7:00 pm: Odorizzi left today’s game with right forearm tightness, writes Brian McTaggart of MLB.com. Forearm tightness can sometimes be a precursor to serious elbow injuries, but manager Dusty Baker told reporters (McTaggart link) that Odorizzi didn’t have any issues in his pregame bullpen session and is “not real worried.” Nevertheless, he’ll go for further evaluation in the coming days, Baker says (via Mark Berman of FOX 26).
3:45 pm: Astros right-hander Jake Odorizzi faced just one batter before being removed from today’s start against the Angels. Odorizzi retired David Fletcher on five pitches but then seemed to be “flexing out his arm after the pitch,” according to Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter link), and left the game after a visit from the team trainer. None of Odorizzi’s five pitches to Fletcher topped the 87.6 mph mark, according to MLB.com’s Gameday tracker.
Odorizzi was making his third start since signing a two-year (plus a player option for 2023) free agent deal that will pay the veteran righty at least $23.5MM in guaranteed money. Since Odorizzi didn’t sign until early March, he required some extra time to prepare for the season, and he was clearly rusty in his first two outings — Odorizzi allowed nine earned runs over 7 2/3 innings for a 10.57 ERA.
Odorizzi has dealt with a variety of fairly minor injuries over his career, including a rib strain, a blister, and a chest contusion all during the 2020 season that limited him to only 13 2/3 innings with the Twins, and undoubtedly contributed to his long stay in free agency. For the most part, however, Odorizzi has been a durable starter over his 10 MLB seasons, averaging 165 innings per season from 2014-19 while pitching for the Rays and Twins. Blisters aside, he has avoided any notable arm injuries, though that streak could be in jeopardy given the circumstances of today’s removal from the game.
Any sort of long-term injury would be a real blow to both Odorizzi and the Astros rotation, since the team was counting on Odorizzi to join Zack Greinke and Lance McCullers Jr. as the veteran bedrocks ahead of Cristian Javier and Jose Urquidy. The good news for Houston is that Javier has pitched well in the follow-up to his strong 2020 rookie season, and righty Luis Garcia has a 2.70 ERA over two starts and a long relief outing so far this year. Garcia is probably the Astros’ best candidate to replace Odorizzi in the event of injury, as the team is short on big league experience at the alternate training site, and it still isn’t known when (or if) Framber Valdez might be ready to pitch this season after suffering a fractured finger.
CravenMoorehead
Hello darkness my old friend
hd-electraglide
I’ve come to talk with you again
mlb1225
Because a vision softly creeping
Monkey’s Uncle
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
Nervehammer
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
Rangers29
And the vision that was planted in my brain
marksmith
Still remains
vincent k. mcmahon
Within the Sound of Silence
MoneyBallJustWorks
thread of the day!!!
Buckner
“Ya know the Mets were gonna sign me!”
“Ya know the Angels were gonna sign me!”
Ron Tingley
Now I know why the Angels were in on him for so long during the off-season, and I would of been pleased but very skeptical if they signed him. Not my money so go for broke and finally win. Gooo Angels!
Tatsumaki
Tommy John.
Monkey’s Uncle
He’s retired, the Angels won’t sign him… oh, yeah… never mind.
posty
This is the kind of stuff that happens when you sit out most of spring training and waiting for someone to sign you…
walls17
Ouchie
Brew’88
Ordorizzi today, who tomorrow?
OilCanLloyd
Over Easy
BuyBuyMets
Oh, it’s over alright
There’s a reason the pitching challenged Twins had virtually no interest.
Big97
I worry about guys like this – everyone says plug him in, he’s ready to go, he has a resume of being decent…because of the mileage on their arms, never know when a pitcher goes from being counted on to being a liability.
Scrap Iron
Doh!
denistaylor
I like my eggs Frambled.
leftykoufax
“Another one bites the dust”
Egon Spengler
WOW… I just noticed that Zack Greinke was caught stealing for the first time in his career. With his problems, that must really keep him awake at night.
BirdieMan
Bum
JonathanJ
No problem.
Astros pull another pitcher out of their butt and Kent Emanuel goes 8 2/3 innings in relief giving up only 2 runs in his MLB debut.
Orel Saxhiser
Talk about a staff-saving relief outing.
Egon Spengler
That was crazy. I’ve never heard of that guy at all before, so I am going to go look up some great stats on him.
Lrtexasman
Won’t find anything too special when looking him up. He is a 28 year old Rookie. Best year was 2019. Missed last year due to COVID closure of minors.
DarkSide830
*suspension
bobtillman
Kent Emmanuel is a very philosophical pitcher, if you flip him around.
dmazcomp
I Kant do that.
Bart Harley Jarvis
Nice one, bob! I bet his arsenal of pitches includes epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, and aesthetics. Either that, or a four-seam fastball, cutter, change up, and curveball.
bobtillman
Throwing a fastball on a 3-2 pitch is a Categorical Imperative..
YourDreamGM
What’s with all the negativity? Dusty ain’t worried.
Orel Saxhiser
What was the situation with Dusty’s challenge in the late innings? Angels fans were fuming.
jmaverik
And we Astro fans couldn’t care less that the “Angels were fuming.”
Sid Bream Speed Demon
Dusty said, “it’s just like I told Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, Matt Cain, and Tim Lincecum…..it’s all good, no reason to worry at all.”
Sky14
The fact that Dusty isn’t worried means that he’s certain to get TJS.
Sid Bream Speed Demon
Yep, that’s what I was getting at. Dusty breaks pitcher’s like a kid breaks toys.
Orel Saxhiser
In 2018, I spent May and June tracking the number of pitchers on the Injured List. It was typically between 120 and 130 daily. As of right now, there are 191 pitchers on the IL, including 56 on the 60-day list. The Padres have 7 on the 60-day list, the Rays 6.
Sid Bream Speed Demon
Wow, that is some good work. Do you have a favorite team or are you a big picture follow everyone kind of fellow? I tracked the Braves’ pitchers last season, and they sucked. True story. Lol
Orel Saxhiser
Sid, I am a Dodger fan At the time, they had four SPs on the IL so I got curious. It figures that 2021 would be awful coming off a 60-game season with no minor leagues. Gonna be an insane year. I just didn’t figure that insane in April. The challenge for managers is to get starters ramped back up to normal usage without blowing out the bullpen.
Here’s the injury list for all positions. Of the 191 pitchers, all wouldn’t be in MLB, though, most of them would at some point this season. Check out Houston with 10 legit MLB pitchers on the IL. Somehow, Cleveland only has two.
espn.com/mlb/injuries
Sid Bream Speed Demon
Cleveland is basically the pitcher whisperers. Lol
Sid Bream Speed Demon
Love the Ron Cey connection in your user name, by the way.
Orel Saxhiser
…and the Sid Bream connection to yours. The Dodgers sent Slidin’ Sid to the Pirates as a PTBNL in the Bill Madlock trade. Well, he wasn’t Slidin’ Sid quite yet.
raft
You need to factor in covid related IL.
Orel Saxhiser
raft, true. At this point, it’s Jon Lester, Matt Moore, and Dennis Santana (vaccine reaction). fo COVID and not many (if any) beyond those three.
MarkoRock68
A pitcher making it the full year without a stint on the IL list will be a rarity . May even deserve some sort of award.
Orel Saxhiser
Scott Boras likes that idea.
MarkoRock68
I was thinking of applying for that job ( only I have none of the required skills )
Orel Saxhiser
Imagine the market for healthy SPs at the trade deadline?
MarkoRock68
I know !- As a Jays fan I’ve had my eye on a couple guys .. the price will be sky high even for rentals.
Orel Saxhiser
MarkoRock68, Scherzer would be the guy, no?
Dumpster Divin Theo
Snitches get stitches. And so do cheaters it would seem
jmaverik
What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Justanotherstrosfan
I’m going to assume that your speaking of the Astros sign stealing fiasco. Well, Jake wasnt even a part of the team at the time so all your doing is tryi g to be clever. The issue with that is your just seeing the Astros and commenting to comment. That sir, makes you more of an idiot that a clever person. They did it, got caught along with other teams as well, move on with your life. What’s more concerning to me is how many injured pitchers the Astros currently have. I know Duary Baker has a history of over working a pitcher but Brett Strom doesn’t. Wondering how much input Strom is actually having on his staff at this point.
Justanotherstrosfan
I’m going to assume that your speaking of the Astros sign stealing fiasco. Well, Jake wasnt even a part of the team at the time so all your doing is tryi g to be clever. The issue with that is your just seeing the Astros and commenting to comment. That sir, makes you more of an idiot that a clever person. They did it, got caught along with other teams as well, move on with your life. What’s more concerning to me is how many injured pitchers the Astros currently have. I know Duary Baker has a history of over working a pitcher but Brett Strom doesn’t. Wondering how much input Strom is actually having on his staff at this point.
solaris602
Oh, I’m sure he’ll be just fiiiiine. All of us get forearm tightness from time to time – it’s natural. Pardon me while I start cackling uncontrollably because this is all SUCH a non-issue. His forearm and the fact that Odorizzi has gotten lit up like nobody’s business in every appearance this year are unrelated.