The Orioles have announced that starter Chris Tillman is going on the 10-day DL with what the club is calling a lower back strain. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by right-handed reliever Jimmy Yacabonis.
There had been no prior indication that Tillman was dealing with a back issue, though certainly something hasn’t been right for the 30-year-old righty. He has been one of the least-effective pitchers in all of baseball, stumbling through 26 2/3 innings of 10.46 ERA pitching in his seven starts on the year.
Baltimore had promised Tillman $3MM to rejoin the organization after a disastrous 2017 season. The deal included loads of incentives, though they don’t begin to kick in until he reaches 125 innings. Tillman’s performance had already begun to make that number seem steep. It’s not clear how long he’ll be out, but any kind of extended absence would make it all but impossible for Tillman to boost his earnings for the year.
Of course, those financial considerations aren’t really on anyone’s minds at present. The real question is whether the O’s can somehow find a way to get Tillman back to being a serviceable pitcher. If he is on the shelf long enough, he may end up getting some time in the minors on a rehab assignment to try and sort things out.
Answers won’t come easy. His average fastball velocity has continued to fall and now sits below 90 mph. Never much of a strikeout pitcher, Tillman is now only generating a career-low 5.2% swinging-strike rate, with a brutal combination of 4.4 K/9 against 5.7 BB/9. Opponents are swatting more than two homers per nine. Statcast calculations suggest Tillman has deserved to be knocked around, as he’s credited with a .458 xwOBA that’s nearly identical to the .455 wOBA rate at which opposing hitters are producing against him.
As for Yacabonis, he has been starting at Triple-A, so could offer the O’s some length from the pen or a fill-in rotation option. Interestingly, though his, six outings for Norfolk are the first six starts he has ever made as a professional, so odds are he’ll work from the pen. The 26-year-old, who spent some time in the majors last year and has one appearance this season as well, has coughed up 11 earned runs in twenty innings in the highest level of the minors thus far in 2018, with an unfavorable mix of both a dozen walks and strikeouts.
Tillman is a Andrew Miller/power relief/get his mechanics back to where they once were candidate, but I just think it’s going to take him personally hitting rock bottom to figure that out himself and also, probably another team and coach who will take lots of time working with him to do it.
Not a short process and he’ll have to stick to it, just think he has the arm left to be a good one for a few more years, even if it takes him more than a year to get it figured out.
Umm the guy’s fastball was coming in at 86mph his last start.
And he was never a high 90s guy even when he was good
As a starter he was never high 90’s. Go 1inning and most 9some) increase velocity and think Tillman would be one of those. maybe 95 or so, which would do it for an inning at a time.
Why so many here (2 above) automatically jump in and be negative now without thinking is beyond me.
Andrew miller didn’t lose 2mph off his fastball in the rotation when he was transitioned either. Tillman obviously has some mechanical issues to deal with but if he’s consistently sitting at 88-89 in the rotation it doesn’t really matter. I hope Tilly bounces back but I don’t see him being much of a bullpen piece. To go from 88-89 to 95 is highly unlikely. That doesn’t really matter unless he can Start throwing the first pitch for a strike anyway. Won’t be successful in any role without being able to do that.
Till was never a power pitcher..ever.
He was always overrated even that year when he got insane run support and got voted to the allstar game cause he simply had wins.
Wrong all around. Tillman has NEVER had the stuff Miller has. There’s no high octane FB, no wipeout breaking ball, you don’t transition to being a dominant reliever when you’ve never had strikeout stuff. As for gaining ticks on his FB when pitching only one inning…. it’s not going to jump more than 1 or 2 mph. Up to 95 is not going to happen, you don’t just FIND +5-6 mph in your back pocket.
ha johnsilver knows nothing about baseball
Yeah ok. This reminds me of when Ubaldo tripped over a hole in parking lot and went on the DL. It’s hard to believe that there is no one in all of the minors that couldn’t do a better job then Tillman right now.
Is lower back strain the new way of saying you suck and we can’t option you but we don’t want to get rid of you yet?
That’s clearly what can be read between the lines. The guy is a trainwreck, and they have to get him outta that rotation before his ERA approaches 20.00. All very predictable when you look at his 2017 performance, and there are a ton of excuses out there as to why he’s struggling, but the bottom line is Tillman is horrific and needs to figure out how not to be horrific.
He came off of injury in 2017 and it wasn’t unbelievable to think he’d bounce back into being the solid mid rotation pitcher he had been for us. If his 2017 performance had been injury related. It wasn’t a bad gamble but when it’s not working it’s time to let it go. That 3 mil is a sunk cost. It isn’t ubaldo money, eat it. Mike wright is no better though. Time to give Castro or Hess a shot in the rotation. Can’t run the same guys out there over and over again.
Nor should we have any incentive to run Tillman out there again. He’s not a prospect, he won’t bring back any value in a trade, and he’s not signed long term. It doesn’t matter if we win or not anymore. Run the guys out there who might stick long term. Castro, Hess and maybe even Hunter Harvey later in the year should all get a chance to show what they can do starting.
How about Right Arm Ineffevection?
That’s a funny way to spell released
He’ll be back, Jim Johnson blew 10 saves before Buck decided he couldn’t be the closer anymore.
Funny how the Steve Blass Syndrome, whatever it was is still a mystery, takes hold in certain players. Remember Knoblock’s problems.. crazy stuff. But Tillman may never fully recover from last year’s injuries.