June 3: Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto didn’t paint a particularly optimistic picture in an appearance on 710 ESPN in this morning (Twitter link via 710’s Maura Dooley). “I’m hopeful we’ll see him again this year, but I don’t think it’s going to be quick,” Dipoto said of Lewis’ outlook. The GM added (via 710’s Brandon Gustafson) that the team will be “hypersensitive” with Lewis’ injury, which isn’t surprising given his prior knee problems.
The Mariners have yet to issue a concrete timeline on Lewis’ recovery or provide much in the way of detail on next steps in his rehab process.
June 2: Mariners outfielder Kyle Lewis will go for a second opinion on his injured right knee, manager Scott Servais told reporters (including Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times and Corey Brock of the Athletic). It certainly seems he’s looking at a potential extended absence, as Servais noted Lewis is “really down” about the original prognosis. The Mariners placed Lewis on the 10-day injured list with a meniscus tear and sent him for an MRI yesterday, and Daniel Kramer of MLB.com noted at the time that surgery was a possible option.
If Lewis is indeed forced to go under the knife, it’d be a brutal development for the 25-year-old. Lewis has been plagued by issues with that knee for much of his professional career. He tore his ACL shortly after being drafted in 2016, and it continue to bother him intermittently over the next few seasons. Lewis finally returned to peak form in 2019, and he shined during his first extended big league run last season. The former first-round pick hit .262/.364/.437 last year en route to the AL Rookie of the Year award.
He began the 2021 season on the IL after suffering a bone bruise in the same knee during Spring Training. Following a three-week absence, Lewis returned and got off to a solid .246/.333/.392 start before suffering this latest injury. Taylor Trammell was recalled in his place yesterday and seems likely to get extended run alongside Mitch Haniger and Jarred Kelenic while Lewis is out.
Seems the definition of “solid” has been downgraded to include a .246/.333/.392 line.
Yeah, I get that it doesn’t look like much- feels weird to write too- but the league (excluding pitchers) is down to .239/.316/.401 this year. The park-adjusted hitting metrics have Lewis’ line as ten to eleven points better than league average with the offensive environment where it’s at right now.
yeah the bar can only go so high when they keep burying the posts deeper and deeper…..
Thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery.
Yes. Hitting this year has not been stellar across the league.
2021 starting to look as dismal as 2020
What you have to keep in mind is that everyone sucks at baseball now because everyone tries to hit 35 homers a year and strike out 35% of the time instead of trying to put the ball in play.
Ah yes, hitting a round ball with a round bat, the single hardest thing to do in all of pro sports, now means you “suck” if you do it too much, just because you don’t slap a couple of meaningless singles every couple of games, or ground into double plays – and that’s really what you’re pining for here, “putting the ball in play” literally means an out can happen, but hitting it over the fence is the only hit you can do that can never result in an out. Hitters ONLY ever try to not make an out, but weirdo fans are obsessed with hitters making outs (see: old men drooling over bunting, the lowest percentage play a hitter can do), you should be obsessed with the homers and K’s in a good way, in being how hard they are to do, not bemoaning them.
You appear to be new at this, so let me clue you in: every player in MLB tries to hit 35 homers a year, every player tries to not make an out when they hit. It’s almost impossible to slap singles off 102 mph btw. You appear to not understand this element either – its literally impossible to create a game YOU will enjoy. I will close my laptop and put a game on and enjoy it, you will not even watch games, because youre too busy finding things to complain about. Learn to find joy not only in baseball, but in life and you will come across 100% less cringeworthy.
Speaking of cringeworthy, AsfaninUK, typing out 2 overly long paragraphs to make your point… yikes.
What? I don’t understand this. I don’t think he was implying he wants the days of singles slappers, and a bunch of Billy Hamilton’s, or Dee Gordon’s running around. I think there’s a sweet spot between being a Joey Gallo and a Dee Gordon where you’re still productive and you’re not a .220/.320/.500 hitter.
Line drive hitters are the most productive hitters in baseball. So far this year, the top 5 line drive hitters are Yoan Moncada, Nick Castellanos, Adam Frazier and Jemier Candelario. 3 of the 5 have a wRC+ above 140, Brantley still has a strong 128 mark and Candelario has a 114 mark. Still pretty good. The top 5 flyball hitters are Austin Meadows, Adam Duvall, Ozzie Albies, Kyle Seager, and Robbie Grossman.
Better than coming off as a pompous donkey with the manners of a goat
Baseballpun is right. Everyone is hitting home runs or striking out. And it seems like everyone thinks drawing a walk is almost as good as a homer. Baseball is boring right now.
A’sfaninUK: I’d rather have guys that (1) HITS the ball thru the hole in the infield or that drops in the OF (2) HITS a ball in the gap (that’s most likely a 2B) which if #2 follows #1 is runners on 2nd & 3rd. If this situation presents itself twice in a game, I like my chances of scoring multiple runs. Even a 1st & 3rd situation is a pretty good place to be. Everyone doesn’t have to be launch angle driven, HR happy and strikeout prone. Simplicity still works: Get’m ON(base), Get’m OVER (in scoring position) Get’m IN (drive in the run). Give me players who get on base, take the extra base when the opportunity comes because once you’re on base there’s several ways to score but there’s only one way to score fr the batters box.
a ball is spherical, not round.
I’m pretty sure the ball is flat..lots of evidence on YouTube
That post was the living embodiment of cringeworthy.
Can’t we just have a middle ground? Where some guys sell out for power because that is when they are at their best, some guys slap the ball the other way because that is when they are at their best, and some guys hit liners in the gap because that is when they are at their best.
Stop polarizing everything
It’s only flat after Vlad Jr. makes contact with it.
Ahhh the internet: insulting someone as clueless because one’s opinion on a subjective topic is different than yours.
@mlb1225
Don’t you dare label Billy Hamilton as merely a slap hitter. He’s slugging .867 (1.200 OPS) for a 230 wRC+ with a 53.3% K rate over his last 5 games. That’s the stat line of a guy selling out for power if I ever saw one. (Pay no attention to the sample size or any historical evidence to the contrary.)
“ Baseballpun is right. Everyone is hitting home runs or striking out. And it seems like everyone thinks drawing a walk is almost as good as a homer. Baseball is boring right now.”
It’s almost like, if you score, it doesn’t matter how you got in base to start with
Oh and it’s really really freaking hard to hit in the majors. I wanna see you and Pun facing 99 up and in. Go for it. There’s a baseball cage! You’ll piss yourself
Singles aren’t meaningless. Strikeouts are. Put the ball in play and good things happen.
You have to keep in mind that pitching analytics has made it so that throwing up in the zone as hard as possible is the standard now and its harder to put the ball in play when its shoulder height and 99mph 95% of the time when you used to only have to worry about pitchers like Randy and Roger throwing that hard.
“ What you have to keep in mind is that everyone sucks at baseball now because everyone tries to hit 35 homers a year and strike out 35% of the time instead of trying to put the ball in play.”
Huh. Here I was thinking pitcher velocity has increased exponentially as has pitch movement, so it’s nearly impossible to successful get 3 hits against the Degroms of the league 5 times a game, so if you’re gonna score, there’s one main way to do it
Huh!? Two professionals working at the same craft, not one just phoning it in??? What a concept pun
Considering last I looked the Mariners were sub Mendoza line as a team that seems pretty solid.
The collective AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH from all us Mariners fans can probably be heard from Alpha Centauri
First opinion: It’s a knee.
Second opinion: Yep, it’s a knee alright.
Not that he can’t put his knee issues behind him, but I wonder if he shifts to a corner permanently after working his way back? Would seem to exacerbate the issue if they kept running him out in center.
More joint damage is done while hitting and baserunning, Im guessing there’s something in his swing mechanics that is causing the problem, but because he hits well, he probably doesn’t want to change anything.
Except that all of his knee injuries to this point have come as a result of running. Tore his knee to shreds scoring on a ball in play, banged his knee against the wall and bruised it this Spring, and now tore his Meniscus getting to a ball in the outfield.
His knee is likely going to be fragile for the rest of his career; best to limit his running as much as you can by playing him as the DH with occasional time spent in a corner OF spot..
Not speaking Lewis specifically here, but the action that damages a Ligament and the action that causes an injury, even that same ligament to tear, doesn’t have to be the same thing
If his swing follow thru hyperextends his knee in some way, it “could” cause a strain or even just a sprain, which he thinks is minor. But he blows it out next major run when he’s going full bore
When does Andre Dawson pay him a call and hand him down the “Hawk” nickname?
It gets worse: M’s just placed Justin Dunn on the IL with right shoulder inflammation. Mitch Haniger, pack your bags…
They’ll go with a 2 man bench and a bullpen day.
As much as I agree that trading Haniger is the right course of action, I think they need to keep him around this year to mentor all the young kids in the OF. Kelenic, Trammel and Fraley are all young and could greatly benefit by a year of exposure to a dude who is a Pro’s Pro. His experience overcoming career threatinging injuries should also be invaluable to Lewis.
Haniger’s mental approach to being a ballplayer is second to none, in my eyes.
This… did not post where it was supposed to.
If Dunn is out now too – its time to REPLACE the strength and conditioning AND pitching coach (and whoever else is affiliated with their routines) because whatever they are doing ‘ain’t working…. I’ve never seen this many pitchers go down in eight weeks.
Jerry Dipoto.
FYI: Injuries are up dramatically throughout MLB. It’s an across-the-board problem that’s plaguing practically every team this year.
[10 years of Angels coaches have entered the chat]
Chill….. Dunn is out for 1 start and our pitching has been our strength this year. Injuries are up all around the league
I’m not a doc, but I’ve known many people with knee injuries. They fall into two camps: those who opt for surgery and those who rehab, but end up in surgery or with limitations. Surgery is likely the only way for an athlete to return to peak performance. Masahiro Tanaka and his “mild” UCL tear being the rare exception..
Just another flash in the pan……. Now call up Raleigh, he will be a great player for them.
Does this make it more or less likely that Haniger get’s traded? If it makes the Mariners less competitive, it’s arguably more likely that they trade Haniger. But one of the arguments for trading him was that they had Lewis, Kelenic, and Rodriguez ready to man the fort, so if Lewis is down for the count, maybe they’ll want to hang on to Haniger?
With how muted offense has been across the league, Haniger could be an absolute premium with his team control at the trade deadline. If an absolute overpay is on the table I can’t imagine Dipoto saying no to that, no matter the status of Lewis.