The Dodgers announced that they’ve placed right-hander Walker Buehler on the 10-day disabled list with a microfracture in his right rib and recalled left-hander Caleb Ferguson from Triple-A. Pedro Moura of The Athletic tweets that Buehler made three starts with the fracture before being forced to the DL and is playing catch today. Moura adds that the Dodgers are hopeful that it’ll be a matter of a couple weeks as opposed to an extended absence.
There’s good news for the Dodgers, however, as Buehler’s spot will be filled by an established face. Manager Dave Roberts revealed to reporters Tuesday night that Kenta Maeda will be activated from the DL to start on Wednesday (Twitter link via the OC Register’s Bill Plunkett). While he’ll be limited in terms of pitch count and innings, the return of Maeda serves as a welcome breath of fresh air for a Dodgers pitching staff that has been utterly hammered by injuries of late. Even with Maeda’s return, Buehler will join Clayton Kershaw, Rich Hill, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Julio Urias and Dennis Santana on the DL.
More injury news from around the game…
- Orioles righty Andrew Cashner landed on the 10-day disabled list due to a lower back strain, per a club announcement. Left-hander Donnie Hart is up from Triple-A Norfolk to take his roster spot for now. Cashner, 31, signed a two-year deal worth $16MM this offseason but has struggled through his first 13 starts in Baltimore. The well-traveled righty has a 4.98 ERA with 7.7 K/9 against 4.2 BB/9 and a 38.9 percent ground-ball rate in 72 1/3 innings. While Cashner’s strikeout rate is up noticeably from 2017, he’s also seen his walk rate rise substantially and has also been plagued by a 1.62 HR/9 mark. Dylan Bundy, Kevin Gausman, Alex Cobb and David Hess remain active in the Baltimore rotation, and there’s been no announcement as to who’ll start tomorrow in Cashner’s place.
- The Tigers announced that Miguel Cabrera left tonight’s game against the Twins with a biceps tendon strain. He’s undergoing an MRI to evaluate the extent of the damage, per the announcement. The 35-year-old Cabrera has had a bounceback season at the plate in terms of his average and on-base percentage, but he’s hit just three homers in 155 plate appearances and hasn’t shown much power. Cabrera is hitting .301/.394/.451 on the season overall and has already missed nearly a month of the season due to a strained hamstring.
- Chris Archer has had a minor setback in his rehab from an abdominal strain, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Rays manager Kevin Cash stated Tuesday that Archer woke up feeling “not that great” and added that the team is taking a more “conservative” approach in light of the news. Archer clarified to Topkin (Twitter links) that he hasn’t had a major setback but some post-bullpen soreness that could slow him for a few days. Topkin notes that that could be enough to push Archer into a minor league rehab assignment, which would delay his return to the Tampa Bay staff. After a terrible start to the season, Archer has turned in a 2.47 ERA with a 40-to-15 K/BB ratio in 43 2/3 innings across his past seven appearances.
- Athletics righty Trevor Cahill hasn’t seen any improvement in his ailing Achilles tendon and is likely headed to the disabled list, manager Bob Melvin told reporters Tuesday afternoon (Twitter links via Jane Lee of MLB.com). If that likely outcome does come to pass, then right-hander Chris Bassitt will “certainly be the first option” to step into Cahill’s spot in the rotation, the skipper adds. Cahill, who signed a one-year deal worth $1.75MM late in Spring Training after Jharel Cotton went down with Tommy John surgery, has been excellent when healthy enough to take the hill for the A’s. In 48 2/3 innings, he’s notched a 2.77 ERA with 47 punchouts against 11 walks.
I don’t get why power needs to be thing. Miguel Cabrera numbers are still good even though he’s not hitting the homeruns.
Um, maybe it needs to be a thing because he has a guaranteed contract that pays him an average of roughly $30 million for 7 more seasons and with his current “good” numbers he is hitting like Brock Holt. At this length for this amount and at his age this has a very good chance of being the worst contract signing in baseball history.
I believe it’s 5 more guaranteed with 2 unlikely to vest options.
I generally agree about his production at $30M annually. But you have to take into consideration the marketing value he will have once he gets closer to 500 HRs and 3000 hits. Plus, the Tigers definitely would like to see him enter the HOF with a D on his hat.
No reason to get vulgar.
So for $150 million, let that sink in, $150 million the Tigers get a first baseman who has averaged 20 homers a year from age 31 to 35. Those are his young years in his 30’s. Imagine where this is going in the next five yeasts. So for $150 million you can watch a very slow road to some career benchmark numbers. And 10 years from now Tiger fans can feel good about a D on a bronze bust. $150 million. For a marketing campaign and a hat. And a likely 15 homers per year for the next five years. Which Stanton, Betts or Judge can hit in a pretty good month.
He probably has 3 years left. He probably gets released his 4th and they payout the 5th. Long term deals are very bad. Players get paid for their past accomplishments not what they will do in the future.
Look at the bright side, he can’t be nearly as bad as Chris Davis.
Actually it’s the worst extension in mlb history as his previous contract worked out really well for the Tigers. This is why owners are starting to wise up as evident last years free agent market saw few long term deals. I predict both Machado and Harper deals slightly surpass Stanton’s $325 million at no more than 10 yrs. I don’t believe either one tops Trout’s $35 million per avg
Well said. Everything about this deal was bad including the timing. It was signed after 2 MVP seasons with two years left on his current deal. Business 101 don’t “buy high” especially when the player had zero leverage. I think some commenters are grossly overstating his “marketing value”. He is not a likable guy. Verlander had the charisma. Prince fielder could be marketed. Cabrera’s value was always based on the field. He is not well liked here in Michigan.
So LAD basically used up all of their starters and now are layin waste to the Oklahoma City AAA rotation… by the All Star break all of the starters from Tulsa AA will be in LA! Ugh…
They’ll have to change their name to the LA Drillers.
Their current DL of Kershaw, Hill, Ryu, Buehler, and Urias just might be one of the top 10 rotations in baseball.
Time to fire the trainers and medical staff. Right?
Time to figure out why all these injuries, year after year, then fire the medical staff. This is ridiculous!
Wrong. Many of the injuries that lead to DL stints today would have been play-through injuries in the recent past. Bueller’s injury in particular would not even have been detectable. It wasn’t until they decided on an MRI that he was diagnosed with anything more serious than soreness. Sports medicine has advanced a lot, and the money wrapped up in the players has skyrocketed. We are seeing the results of both, combined to put players on ice a lot more often and for less than had ever been the case before.
Still can’t believe Miggy has five more guaranteed years left on his contract.
Cabrera out for season with ruptured bicep tendon per Gardy.
While the average and on base percentage aren’t bad, what makes the lack of power worse is Cabrera is basically a station to station runner these days..
He’s a clog on the basepaths, and it forces the hitters behind him to get multiple hits to get him in from first…
That is the only real negative I can see from his lack of power. At least he is still getting hits though, it could be much worse..
However many years he has to leave the field and DH. Vmart’s done this year and thank God for that. Maybe Miggy can prolong it for a few years if he just hits. Tonight, however, hitting he’s done for the year with one swing.
Ferguson isn’t ready for the show
I don’t understand Dave Roberts hec say he wants length from starters then he pull Ferguson after 4 why? Ferfustion had mad 65 pitches and just finished a 1,2,3 ining. Dodgers were up 6-2 when he sent a PH up who struck out on three pitches. The score at the end of 4 was 11-2 WTF he is a starter and was just settleing in first start at dodger stadium. why this will hurt the bull pen down the road, used 5 people to finish game for no good reason.
Because Ferguson is a 2 pitch pitcher at this point and it was the 3rd time around. The top of the lineup had already started spitting on the curveball, and was not surprised. They took him out when the score was 6-2 and the game was not out of touch. They didn’t open it up until later in the inning. They need length, but Ferguson is not ready and guys are starting to filter back in. There is no sense in turning a semi productive outing into a potential bad outing, especially with his first outing in Pit. They used Garcia, Paredes, and Corcino all who needed work and are not vital parts of this pen at this moment. Corcino ate innings and was going to be sent down regardless with Maeda coming up. They also have two off days this week. Roberts has essentially let guys work deep with the exception of the first month when in reality they needed as much offense as they could muster. This is a bad hill to try to die on.
Watched last night’s game from the seats. It was kind of crazy not knowing who’d start for the home team until I walked through the gate. I was guessing Corcino would get the nod. Anyway your analysis is basically correct IMO. Ferguson is raw material and an emergency starter at best and he was facing a lot of traffic from the very start. Four innings of dodging trouble was plenty of stress for a rookie in only his second start in the majors. It doesn’t always need to show up in the pitch count. Pulling him after four was a good call by Roberts.
I mean it’s basically hard to criticize Roberts when he’s been running out two rookies, a hurting Wood, and a guy in Strip who, hopefully won’t, but might double his workload. Sometimes I feel like people just look at the pitch count instead of looking at the mix and how comfortable hitters are starting to look even if their ABs result in outs. Plus I’m not to sure it’s that big a deal if the guys getting burned at this point are AAAA guys/DFA candidates. I’d be more concerned about burning Strip and Buehler, because along with Maeda I think that’s 3/4 of your potential RHRPs in a playoff pen. Ferguson needs development time. It’s there, but not having a viable third pitch you can even use to as a get me over allows hitters to cut the plate in half and spit on Cur. It’s basically what holds Stewart back, and eventually moves guys to the pen. Santana needed development time. Now I think both are potentially on the trading block as potential comp pieces, if they want to target a controllable SP. Plus both are simply way ahead of schedule and really shouldn’t have been counted on as viable MLB pieces until close to the end of the year. Now Santana’s injury complicates that matter a bit. But hey here’s to hoping for better days from the rotation. I’ll breathe a sigh of relief if Maeda makes it through tonight and Hill tomorrow and Tuesday in Chic.