225 plate appearances this season while also missing time due to a hamstring strain. Notably, Jennings also missed most of last season after having arthroscopic left knee surgery and then bruising the knee late in the season.

Nationals Links: Desmond, Perez, Zimmerman

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Here’s the latest from the D.C. camp…

  • Ian Desmond’s former Nationals teammates are flabbergasted by the fact that the shortstop has yet to sign with a team, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports writes.  “I don’t think there is a draft pick out there who is better than Ian Desmond,” Bryce Harper said.  “I don’t there is a draft pick out there who is a better guy or person in the clubhouse than him.”  Harper and Max Scherzer both feel that the qualifying offer is largely behind Desmond’s lingering presence on the market, with Harper opining that the QO system is “something baseball definitely needs to change.”  Scherzer thinks the qualifying offer “literally has to be” the biggest and maybe only factor why Desmond is still available. “There’s no other reason why a team would not want to sign a shortstop like that. ….You could see the power. You could see the speed. You just don’t find that out of a shortstop,” Scherzer said.
  • Oliver Perez’s previous stint with the Nationals consisted of 16 Double-A games in 2011, but the southpaw tells MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman that this stint helped revive his career.  Minor league pitching coordinator Spin Williams encouraged Perez to become a full-time reliever in order to pave a quicker road back to the majors, and Perez has taken that advice to the bank.  In four seasons since shifting to the bullpen, Perez has become a quality lefty specialist and is now back in Washington on a much more lucrative contract.
  • Ryan Zimmerman spoke to reporters (including Zuckerman) for the first time since his name was cited in the controversial Al Jazeera documentary that alleged Zimmerman, Ryan Howard, Peyton Manning and several other notable athletes were using PEDs.  Zimmerman firmly denied any allegations made in the documentary and noted that he and Howard were so eager to clear their names that they filed a defamation lawsuit against Al Jazeera, despite the fact that such a suit could lead to more public scrutiny.  “It’s one of those things where privacy is really not privacy anymore for me,” Zimmerman said. “It’s unfortunate that I have to do that, but that’s the steps I’m willing to take to show people that I have nothing to hide.”

Quick Hits: PEDs, Computer Breach, Tanking, Extensions

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Major league baseball will work with the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in its investigation of PED allegations arising from a recent Al Jazeera report, ESPN.com’s T.J. Quinn reports. Several players were implicated in that report, including Ryan Zimmerman of the Nationals and Ryan Howard of the Phillies. “We’ve had discussions with USADA and are hopeful that together we can make progress in this investigation,” said the league’s chief legal officer, Dan Halem. As Quinn explains, it’s an unprecedented level of interaction between the league and the agency. The NFL, on the other hand, won’t be participating in the arrangement.

Here are some more notes of general interest from around the game:

  • Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports argues that commissioner Rob Manfred must not show any favoritism towards the Cardinals and owner Bill DeWitt in assessing whether and how to issue penalties arising from the improper accessing of the Astros’ computer systems by former Cards scouting director Chris Correa. (For the latest information on that, read here and here.) Manfred and DeWitt enjoy a good relationship, as the commissioner himself made clear in comments to Rosenthal. But the top league official also left no room for interpretation as to his intentions, telling FOX Sports: “I think what the owners expect me to do — regardless of what my relationship [with an owner] may or may not be personally — is do the right thing by the institution. That’s what I intend to do when I have all the facts about the Houston-St. Louis thing.”
  • There’s been some debate recently about the subject of “tanking,” and both Dave Cameron of Fangraphs and Buster Olney of ESPN.com weighed in on it yesterday. Cameron argues that there aren’t strong enough incentives for MLB teams to lose on purpose in pursuit of better positions for amateur talent. Olney counters that some talent evaluators in the game see a real and growing problem. Manfred’s own recent take on the matter is well worth consideration as well.
  • ESPN.com’s Jim Bowden takes a crack (Insider link) at valuing some possible extensions of top young players around the game. He has Bryce Harper at just over $400MM, which is also the rough price range that MLBTR’s Steve Adams and MLBTR’s readers have previously landed at. It’s an interesting thought experiment, and is well worth a read. I would take some issue, however, with the spread between his $100MM+ valuations on players like Carlos Correa and Francisco Lindor and his approximately seven-year, $70MM estimates for the two Red Sox players on the list, Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts.
  • Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper offers an interesting and sometimes sobering look at some of the very best prospects that never made it to the major leagues.

Ryan Zimmerman, Ryan Howard File Defamation Lawsuits Against Al Jazeera

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6:25pm: In a full column, Salisbury relays Howard’s official statement on the matter: “Today I authorized my attorneys to file suit against Al Jazeera and its reporters. Their irresponsible reporting forced me to take this action to protect my name and to fight back against the spreading of these lies. I will have no further comment, as the filing itself contains all I need to say.”

6:08pm: John Ourand of Sports Business Journal has a copy of Zimmerman’s suit against Al Jazeera (PDF link from Ourand, on Twitter).

5:59pm: According to a report from Reuters (Twitter link) and a second report from Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com (also on Twitter), Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman and Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard have filed lawsuits against the Al Jazeera media outlet for the PED allegations against each player in Al Jazeera’s recent documentary, The Dark Side. The controversial documentary was released in late December, although within hours of its release, the documentary’s main witness, Charlie Sly, told ESPN that the comments he made regarding Zimmerman and Howard were “absolutely false and incorrect,” adding that the comments he made to British hurdler Liam Collins, who went undercover for the film, were his attempt to “pull one over on Collins to see if he had any idea of what he was talking about.”

Per the Washington Post’s Barry Svrluga (links to Svrluga on Twitter), Zimmerman’s lawsuit states the following: “Mr. Zimmerman has never taken Delta 2, human growth hormone, or any other steroid or other performance-enhancing substance banned by the MLB.” The Al Jazeera film in question alleges that Zimmerman did take Delta-2, which is both specifically designated to evade drug tests and included on Major League Baseball’s list of banned substances. At the time the documentary was published, attorney William Burck of Emmanuel Quinn, who represents both Zimmerman and Howard, issued the following statement:

“It’s inexcusable and irresponsible that Al Jazeera would provide a platform and broadcast outright lies about Mr. Howard and Mr. Zimmerman. The extraordinarily reckless claims made against our clients in this report are completely false and rely on a source who has already recanted his claims.  We will go to court to hold Al Jazeera and other responsible parties accountable for smearing our clients’ good names.”

NFL star Peyton Manning, who is also the subject of Al Jazeera allegations, could conceivably file a suit as well, as could fellow NFL players Julius Peppers, Mike Neal and James Harrison, each of whom is connected to Delta-2 usage in the film as well. MLBTR’s sister site, Pro Football Rumors, has been tracking the football implications of the Al Jazeera documentary for those who are interested in the latest developments on the NFL side of the equation.

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