Athletics right-hander Kendall Graveman will undergo Tommy John surgery to repair ligament damage in his right elbow, reports Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Graveman tells Slusser that he’s been rehabbing in the minors for six weeks after an MRI revealed some damage, but he hasn’t healed sufficiently enough to avoid surgical repair. He’ll be out for the remainder of the 2018 season and will likely miss the majority of (or possibly all of) the 2019 campaign as well.
Graveman, 27, emerged as a solid mid-rotation option for the A’s from 2015-17 after coming over as part of the widely panned Josh Donaldson blockbuster with the Blue Jays. While he was hardly a household name outside of Oakland, Graveman worked to a 4.11 ERA with 5.6 K/9, 2.6 BB/9, 1.1 HR/9 and well above-average ground-ball tendencies through 407 innings across that three-year span. That proved enough to land him an Opening Day start in 2018, but the season wound up being a forgettable one for the righty.
Graveman was tagged for five runs in five innings to kick off the Athletics’ season, and he ultimately made only six starts in the Majors (allowing three or more runs in each) before being surprisingly optioned to Triple-A Nashville. He’d return for one start in mid-May before being sent back to Nashville, and he’s been on the minor league disabled list since early June.
Because Graveman’s injury appears to have occurred in the minors, he’ll spend the remainder of the season on the minor league disabled list (barring an additional move to the MLB 60-day DL). As such, he’s not likely to accrue the Major League service time needed to reach four full years of service. Put another way, the circumstances of his season-ending injury seem likely to delay his path to free agency by a year. Graveman will finish out the season with between three and four years of service, meaning he’ll arbitration-eligible this offseason and once again in each of the two subsequent offseasons. While he’d previously been on track to hit the open market after the 2020 season, it now seems he’s lined up to reach free agency after the 2021 season.
Of course, that assumes that the A’s retain Graveman. He’s earning $2.375MM this season after avoiding arbitration for the first time last winter, and he’d likely be in line for the same salary — or at best, a very minimal raise — in 2019. There’s certainly reason to think the A’s would keep him around anyhow, as they’d effectively be paying him in 2019 for the right to control him cheaply in 2020-21, but the injury at the very least creates some uncertainty surrounding his future with the organization.
Non tender candidate?
I don’t think so. He still has another year of team control in 2020, so even if he doesn’t come back until late 2019 they could potentially have a full 2020 out of him (as many innings as they’d be comfortable in giving him first full year post TJS). Obviously a lot of variables but his contract I believe can be rendered next year and 2020 at same or slight increase because of the injury, and I think he showed enough in previous years to show he is worth it. It also potentially explains his struggles this year. One way or the other, I hope he recovers and finds his way back.
Pitchers just falling apart
Tommy John surgery here – shoulder surgery in the preceding article.
Most pitchers are expected to narrow their eyes and throw with all their might on every pitch……like an 11 year-old Little Leaguer on a sugar high.
The MBA / lawyers / engineers now running most of MLB’s front offices do not understand the game. Average MPH, spin rate, and other measurements being used to determine a pitchers value are killing pitchers. Then again, these are throwers, not pitchers. 89 year-old CC lost a few MPH off his hard pitches, reinvented himself, and is having a fine year – moving the ball around, changing speeds, setting up batters, and spotting his fast ball. But CC is a respected, established veteran so he is allowed. Youngsters trying to establish themselves do not have that luxury…..they are expected to throw as hard as they can for as long as they can, and after the game the bean counters will look at the readout and pass judgment.
At some point the owners have to realize that the people running their baseball operations have little, if any, experience playing baseball. They have made the game impossible for the average fan to sit and watch for more then 15-20 minute stretches. They change their rosters daily, and burn through budgets by discarding and/or injuring players that the owners have large investments in.
The NFL and NBA are run by the players. MLB is now run by the aforementioned bean counters. The owners need to step in and save their sport…..because there is very little sport left.
Omg that was dramatic
And oh my god can you believe these kids with their damn phones these days, and the rap music, and nobody knows how to drive a stick shift anymore and how come nobody is still working in the coal mines and can you believe all this filth on TV and whatever happened to men asking women on a date and nobody even knows shorthand anymore and…well, we get it. You don’t like progress. That’s okay. But get over it; this is the way baseball works now because this is the way teams win games and World series now. The last three World Series winners are un by what you contemptuously refer to as “bean counters” with their modern “math” and “analysis” and “facts.” If you love the NBA and NFl so much (The NFL is run by players? Really? I highly disagree – they can’t even get guaranteed contracts) then stick to those sports on your rabbit-ear antenna TV without cable.
That’s twice.
Grow up. If you disagree with a post, address it. Juvenile sarcasm shows you have nothing.
26% of Ml pitchers have had TJ surgery.
And Dave – about those computerized devices you think are new – I programmed them, went over the data on them, and managed departments developing and maintaining them for almost 40 years. Computers do not make one smart if one does not understand the history, theory, and objective of the discipline that the computer is being used to maximize. It can easily fool a user into thinking they understand a subject that they know nothing about. Breaking down the sizzle is nice marketing. But at some point the customer wonders where the steak is. Check out how The Home Depot almost went under about 10 years ago when they hired a CEO that hit all the numbers.
And Dave…….
Your holiness / celebrity – Billy Beane – has run teams for 20 years. In that time they have won ONE playoff game.
And Branch Rickey started using OBP in 1915.
I’m not really sure what Billy Beane has to do with this. I know he’s famous for something or another, but I don’t idolize people. I like ideas. His acolytes run the Dodgers and the Astros, who have been doing pretty well lately. The old-school teams – the Royals and Orioles and Tigers? They, umm…well, they are not exactly doing too well these days.
Juvenile sarcasm? For real? Read your post, Mr. Spenser. You excoriate people for…ummm. ..using data? being smart? Not having played the game? (Branch Rickey never played baseball). Give me a break – the open contempt for people who are using data is so tired, and is absolutely absurd in the face of what Houston and Boston and LA and etc. are doing these days.
Oh yeah: other teams using progressive analytics: The A’s (15 games over .500 with a tiny payroll), the Braves (10 games over .500 playing three rookies in their starting lineup), Red Sox, Yankees, Dodgers, Astros, Indians, Cubs.
Teams that eschew modern analytics/acttively or otherwise:
Royals, Orioles, Mets, Cardinals, Angels, Rangers,…yeah. You see what I’m getting at, right?
Branch Rickey was a college and big league catcher.
Oh; I stand corrected. His 343 AB baseball playing career was inconsequential to me but thanks for the clarification. I would assume even the people Carrington despises – the Billy Beane and Theo Epsteins of the world – played baseball somewhere down the line.
Rap music and filth on TV is progress?
That’s what happens when you ruin Justin Turner’s season; karma.
Age was bound to hit him soon. His prime is over, and it’s not like the Dodgers would miss the postseason without his contributions. He’s just slightly above average nowadays
Well he hit .322 last yr. with 21 HRs…
Yeah. He totally did it on purpose.
Not the point is it?
Stupid comment
I look at this as a positive. The UCl injury is most definitely why Graveman should Jed this year. It will nice to see what a recovered Graveman in 2020. By that pint he will be our fourth or fifth starter because of the talent we have coming up.
Couldn’t agree more, this could be a blessing in disguise. We’ve definitely seen flashes out of him but this just might be what he needs to get back on track.
You guys talk as if UCL surgery is a guarantee that a pitcher comes back to what he was prior, but is actually better having undergone this procedure.
There is no guarantee and to count on him in 2020 is a grave overestimation….but you Oakland fans seem to revel in overestimation in these columns as least.
because he doesn’t stand on top of the plate and he wasn’t hit 19 times last year alone…get over it
Brett Lawrie, Kendall Graveman for Josh Donaldson. “Billy Beane is a top 5 GM in baseball”
Sean Doolittle, Ryan Madsen for Luzardo, Treinen and Neuse; two months of Kazmir for Mengden and Nottingham (who was flipped for Khrush), a lower level reliever for Jed Lowerie… those are just a few trades.
You are ignorantly looking at one trade. The book isn’t finished on that trade either? We have to see what Graveman and Barreto become. You are probably a Giants fan.
Not just that you also have to look at payroll size when you take into account how talented your gm is.
That’s right. Unless you are a snowflake Giants fan living in candy land where baseball economics aren’t a thing.
I like the way talk, go A’s!
Not all of us Giants fans are unreasonable; I like to consider myself a reasonable one.
I don’t even dislike the As, and I’m kinda rooting for them because of their unexpected results. Bay Bridge trophy was just to get more attention to baseball.
Also would like to point out: jabs at entire fanbases are never entirely true and achieve nothing.
No, not entirely, but for the most part…
Franklin Barreto and Sean Nolin were in the deal too, and Barreto could be something special, or at least a trade chip that brings in a top tier player.
And another one
There goes 9 wins