The ongoing saga between the Red Sox and Pablo Sandoval seemingly took another odd turn today. As Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald reports, manager John Farrell says that the third baseman’s scheduled examination by Dr. James Andrews was punted because his ailing left shoulder was too sore. Sandoval did receive a cortisone shot to treat the inflammation, and is set for another visit to Andrews in a “couple weeks.” Sandoval will obviously remain on the DL at least until that time, though it remains unclear what kind of activity (if any) he’ll participate in during the interim.
Here’s more from the American League to round out a quiet night:
- The Mariners’ offseason moves at the catching position are working out well in the early going, writes Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. Free agent signee Chris Iannetta has been productive at the major league level, providing a consistent presence that the team lacked in 2015. Meanwhile, Mike Zunino — the young backstop of the past and, hopefully, the future — is off to a scorching start at Triple-A after struggling badly in the bigs last season. The success of the former is allowing the team to remain patient with the latter, and Divish says not to expect a quick call-up for the 25-year-old Zunino. (It’s worth bearing in mind, too, that Zunino entered the year with 2.084 years of service on his clock, meaning that Seattle could pick up an additional year of control if he stays down long enough.)
- The pre-season expectations of the Yankees’ pitching staff have largely been borne out in the regular season thus far, as George A. King III and Joel Sherman of the New York Post write in separate pieces. Both the depth and quality of the rotation remains a major concern, says King. And Sherman wonders whether the summer trade market will provide an avenue for the organization to add to the rotation mix while parting with one of Aroldis Chapman, Andrew Miller, or Dellin Betances. While GM Brian Cashman says that “the plan is to have those three guys the whole way,” it’s something that the club has seriously considered before. Of course, pulling off such a deal with another contending team in the middle of a season would surely be a tricky proposition.
It’s only a “saga” because it’s happening in Boston, where every wart and bunion is a major story.
Shaugnessy can’t even blow this one up into something worse than it actually is.. It’s already a unmitigated disaster and was the day he put his name on the dotted line.
Read a story.. Think it was Bradford at WeEI that said Sandoval for take the line which lackey did and put this serious injury to good use time away and use it to get into shape and come back like John did and show how good he “can” be.. Got a serious chuckle from it.. Huge differences in Lackey and Sandoval.. Lackey always had a fire in his belly during games which was plain to see.. He would get mad when tagged for hits, use each loss to improve next start, try to even when he pitched hurt. Sandoval doesn’t care. He’s collecting his cash. If he did? Wouldn’t show up looking like a beach ball when not able to field or hit, could half way understand *if* he was able to do anything, but he isn’t.
Chalk him up to the bj upton, edwin jackson, carl crawford crowd of modern day laziness that front office people need to learn more about and avoid.
As a Yankee’s fan, the name Carl Pavano comes creeping into my consciousness. Four years of taking the money, obscure and improbable injuries. minimal effort, and horrible on-field performance. 146 innings in four years out of a starter. 641 IP the three years after–including leading the league in complete games and shutouts in one season, as good health mysteriously returned.
Ugh, ugh, ugh. Blotting it out, going to vote in the primary.
How do you know his effort level? His body just broke down . It’s quite possible the Yankees training staff wasn’t able to maintain his health, or that he was constantly rushed back before he was healthy.
His performance before he signed with the Yankees. and after, are a matter of record. As to the exact extent and severity of his injuries, his willingness to work through them, and the quality of his medical care, that’s going to be known with certainly to only a few. But it is of note that teammates on the Yankees questioned his effort. Maybe the man was just unlucky, but from a fan’s perspective, having a few doubts was not unreasonable. He certainly didn’t perform, and often just didn’t look like he wanted to play.
What’s worrisome to me is that leftist like your self make any negative comment into a race issue. Sandoval would be called lazy no matter what his race is. Go post your ideals on huffpo. This is a baseball website not a social justice site.
Carl Pavano had one of my favorite NY tabloid nicknames of all time when he was crowned “American Idle.”
To be fair, Pavano did grow up and redeem himself somewhat in CLE and MIN.
Not trying to take up for Pavano, nor against here, but when Pavano was in the Sox farm system? He was throwing in the 92-3 range consistently and touching 95 with his fb. Maybe it was all those injuries while in NY and think one was a serious shoulder one also? That knocked his velocity all the way down to the upper 80’s by the time his contract was up in NY.
Missing almost 4 straight years on injuries is almost unheard of. Even go back to Anibal Sanchez in his early marlins days, who had a labrum tear believe it was and then “think” maybe TJ over 4y and he didn’t miss THAT much time.
It’s possible Pavano was constantly injured and unable to perform–but we are talking about a period from June of 2005 through 3/1/2 seasons where he managed a total of nine appearances and 45 innings. He rehabbed away from the team, when they were in Florida for Rays games, didn’t join up with them. Is their any analogy in baseball history for pitcher having that much time lost in consecutive seasons–and then throwing 640 innings over the following 3?
There’s an odd similarity in the last paragraph of your incomprehensible rant here. It seems like the term “lazy” is only applied in baseball to players of color. It’s worrisome to me.
You are the only one bringing up race. Save your leftist outrage for political websites. This one is for baseball. When someone actually uses racial slurs you can chime in. But, seriously keep your innuendo to yourself.
Another big difference between Lackey and Sandoval is that Lackey got a taste of World Series victory as a rookie in 2002, but never got back there until 2013 with the Sox. I think he had a competitive fire in him to get back to the big stage. Sandoval has three rings from his last five seasons in San Francisco, so what does he care?
Why would you call Crawford and Jackson lazy? I couldn’t find one article claiming laziness with either player. Even Upton, who was criticized by many Rays fans as being lazy, had articles written where Maddon talks about telling him to stop working so much. That he would get down on himself and start pressing or messing with his swing to try and turn it around. The “lazy” Upton also played an entire season with a torn labrum, had surgery in the offseason and came back to play the entire following season, you know, like most lazy people do.
Just because players don’t live up to some arbitrary level you set for them, for a multitude of reasons, doesn’t make them lazy.
Possibly without intending to, you are making my point. Dozens of players are on the DL at any given time, some of them really big ticket items. With the daily coverage, this one sore shoulder is being hugely overplayed. If it wasn’t happening in the constantly hyperventilating Boston market, it would no more of a “saga” than any other baseball injury story. I know it’s fruitless to ask Boston fans to have any perspective or to get real, but for the rest of us this is one of those face palm moments.
Years ago Boston was the most popular city for players – players specified the Boston Red Sox overwhelmingly in their contracts as a team / city they couldn’t be traded to. When Manny Rameriz was negotiating with the Indians and Red Sox, his Cleveland teammates were trying to sell him on staying by pointing out that he had to be nuts to want to play in Boston. Manny didn’t listen, and was unhappy with problems from the first day of spring training with the Red Sox. But as players realized that selling their brand was what it was really all about, average (and not terribly bright) ballplayers such as Kevin Millar could have their agents monetize playing for the Red Sox in ways that were not possible playing for other MLB teams (Peter Gammonds writes national articles on how wonderful everyone that comes to play for the Red Sox is).
I don’t know what the current situation with players being open to playing in Boston is. For sure, the MLB Network was needed to get away from Gammons and ESPN’s believing that there were 3 teams in MLB – the Yankees, the Red Sox, and the others. I think it’s positive that on national Internet sites in which readers can make comments, they bring up how sick they are of hearing about the Red Sox. The Sox are basically an average team and average organization that gets the pub of a champion that America cares about. People outside of New England would just rather most of their stuff go away, along with the yuk-yuk-yuk overgrown kids o ESPN that think that they and the Red Sox are the cats pajamas.
Testify brother Samuel. Even this site seems to buy into the outsized importance of baseball east of the Hudson, and in New England especially. The fans and media in Boston agonizing over every little thing that happens to their team is going to happen locally, but the national baseball media doesn’t need to validate their sense of self-importance by reporting every Boston soap opera as if it’s of special significance to the sport.
BlueSkyLA, I agree with everything that you’ve said on the Sandoval topic.
DD strikes me as a level-headed enough GM to let the Sandoval injury and rehab play out before making the rash decisions many in the media are suggesting.
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.
As a baseball fan who roots for the Red Sox and lives in New England, I completely agree with you. Being surrounded by the Boston media and fans is often infuriating. The amount of sensationalism, recency bias, and just pure nonsense that is spouted daily is sickening. It is face palm city here. Everybody is flipping out about something all the time. I honestly think it’s gotten worse in the past five or so years. It truly feels like the volatile atmosphere is a key contributor to the extreme highs and lows of this team in recent years. When things get going well, it works in our favor, we get an extra momentum boost, and we can rise to the top even if we do not have the best roster. But when things go wrong, all hell breaks loose, and we sink straight to the bottom even with semi-loaded rosters.
I do love the advantages of rooting for a team with such immense resources and market power (being able to watch David Price pitch every fifth day), but I so often envy fans of teams with less exposure.
Thanks for saying that. To be clear I am not trying to offend BoSox fans, who obviously have a lot of passion and commitment going for them. It’s the media-driven echo-chamber effect we see coming out of Boston that is so strange (and annoying) to many of us in baseball’s other time zones. It’s reassuring to know that at least some Boston fans are weary of it too.
I cant even fathom the Yankees parting with Betances or Miller. Miller did an awesome job last year and continues to do so, Betances should be our closer of the future. Is Chapman going to do a better job than Miller did at 36/38, highly doubt it. Chapman is also a free agent at years end, Miller is signed through 17. I’ll be sick if they Trade Betances, great player and Class guy.
Betances is a beast. I worry that they have over-used him, but he is definitely a great guy to have in the BP. The issue the Yankees will have later in the year is with the first 6 innings, not the last 3.
To further drive home the point that Betances is a beast, he has a -0.88 FIP. Yes that is a negative. Opponents should be taking away their own runs he’s pitched so well thus far.
Pretty sure Miller is signed through 2018.
Yankees have the best bullpen in the game with chapman Miller and betances and shreve
No they dont, go look up reliever stats for 2016.
Betances and Miller are 1 and 2. No other team has two relievers in the top 10. The Athletics have 3 in the top 20 but by WAR they add up to less value than just Betances + Miller.
Switch it to a full team perspective and you have the Yankees at 1.3 WAR for all of their relievers and the Orioles in second at 0.8. Highest K rate, 5th lowest BB rate, 3rd lowest HR rate. Not to mention that as a unit their BABIP is .342 and they have a below average 7.1.8% strand rate which means that despite the fact that they are valued as the best relief corps in the game, they’ve actually performed worse than expected.
I’m sorry, Motorcycle Crash Victim, please come back to our Level I trauma center in a few weeks, you’re too badly injured right now. I’ll just give you a cortisone shot and the ambulance will take you back to your mangled bike.
Bingo. Thank you.
If Sandoval had switched from extra crispy to original recipe during the off season, maybe he wouldn’t have “shoulder” issues.
If he does actually have an eating disorder I think it’s pretty sad how people talk about him. That being said he had millions of dollars and a support system of doctors like no other I lose sympathy fast.
If you look at him as a person it’s s really sad situation. But as a professional baseball player it is extremely frustrating seeing someone have a chance to play the game they love for millions and squander it. Taking away chances from people who have that fire and desire.
His eating disorder is that he won’t stop himself from eating. That’s not a medical issue, it’s a self-control issue. It’s a “I just signed an $85MM contract but I won’t hire a personal trainer because I really don’t want to work out and get in shape” issue.
Right because that’s the only option? What if it was drugs he was addicted to, or even anorexia or bulimia? We can all bash the guy for not being able to stop eating but what would we do if it was a loved one?
I’m as annoyed by the situation as much as the next fan but let’s not make a joke of what could actually be an issue a human being is having.
People overcome addiction every day. I have zero sympathy for someone who has every resource in the world at their disposal and does absolutely nothing to help themself, not that I actually believe he is suffering from some overwhelming food addiction.
Cocaine is God’s way of saying “You’re making too much money.”
Joey, you are right and you are very wrong. Yes, people over come addiction every day – this is absolutely true. Drug addiction has a high relapse rate, so does gambling and sexual addictions. The people who are successful, are able to abstain from those actions entirely. Food addiction on is different – a person cannot survive with out the very act that triggers the addiction – eating. Plus you don’t know if he has tried to use his resources for help. You just assume he didn’t because the result isn’t the one you expected.
I’ve been in recovery for over three years. I’ve seen people struggle with their addictions and compulsions. Many have relapsed – about 75% of the people I know and it not because they didn’t try. Compulsion and addiction is a constant struggle that not many people can bat 1.000 at.
How long is the league going to let this charade continue? He is obviously not injured. The Sox are storing him on the DL because he is useless as a bench player but they want to keep him around in case of injury.
Not *obviously* a charade to me. I’m 6’3″, 185 lbs. and in good health but for two degenerative discs in my lower back, and one of the best sports medicine doctors in Southern California put me on two weeks of anti-inflammatories in advance of running an MRI.
Sandoval’s weight is obviously a factor. I don’t believe waiting two weeks for a more conclusive MRI makes medical concerns about the shoulder itself any less credible.
They cancelled his 2nd opinion with Dr. Andrews because he didn’t want to say there was nothing wrong with him a second time.
You got that right. When you go see an orthopedic surgeon after your MRI, the only reason is to schedule the surgery, They have already made their diagnosis. from the MRI. If you have not had an MRI, the surgeon wants to see you while you are in pain so they can see what the impingement is caused by. So this is all BS.
First of all, we don’t know whether it really is a charade. Maybe there’s something wrong with the player (besides the weight) and if there is, a good diagnosis is worth waiting for. But, to answer your implied question, MLB is likely to wait as long as Boston needs it, so long as their isn’t some sort of grievance brought by MLBPA. If Panda wants to sit, for whatever his reasons, and the Red Sox don’t mind paying him, Panda will sit. The moment that the player and the team’s incentives change, you are likely to see some action. Not before.
Yes, I’d say the Mariner’s offseason catching moves are working out well. Trading Mark Trumbo to the O’s for Steve Clevenger is working great in Baltimore!
Fast-starting Mark Trumbo has been valued at 0.5 fWAR in 46 plate appearances while Dae-Ho Lee, Seattle’s new righthand-hitting firstbaseman, has been valued at 0.3 fWAR in 17 plate appearances.
The Mariners shed Trumbo’s 2016 salary of $9.15 million but will pay Lee $1 million plus up to $3 million in incentives.
Seattle makes the trade again any day.
Since you’ve enjoyed Trumbo’s hot start, I am sure you will enjoy what he does the rest of the season, as he gets to his career .250, by hitting .220 the rest of the way.
Well they were going to non tender trumbo anyways so somethings better than nothing. And clevenger was once traded for a cy young winner so he must be pretty good;)
Have you ever heard of a Dr. Andrews appointment being blown off because the player was too sore? No? That is because its a lie. Dr. Andrews has already made his diagnosis from the MRI. He may want to take another one, maybe a high contrast MRI, but that would not be hindered by inflammation.
Panda can’t work out if his shoulder is too sore for a Dr. to even touch it. He can still eat though and you can bet that the stress of this situation has driven him to many a buffet by now.
So in 2 weeks when he has seen Dr. Andrews and presumably started working out again, will Panda weigh 15-20 lbs more than he did before this all started?
They should keep the panda around to bartend in the dugout.