Matt Wieters left the third inning of last night’s Orioles loss to the Mariners with a right hamstring strain, and he’ll be re-evaluated on Friday when the club is back in Baltimore. All parties are hopeful that Wieters can avoid the DL, and the catcher told reporters (including Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun) that “I think we caught it before it became a severe strain. The hamstring got tight and it was getting tighter. I think we stopped before we did any serious damage to it.” Losing Wieters would obviously be a blow to the Orioles’ postseason chances, and another DL stint also wouldn’t do any favors to Wieters’ free agent stock this offseason. The catcher already missed the first two months of the season recovering from Tommy John surgery but had been hitting well (.278/.305/.449 with five homers) in 167 PA since his return.
Some more from around the division…
- Chris Davis has rebounded from a miserable 2014 to have a big 2015 season, with improved health and better performance against fastballs as two major reasons for his resurgence, MLB.com’s Mike Petriello writes. With a thin market of free agent first basemen this winter, Petriello thinks Davis could make a big cash-in on the open market this offseason, perhaps even a contract topping the $100MM mark.
- Desmond Jennings and Drew Smyly are both slated to return from DL stints to the Rays this week, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. Smyly’s return is the more tenuous of the two, as he didn’t pitch well in a recent rehab start. He’ll throw a bullpen session on Thursday to determine whether he’ll make his scheduled start against the Rangers on Sunday.
- With Koji Uehara done for the season, Joe Kelly could be the Red Sox answer at closer both for the rest of 2015 and maybe in the future, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe writes. Kelly, for his part, tells The Boston Herald’s Jason Mastrodonato that he has no interest in switching to a bullpen role.
- Has the Jacoby Ellsbury signing already been a bust for the Yankees? Brendan Kuty of the Star-Ledger poses the questions and breaks down both sides of the argument, concluding that it’s still too early to judge the seven-year, $153MM contract before even two full seasons have passed. Ellsbury’s underachieving, injury-plagued 2015 season, however, is a cause for concern for the Yankees, especially since Ellsbury was still expected to perform like a top-level player for at least the first few years of the deal.
There was a reason Boston wasn’t interested in Ellsbury at over 75-100m and NY saw some of it last year (numbers down) and the major part of it this season, being he just cannot stay healthy. Good luck with the next 5/110m.
There’s a difference between being a bust and just being overpaid. The Yankees always overpaid for Elbsury. Bust is still to be determined. He’s better than this. But the signing was always too rich.
teams need to have better judgements when it comes to contracts. with the way things are going Ellsbury contract might be a bad one if he doesn’t turn this around. yanks will pay for it because no one will want him if they chose to trade him down the road. red soxs were lucky that the dodgers were willing to take crawford when we all know he was a bad contract. well at least a very overpaid one.
Ellsbury is far from the Yankees worst contract. Overpaying him is a luxury the Yankees can afford.
it might be a luxury for them but when it comes to if they end up wanting to trade him down the road. there will be few teams wanting him. they overvalue him. even if your a team that has money you still should be smart with it, with how things are going dude contract can be compare to the one the soxs gave crawford.
If the Yankees want to trade him, they’ll cover a part of his contract. All teams do that,
Ellsbury is pretty far from Crawford.. You should stop making that comparison..
i know he not crawford but what im saying is you can compare the contracts kind of. both got over paid crawford was never worth his deal and so far Ellsbury isnt either.
Brendan Kuty doesn’t work for the Star-Ledger.. He is a hack writer for NJ.com.. Writes an article titled “Is Jacoby Ellsbury a bust for the Yankees?” and then coming to the conclusion that it is too early to tell.. Why even write the article then??
Signing Ellsbury for $153 large was a huge mistake by the Yanks. I don’t believe he was worth half that. He had one very good year with the Sox in 2011, an anomaly, but didn’t do much the following 2 years. He has little power and is often injured. But he now “owns” the Yanks, unless they can find someone to take him off their hands. Live and learn, I guess.
i guess they didnt learn from the crawford contract the rox did. unless they would pay some money or a team with money take him he a yank. just look at how hard it is to trade ethier no one wanted him even if the dodgers was willing to pay some money. so unless dude up his value he will be a hard sell
Tale of two seasons for Wieters and Davis. Most probably would have reversed the tables and seen Wieters in position for a massive contract and Davis looking to stay put. However, the opposite seems to be happening.
Bigger question for the Orioles is letting both walk (maybe grabbing some compensatory picks to “reload” the famished farm system) and focusing on obtainable pieces that are more comfortable for our terrible owner.
At this point, Caleb Joseph is a better bet than Wieters at catcher given the minors options for the Birds.