Blue Jays closer Roberto Osuna told Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling and other reporters that he has been dealing with anxiety issues in recent days and is unsure as to when he’ll be back on the mound. “I don’t really know how to explain it. I just feel anxious. I feel like I’m lost a little bit right now,” Osuna said via an interpreter. “This has nothing to do with me being on the field. I feel great out there. It’s just when I’m out of baseball. When I’m not on the field, I feel just weird and a little bit lost.” This is the first time the 22-year-old has experienced such feelings, he said, noting “I’m just not myself right now.” The organization’s head of mental performance, Paddy Steinfort, has been working with Osuna during this period and declined a interview on Osuna’s status.
Here’s some more from around the AL East…
- The Red Sox placed Josh Rutledge on the seven-day concussion DL today, calling up Tzu-Wei Lin from Double-A to take his spot on the roster. [Updated Red Sox depth chart at Roster Resource] Troublingly, Rutledge may have originally suffered this concussion in late May, and it was only detected within the last couple of days. Boston was already thin at third base with Pablo Sandoval, Marco Hernandez, and Brock Holt also on the DL, and Rutledge’s absence will only increase the likelihood of the Sox pursuing third base help at the deadline.
- Rusney Castillo is playing well at Triple-A but isn’t a likely candidate for a return to the majors for contractual reasons, the Boston Globe’s Alex Speier writes. Thanks to changes made in the new collective bargaining agreement, the Red Sox would have the average annual value of Castillo’s contract (around $10.4MM) counted on their luxury tax calculations through the end of the outfielder’s deal in 2020, even if they called up Castillo for even just one day or dealt him to another deal and ate part of the salary obligations. Between this financial cost and the Sox already being pretty set in the outfield, Castillo may not have a clear path back to the bigs at all for over three years.
- The Yankees and Mets are hardly frequent trade partners, though Newsday’s David Lennon suggests that Lucas Duda could be the answer to the Yankees’ need at first base. With Tyler Austin and the still-injured Greg Bird both unproven commodities at first, Lennon argues that Duda is a proven slugger that can help fill that positional need for the Bronx Bombers, and he could be available if the Mets are indeed open to moving veteran players. After an injury-plagued 2016, Duda has rebounded to hit .253/.365/.565 with 13 homers over 200 PA for the Mets. As a free agent after the season, Duda also wouldn’t represent a long-term roadblock for Bird or Austin at the position.
- The Rays are closing in on a winning record at the season’s halfway point, and the Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin lists ten solid decisions made by the club both last winter and during the season that have positioned the Rays for playoff contention.
Good luck to Osuna, that a very tough thing to deal with.
Early 20s is a prime age for anxiety issues. Happens to a lot of people. Hopefully he has good support around him and gets through it. Possibly even stronger on the other side than he was beforehand.
All the best Roberto
I remember anxiety ended Khalil Greene’s career.. That disease is no joke.
So many years ago now I watched Khalil go thru the Cali League (A+ ball.) To this day I view him to be by far the most memorable and arguably greatest talent I have watched play in the minors, and I’ve seen a ton of great players. I remember he was no older than the rest of the league, but it was a bit like watching a perennial all-star on rehab or something. He was truly special
I pray he is doing well where ever he may be, and that all goes as smoothly as possible for Osuna as he deals with the issue; because as you say, it is absolutely no joke.
Supposedly after he left Texas during his final spring training Greene went back to South Carolina and keeps an extremely low profile. He won’t do interviews of any sort. It’s a sad story; I’m glad that he managed to have a long enough baseball career to offer him some kind of financial security.
Its a disorder, not a disease.
That’s just semantics, though; if you have severe anxiety disorder, it’s as debilitating as any disease imaginable
Hopefully it’s not something like the Yips, like with rick ankiel
Ouch. Get well soon
But isn’t Duda’s .900 ops garbage? No way the Yankees want him
Duda is a streaky player and he is injury prone, you don’t want that type of player at the deadline.
Not to mention Duda is a butcher at 1st base
DRS has him as a slightly above average 1B for his career. This year it grades him very well over there. His dWAR has him slightly below average, if you add all the metrics together he is far from a “butcher” and grades as an average defender.
He’s actually not streaky at all if you look at his splits. He’s a very good hitter and would kill it in that bandbox.
He would also give them a legit power LH bat to put between Judge, Sanchez and Holliday. They’re going to need LH pop when HIcks comes down to earth and Gardner does his annual second half swan dive. Duda would be a good fit for them.
It may still be good for the yanks because it’s an upgrade that won’t cost much and they still have plenty of minor league talent to really upgrade at 3rd
If they package Duda, d’arneau, Cabrera, Reyes, and Granderson they will still get nothing.
So if the Sox traded Castillo they would still have his salary counted against their luxury tax? That doesn’t make sense.
No they can trade him and shed the salary. Probably his only hope in the next few years.
Nobody is going to take his whole salary on….The Red Sox would be on the hook for the remainder
I only typed this once for the record
Nobody is making that trade. The Sox are gaming the system (no pun intended) and should not be rewarded for their reckless signings. If you’re big enough to sign prospects to a big contract, you should man up and pay the luxury tax by keeping them on the roster.
It’s totally unfair to the prospect, who admittedly took longer than anticipated to develop. Now he is in Pawtucket prison.
Warning to other international free agents: avoid signing with Boston because your development can be exterminated on a whim.
Nice of u to put the warning in there, i’m sure lots of international free agents decide what team to sign for based on MLBTR comments
His contract could be used to offset money if included as part of a bigger deal. If the Red Sox decided to try to swing a deal with Detroit for Cabrera they could include Castillo along with some prospects.
No they don’t. However agents have interns and they are actually more web savvy than you. Plus it doesn’t take a post here for an agent to realize that the Red Sox are not as trustworthy to do whatever it takes to develop the player.
If you are a 67 fan you should know a bit
more about the game. That is unless you are still harboring anger for the cards beating the sox.
Seriously, they should have scouted more carefully and had realistic assessments that this kid would take time to develop.
Be proud of your team burying this kids career in the minors because it is TOO CHEAP to pay the price for its mistakes.
Real baseball fans resent the Sox gaming the system this way.
Pretty sure the international free agents will sign with whoever gives them the most money..
Castillo’s development was not exterminated on a whim, is was exterminated after 3 seasons of him not living up to his contract and three guys passing him on the depth char (really more than three when you consider some of the options they were running out there in 15 and 16)
Trading bad contracts would kind of defeat the purpose, though, because that would still put the Red Sox over the luxury tax threshold, which is what they are trying to avoid by keeping Castillo off the 40man.
Your dislike for the Red Sox is quite evident Mike YANK 55.
Your reasoning is very convoluted.
While baseball is entertainment to you it’s a business to the owners. Point 1-Sports as a whole is full of many risks and few rewards. Their punishment is paying millions and receiving nothing in return.
Point 2- any business will dispose of purchases that did not prove to be good investments.
I wonder if you hold your Yankees to the same standard.
I don’t think it was appropriate to interview Osuna at this time. He needs time without the pressure of the media. Please respect his privacy as he looks for help. We had seen what happened to Robin Williams, it never is easy.
Who did he play for?
That’s to bad for Castillo. He’s doing everything he can to be major leaguer and still can’t be called up.
In 2018 Chris Young 7MM , Moreland .5 .5MM & Abad 2MM are free agents 14.5 MM total. Sam Travis 565K, Castillo. 10.4 any anyone of a number of RP’s on the 40 man at 565K — 11.5 MM total. So Rusney has hope for next yr if he shows he can play.