Mariners right-hander Matt Festa is slated to undergo Tommy John surgery and will miss the 2020 season, tweets Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. Festa was outrighted off the 40-man roster this winter but had been in camp as a non-roster invitee to Spring Training.
The 26-year-old Festa has pitched a total of 30 2/3 innings of relief over the past two seasons. To this point in his relatively young career, Festa has managed a 4.70 ERA with a 25-to-14 K/BB ratio and a 36.5 percent ground-ball rate in the Majors. He’ll now have to wait at least a year to for the opportunity to add to that resume.
Although Festa lost his roster spot over the winter, his absence still depletes the Mariners’ depth a bit. Based solely on his minor league results, Festa would’ve had a decent shot at eventually reemerging in the Majors in 2020. The overall sample is pretty small — Festa was drafted in 2016 and made his MLB debut in 2018 — but the right-hander has a sub-3.00 ERA in both Double-A and Triple-A and has generally posted sharp strikeout-to-walk ratios throughout his minor league tenure. In total, Festa has tossed 209 2/3 frames in the minors and compiled a 3.18 ERA with 11.0 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9.
Rangers29
Jesus, I guess it is TJ season, what is it like 5 guys that have gone down with TJ in the past week?
bushmike51
That’s an obvious sign then…that guys aren’t working out enough in the offseason.
Brixton
Thats not right lol
thekid9
Thank you Johnny Superscout
compassrose
I was watching a UFC under card fight. The fighter fell funny and tapped out. A ring Dr came in and touched her knee for 30 secs or so. He said she had a partially torn MCL. Was the most amazing thing I have seen. All the guys that were watching fell over laughing. For you nay sayers he did not move her knee just felt it.
I think the Mariners should find this guy have him touch every draft pick and player before ST. It would cut down on injuries getting worse. I heard of another guy that could do that but this guy wasn’t in the ball park to fall in that compartment.
hiflew
It happens every year in ST. I am still not sure whether it is guys resting their arms too much over the winter or guys not resting their arms enough over the winter. I believe it is the latter, but I am no doctor.
Rudy Zolteck
I think it has something to do with the rest but that’s because these guys coming up today already throw all year round with hs, club, college, summer, into the rookie leagues, short season, fall leagues, and so forth that maybe ramping up after taking that kind of beating and then stopping is what makes the arm finally give out.
DarkSide830
hope they didnt know this when they outrighted him. that woudlnt be a good look.
MortDingle
in camp as a non-roster invitee to Spring Training.
I wonder how the finances for this guys medical and salary ‘pencil out’?
AngelDiceClay
I’m sure if he had to foot the bill he proably would have retired. He was still property of the M’s
hozie007
Hey Steve….how about a re-occurring article, maybe weekly, listing injuries by team of key personnel suffering debilitating type injuries such as TJ….seems like a hot topic.
glooney1
If you haven’t yet done so, watch the recent installment of Inside Sports with Bryant Gumbel. Good episode about Trevor Bauer and his nonconforming routines. Admits he’s a pain the ass, but never serious arm issues.
zippytms
Nope, Chuck Testa.
kflorence
The party is over
mlbfan
As an aside, they should reduce the minimum number of faced batters to 2 batters. The elimination of a LOOGY gives a left-handed batter a higher value.