Sean Doolittle To Undergo UCL Internal Brace Surgery
Nationals reliever Sean Doolittle will undergo an internal brace procedure to repair damage to the UCL in his throwing elbow, Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post was among those to relay (on Twitter). That comes with a five-to-six month recovery timetable, so his 2022 season is over. Doolittle is hopeful of being ready by the start of Spring Training.
It’s a frustrating but not wholly unexpected development, as manager Dave Martinez told reporters yesterday that Doolittle was headed for evaluation after experiencing soreness during a recent bullpen session. The left-hander had been on the injured list since mid-April due to an elbow sprain, and his efforts to rehab were cut short by the setback. The small silver lining is that the damage wasn’t so extensive Doolittle required a complete Tommy John reconstruction.
The news could mark the end of the 11-year veteran’s second stint in Washington. Doolittle starred with the Nats between being acquired at the 2017 trade deadline through the end of the following season. His numbers tailed off a bit in 2019, but he still soaked up 60 innings and saved 29 games for the eventual World Series champions. Injuries cost him most of 2020, and he split last season between the Reds and Mariners. Doolittle returned to the Nationals on a buy-low $1.5MM guarantee during Spring Training.
He made six scoreless appearances before landing on the IL. He’ll again hit free agency after the season, and he may need to conduct a showcase for interested clubs whenever he returns to health next winter. Doolittle turns 36 years old in September, but there’s no indication the two-time All-Star isn’t planning to continue his career after working his way back from the upcoming surgery.
List Of Home Run Derby Contestants
July 14: Rangers shortstop Corey Seager will return to Dodger Stadium as the final Derby participant, Texas announced. Seager, who was also named to the American League All-Star team this afternoon as an injury replacement, has hit 21 homers on the season. He also appeared in the 2016 Home Run Derby.
July 13, 6:25pm: Guardians third baseman Jose Ramirez will also participate, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (on Twitter). Ramirez has never participated in the Derby before, but he’ll join the event amidst a 17-homer season. Like Rodriguez, he’ll be part of the American League All-Star team the following night.
July 13, 3:50pm: Mariners outfielder Julio Rodriguez announced on social media that he will be joining the contest. As a rookie, this will naturally be his first appearance in the derby.
July 12: Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber has joined the field, with Alex Coffey of the Philadelphia Inquirer relaying that he himself posted about it on Instagram.
July 11, 9:21pm: Nationals star Juan Soto will also participate. The Talk Nats blog first reported (on Twitter) that Soto would accept an invitation if offered and Héctor Gómez of Z101 confirmed he’d be in the event. Soto, who was a part of last year’s event, has hit 17 longballs on the season. He’ll also be part of the NL All-Star Team the following night.
7:06pm: The 2022 Home Run Derby will take place next Monday, and the field is beginning to take shape. Mets first baseman Pete Alonso and Braves outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. each announced this afternoon that they’d be participating, while Katie Woo of the Athletic reports that Cardinals designated hitter Albert Pujols will partake as well.
Pujols’ participation is the most surprising (and notable) of the three. He’s a four-time contestant but hasn’t appeared in a Derby in more than a decade. He’s only hit five longballs this year but twice led the National League during his first stint in St. Louis and is fifth all-time in homers. In his final big league season, Pujols is already set to head to the All-Star Game in recognition of his career. He’ll add the Derby to the celebration.
Alonso is hoping to defend his two straight titles. The New York slugger won in 2019, then backed that up with another championship last year. (The 2020 Derby was canceled). Along the way, he knocked off Acuña in the semifinals during the 2019 event. Atlanta’s star outfielder will join the festivities for a second time. Both Alonso and Acuña will team with Pujols on the NL All-Stars; Alonso is a reserve, while Acuña will be in Brian Snitker‘s starting lineup.
Nationals Activate Anibal Sanchez, Transfer Stephen Strasburg To 60-Day IL
The Nationals have activated Aníbal Sánchez from the 60-day injured list, setting him up to start tonight’s game against the Braves. Reliever Mason Thompson was optioned to Triple-A Rochester to free an active roster spot. To create a 40-man roster vacancy, Washington transferred Stephen Strasburg from the 15-day to the 60-day IL.
Sánchez will return to a big league mound for the first time since 2020. The 38-year-old righty sat out all of last season after not finding a contract offer to his liking on the heels of a 6.62 ERA showing during the shortened campaign. He made a comeback effort last offseason, returning to the Nats on a minor league deal. Sánchez made the club out of Spring Training, locking in a $2MM salary in the process, but he suffered a cervical neck impingement just before his first scheduled start.
That ultimately cost him three months of action, but the veteran is set to appear in the big leagues for a 16th year. He’s made three rehab starts with Rochester in recent weeks, topping out at 5 1/3 frames, so he should be capable of working into the middle innings. Sánchez joins a Washington rotation that has by far the league’s worst ERA (5.73) on the season.
Strasburg has contributed just one start to that group. He opened the year on the IL as he continued his rehab from last summer’s thoracic outlet syndrome procedure. The three-time All-Star returned in June, tossing 4 2/3 innings against the Marlins. He felt renewed discomfort in his rib area during a between-starts bullpen session, however, and he was again shut down.
Washington manager Dave Martinez suggested at the time he’d head for further evaluation and the club was concerned he’d had a recurrence of the TOS issues. The club hasn’t provided an update since that point, but he’s now gone over a month without reports of meaningful progress. Today’s IL transfer will officially rule him out for 60 days from his initial placement on June 11. He’ll technically be eligible to return around three weeks from now, but it seems likely he’ll be out well beyond that date given the lack of word on his status.
In another disappointing injury development, Martinez said today that rehabbing reliever Sean Doolittle will meet with doctors after experiencing elbow soreness during a recent bullpen session (via Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post). The veteran southpaw has been out since mid-April with an elbow sprain. He’s already on the 60-day IL. Doolittle, who signed a $1.5MM guarantee during Spring Training, made six scoreless appearances before the injury.
Nationals Place Tanner Rainey On 60-Day IL With UCL Sprain, Select Tyler Clippard
The Nationals have announced they have selected the contract of veteran reliever Tyler Clippard. To make room on the roster for him, closer Tanner Rainey has been placed on the 60-day injured list with a sprain of his ulnar collateral ligament.
The news on Rainey is as surprising as it is unfortunate. He wasn’t even on the injured list, nor had there been any indication that an injury of this serious nature was being looked into. The UCL is the ligament that is repaired by Tommy John surgery. While the Nats haven’t announced that Rainey will undergo surgery or any timetable for his absence, the fact that he has been immediately placed on the 60-day IL suggests that they expect him to be out of action for the next two months at a minimum.
The 29-year-old was seemingly in the midst of a breakout season, throwing 30 innings with a 3.30 ERA, 28.1% strikeout rate, 10.2% walk rate and 31.6% ground ball rate. He had climbed up the club’s bullpen chart to become the closer, racking up three saves last year and 12 here in 2022.
The Nationals are now almost a year into the roster teardown that they started at last year’s deadline. As such, they’re enduring a miserable campaign that has them currently 30-59, tied with Oakland for the worst record in the majors. Rainey was one of the few bright spots of the year but also stood out as a potential trade chip. He has three more years of club control after this one, but as a relief pitcher on a bad team, there was still a chance of him getting moved, which won’t happen now.
Rainey qualified for arbitration for the first time last winter as a Super Two player and is playing this season on a salary of $860K, slightly above the $700K league minimum. He should be in line for a raise, despite this injury setback, based on his work in the first few months of the season. If he does indeed require surgery and will miss the majority of the 2023 campaign, there’s a possibility that the Nationals won’t tender him a contract. Though they could also keep him around given that he would come with two further seasons of control beyond that.
As for Clippard, 37, this will be his 16th MLB season, once he gets into a game. He should be a familiar face to the fans in Washington, as he pitched for the club from 2008 to 2014, in addition to spending time with the Yankees, A’s, Mets, Diamondbacks, White Sox, Astros, Cleveland, Blue Jays and Twins. Signed to a minor league deal in the offseason, he’s pitched 36 1/3 innings this year in Triple-A with a 2.48 ERA, 32.2% strikeout rate, 11.2% walk rate and 30.1% ground ball rate. He should provide the club with a veteran presence and could be a trade candidate if he pitches well in the majors.
This Trade Candidate Is Peaking At The Right Time
Josh Bell‘s first few seasons in the majors were solid, though not elite. From 2016 to 2018, he hit 41 home runs, walked in 12.1% of his plate appearances and struck out in just 17.7% of them. Overall, he produced a batting line of .260/.348/.436, producing a wRC+ of 110, or 10% above league average.
Then came the big breakout. In 2019, Bell hit 37 long balls and produced a slash line of .261/.347/.476 for a wRC+ of 135. His walk and strikeout rates stayed around his customary pace at 12.1% and 19.2%, respectively. He accumulated 2.9 wins above replacement in the estimation of FanGraphs and 2.8 in the eyes of Baseball Reference.
However, he wasn’t able to maintain that tremendous showing. In the shortened 2020 season, a few things went in the wrong direction for Bell. His walk rate dropped a few points to 9.9% and his strikeouts ticked up to 26.5%. He hit just eight homers and hit .226/.305/.364 for a wRC+ of 77, or 23% below league average. Bell’s season was just one of many things that went wrong for the Pirates that year, as they finished 19-41, the worst team in baseball. They decided it was time to empty the roster for a rebuild, trading Bell to the Nationals before also trading away Joe Musgrove and Jameson Taillon.
The Nationals were surely hoping that 2020 was just a small-sample fluke and that Bell would return to the form he showed in 2019. At first, it may have appeared that they made a miscalculation. At the end of April last year, Bell was hitting just .113/.200/.264. As the size of the slump started to grow, it was fair to wonder if 2019 was the fluke, perhaps a product of the “juiced balls” that year.
However, once the calendar flipped, Bell also flipped and hasn’t looked back since. From May onwards last year, he hit 25 homers, walked in 11.8% of his plate appearances and struck out in just 16.5% of them. Overall, he slashed .279/.364/.501 for a wRC+ of 129. This year, he’s not only carried that over but has even found a new gear. Through 87 games, he has a 10.9% walk rate, 13.6% strikeout rate and is hitting .304/.386/.491. His wRC+ of 143 indicates he’s been 43% better than the league average hitter, a number which places him 22nd among qualified hitters across the league, sandwiched between J.D. Martinez and Jose Abreu. He’s produced 2.2 fWAR and 3.1 bWAR already, with almost three months still left to play.
And it’s not just at the plate where Bell is showing positive strides. An outfielder as a prospect, Bell was never really considered an excellent fielder, though he did have a good arm for right field. He transitioned to first base once he reached the upper levels of the minors and was still adjusting to the position as he reached the majors. Defensive Runs Saved gave him -6 at first base in 2016, Bell’s first season, wherein he only played the position in 23 games. In 2017, his first full campaign, he came in at -5 DRS, followed by -8, -6 and a -1 in the shortened season. Last year, he was able to keep himself to a -1 over a full season and in positive territory this year, with 3 DRS so far. Outs Above Average generally agrees with Bell’s defensive progress, having given Bell a negative number each year until a +4 last year and +1 so far this year.
The Nats started a roster overhaul last year, trading away most of their marquee players. They held onto Bell at last year’s deadline and through the offseason, a decision which might pay off handsomely, given that Bell seems to just continue growing as a player. The teardown has unsurprisingly guided them to the National League basement with a record of 30-58, with only the A’s keeping them from being last in all the majors. With no return to competition in sight and Bell just a few months from free agency, he is their best trade chip going into the August 2 deadline. (Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo has emphatically stated that Juan Soto will not be traded.)
Bell is almost exclusively a first baseman at this point his career, having played just 26 games in the outfield, 16 of which came way back in his 2016 debut. That limits the number of teams who could acquire him theoretically, but with the universal DH implemented this year, it’s hard to think of a team that couldn’t fit Bell’s bat into their lineup somehow. He’s also a switch-hitter without drastic platoon splits, making him appealing to clubs regardless of which side of the plate they’re looking to improve. For his career, he’s got a 123 wRC+ as a lefty and a 105 as a righty. This year, it’s 147 and 136, respectively.
The Mets are known to be looking for a DH, giving consideration to Bell and his teammate Nelson Cruz. The Red Sox aren’t getting much from their Franchy Cordero and Bobby Dalbec platoon. They also make sense as a team interested in a rental with prospect Triston Casas currently injured but likely to be in the mix next year. With Josh Naylor dealing with a nagging injury, the Guardians have been using a lot of Owen Miller and Franmil Reyes, neither of whom are really standing in Bell’s way. The Blue Jays have Vladimir Guerrero Jr. at first but don’t really have a regular DH, using it on a rotating basis to players throughout the lineup. The Brewers need some extra thump in their lineup and have been rotating their outfielders through the DH slot. Even if you think of a team where Bell doesn’t fit, a sudden injury can create an opening, such as the Astros suddenly having both Yordan Alvarez and Michael Brantley on the IL.
Financially, Bell is playing out this season with a $10MM salary. Since we’re past the halfway point of the season, there’s less than $5MM to be paid out. That’s not a number that should scare away many teams, and even if it does, there’s no reason the Nats can’t eat most of that money in order to get a greater prospect package in return. Their roster teardown has resulted in a much lower payroll than recent seasons, giving them plenty of financial flexibility.
MLBTR recently released a list of the top 50 trade candidates, with Bell coming in at #3. Given his excellent year from both sides of the plate, his improvements in the field, his modest salary and his basement-dwelling team, everything is lined up for a headline-grabbing trade in the coming weeks. The Nats will surely net themselves some interesting young players to help them rebuild in the years to come, the acquiring team will get themselves an excellent bat to plug into their lineup for the stretch run, and Bell will potentially get a chance to play in the postseason for the first time in his career before heading into free agency as a 30-year-old, at the top of his game.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
East Notes: Castillo, Jays, Orioles, Marte, Kiermaier, Nationals
Luis Castillo was a Blue Jays trade target last winter, and unsurprisingly, Toronto continues to have interest in Castillo’s services, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. Though Castillo missed the first month of the season due to shoulder soreness, he has been in strong form with a 2.92 ERA over 71 innings, even if his Statcast numbers aren’t quite as reflective of top-notch performance. Castillo’s walk rate and hard-contact numbers are only okay, though his strikeout rate (25.3%) is well above league average and he still has elite fastball velocity.
The Reds right-hander is one of the very best players (let alone pitchers) expected to be available as the deadline approaches, making him a natural fit for a Toronto club in sore need of pitching upgrades. Between Hyun Jin Ryu‘s Tommy John surgery and underwhelming performances from Jose Berrios and Yusei Kikuchi, the faulty rotation has been the chief reason for the Jays’ struggles in the last month, which is why Nightengale writes that the Blue Jays “are expected to be the most aggressive team pursuing starting pitching help.” Last summer’s trade for Berrios is an example of how the Toronto front office hasn’t been hesitant to pay a big price for a player they want and need, though the Blue Jays will face plenty of competition for Castillo’s services.
More from both the AL East and NL East…
- Also from Nightengale, the Orioles‘ surprisingly strong play seemingly hasn’t changed the club’s long-term plans, as Baltimore is “expected to unload” several notable veterans. The list of names includes both impending free agents like Trey Mancini, Rougned Odor, and Jordan Lyles, plus more controllable players like Anthony Santander and All-Star closer Jorge Lopez. It’s safe to assume that the price tag will be a lot higher for Lopez and Santander than the others, but regardless, the O’s likely aren’t going to change course and start thinking about a playoff push.
- Starling Marte left Saturday’s game due to a groin injury, and Marte wasn’t in the Mets lineup on Sunday. However, Marte is only day-to-day, as manager Buck Showalter told reporters (including MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo) that an MRI revealed only minor inflammation and no serious damage. Marte has been a big contributor in his first year in New York, and his first-half performance earned him a slot on the NL All-Star team earlier today. With this groin injury lingering, however, Marte might opt to skip the game to rest up over the break.
- Kevin Kiermaier was placed on the 10-day injured list earlier today, marking the second time this month that a nagging hip injury has put the Rays outfielder on the shelf. Kiermaier told reporters (including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times) that he received a cortisone shot during his first IL stint, but now that the issue has returned, he’ll be visiting a specialist to further explore the injury. “There’s just a lot of unknowns right now with what’s to come….I don’t really know what the future holds, to be quite honest,” Kiermaier said, noting that surgery was a possibility. A major procedure could quite possibly end Kiermaier’s season, and thus maybe his tenure with the Rays altogether, as 2022 is the final guaranteed year of his contract. Kiermaier has spent all 13 of his pro seasons in the Tampa organization, though that tenure has involved several injury absences.
- There hasn’t been much public information revealed about the Nationals‘ possible sale, but billionaire Michael B. Kim is the first name linked to the list of potential buyers, according to Barry Svrluga and Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post. Kim and another bidding group have met in person with team officials already, and a third group is also slated for in-person meetings later in July. Though there seems to be an increasing feeling that the Lerner family will indeed sell the Nationals, it is still early in the process, since “as many as five or six individuals or groups are expected to meet with club officials.”
Nationals Reinstate Hunter Harvey, Transfer Jackson Tetreault To 60-Day IL
The Nationals have announced that they reinstated right-hander Hunter Harvey from the 60-day injured list. To create room on the active roster, fellow righty Joan Adon was optioned to Triple-A Rochester. To open a spot on the 40-man roster, righty Jackson Tetreault was transferred to the 60-day IL.
Harvey was a first round pick of the Orioles in 2013 but has had his career trajectory repeatedly derailed by injuries. He pitched a few innings out of Baltimore’s bullpen in each of the 2019-21 seasons, but they gave up on him this offseason and put him on waivers. He was claimed by the Giants, who put him on waivers again, this time landing with the Nats. He pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings this year before landing on the injured list in April.
He will reach arbitration this winter but will still have three years of control remaining. For a rebuilding club like the Nats, they can see if Harvey can make good on the promise that once made him a first round draft pick and Baseball America’s #68 prospect in the league in 2015.
As for Tetreault, he will now be ineligible to return until 60 days from his initial IL placement, which was on July 4. He’s dealing with a stress fracture to the scapula, or shoulder blade, of his throwing arm. Given the seriousness of that injury, it wasn’t likely he’d return in the next couple of months, making this transfer largely a formality.
Jessica Camerato of MLB.com reported Harvey’s presence before the official announcement.
Mets Have Interest In Nelson Cruz
The Mets are among the teams with interest in Nationals slugger Nelson Cruz, reports the New York Post’s Jon Heyman.
At this stage of his career, Cruz is strictly a designated hitter. Apart from one game at first base with the Rays in 2021, he hasn’t played the field since 2018. The Mets have frequently used their DH slot to give their regulars a half-day off, though the closest things they have to regular designated hitters are J.D. Davis and Dominic Smith. Both players have shown offensive prowess in the past but are having down years so far in 2022, making it fairly logical that the Mets would be thinking about upgrades.
Through 128 plate appearances coming into tonight, Smith is hitting .221/.297/.327 for a wRC+ of 83, a far cry from the 134 he put up in 2019 and the 166 during the shortened 2020 campaign. It’s a second straight season of diminished production for Smith, as he also put up a line of .244/.304/.363 last year, 86 wRC+. As for Davis, he had a wRC+ between 118 and 137 in the previous three seasons but is down to 98 this year, with a line of .240/.328/.338 coming into tonight’s action. There’s a bit more reason for optimism in the case of Davis, as he’s still hitting the ball hard. Statcast gives him good marks on basically every batted ball metric, including placing him in the 98th percentile in terms of average exit velocity. However, it seems the Mets are willing to look outside the organization to consider a change.
The Nationals underwent a big roster teardown last year, trading away many of their best players for prospects. In the offseason, they signed a number of veterans to one-year deals, with Cruz getting the largest and the most notable of the contracts. With the club knowing they were entering a noncompetitive rebuild year, his $15MM deal was clearly designed with a midseason trade in mind. As expected, the club is currently sporting a recording of 30-55, the second-worst in the National League.
However, Cruz isn’t exactly holding up his end of the bargain, as he’s hitting just .241/.322/.369 for a wRC+ of 94. That’s fairly similar to the production he put up with the Rays after last year’s midseason trade from the Twins. His batting line in a Rays’ uniform last year was .226/.283/.442, 96 wRC+. That means it’s been almost a full season’s worth of below average offensive production for the 42-year-old.
It’s still likely that some team takes a shot on Cruz based on his track record, but it’s unlikely the Nats will get the huge return they may have envisioned. Last year, the Twins sent Cruz and Calvin Faucher to the Rays in exchange for Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman. That deal seems to have worked out very well for the Twins, with Ryan emerging as a key piece of their rotation, though Strotman is struggling in the minors. Cruz was hitting .294/.370/.537 at the time of the deal for a wRC+ of 141, which surely helped the Twins net a return that the Nats are unlikely to match.
Since the Nats are so far out of contention and Cruz is heading back into free agency at season’s end, it’s likely that they will take the best prospect package they can find. That means it’s unlikely the Mets and Nats make perfect trading partners, as Heyman’s report notes that the Mets hope to hang onto all of their top prospects. This lines up with reporting from Bob Nightengale of USA Today from a few days ago, which suggested the Mets would prefer to take on large contracts as opposed to giving up important young players. That would seem to suggest the two clubs have misaligned priorities, though it’s possible the Nats aren’t able to get top prospects from any team, based on Cruz’s diminished production over the past year. Heyman adds this lack of willingness to deal top prospects makes it unlikely the Mets land either Josh Bell or Willson Contreras, but makes Cruz and Trey Mancini better fits. The Mets’ interest in Mancini was reported last week.
Given the rebuild, the Nats’ payroll is the lowest it’s been in about a decade, outside the shortened 2020 campaign, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. That presumably means they don’t need to move Cruz just for financial reasons. For their part, the Mets are right up against the new fourth luxury tax line of $290MM. Jason Martinez of Roster Resource estimates that the Mets have already surpassed the line, calculating their luxury tax number to be $290.1MM. The aggressive spending has worked out for them thus far, as they are currently 51-31, trailing only the Dodgers among NL teams and giving them a 2 1/2 game lead over Atlanta in the East. They will surely look to be aggressive between now and the August 2 trade deadline in order to supplement their roster for a postseason run.
Phillies Claim Sam Clay
The Phillies have claimed left-handed reliever Sam Clay off waivers from the Nationals, per a team announcement. Clay, who was designated for assignment by the Nats last week, has been optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley for the time being.
The 29-year-old Clay is a former fourth-round pick of the Twins who has spent the past two seasons with the Nationals organization. The southpaw inked a Major League deal with the Nats before ever pitching in a big league game, with the Washington front office likely drawn to his solid minor league season in 2019, which featured an eye-popping 71.2% ground-ball rate.
Clay, however, hasn’t panned out as hoped in D.C. He debuted last season with 45 innings of 5.60 ERA ball and, while his 60.1% grounder rate was brilliant (as advertised), his 15.9% strikeout rate and 10.3% walk rate were both sub-par. Clay has had a decent run in Triple-A Rochester, where he as a 3.10 ERA with a 21.7% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate and 64.5% ground-ball rate through 20 1/3 innings, but he’s been hit hard in 4 1/3 Major League frames so far. Overall, he has a 6.02 ERA in 49 1/3 MLB innings, all coming out of the Nationals’ bullpen.
Clay has a minor league option remaining beyond the current season, high-end ground-ball tendencies and a decent track record in the upper minors, so he’s a sensible enough flier for the Phillies to take. Then again, with so much of Clay’s game predicated on forcing opponents to beat the ball into the ground, a Phillies team that ranks 27th in the Majors in Defensive Runs Saved both third base and shortstop (and 29th overall in DRS) isn’t necessarily the best fit. That’s not to say a ground-ball pitcher can’t succeed on their staff, of course, but Clay’s best trait isn’t necessarily going to be supported by the fundamental makeup of his new club’s roster.
Nationals Place Jackson Tetreault On IL With Stress Fracture In Shoulder
Prior to today’s game, the Nationals announced that starter Jackson Tetreault has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to a stress fracture of the right scapula. His roster spot has been given to reliever Jordan Weems, who has been recalled.
The Nationals have seen their rotation options dwindled by injuries throughout this season, as Stephen Strasburg, Joe Ross, Anibal Sanchez and Seth Romero are all currently on the injured list. That’s created opportunities for younger players to get auditions at the big league level, with Tetreault being one of them.
Tetreault, 26, began his season with the Triple-A Rochester RedWings and made 12 starts. Over 58 innings, he registered a 4.19 ERA, along with a 20.9% strikeout rate, 9.6% walk rate and 42.3% ground ball rate. That was enough to get him up to the majors, making four starts for the Nats. He has a 5.14 ERA so far, but with a paltry 9.4% strikeout rate, elevated 10.4% walk rate and a 40.4% ground ball rate. His ERA is likely being suppressed by a .260 BABIP and 65.7% strand rate, leading all of the advanced metrics to place him about a run higher, give or take.
The club didn’t provide an estimate on how long they expect him to be sidelined. It’s perhaps worth nothing that a stress fracture of the scapula is the same ailment that’s kept Jacob deGrom out of action for the past three months. However, each injury is different and there’s no guarantee that Tetreault’s rehab will take the same amount of time as deGrom’s. Still, the scapula, or shoulder blade, is a significant part of a pitcher’s throwing motion. With the Nats well out of competition this year, there will be no real need to rush Tetreault back to the mound.
With Tetreault out of action, the club will need to patch a hole in their rotation in the coming days. The recall of Weems won’t help in that regard, as he’s strictly a reliever. Joan Adon and Cory Abbott are among two of the options, as they are on the 40-man roster and have been starting in the minors.