After suffering a small fracture in his left ring finger after being hit by a Julio Urias pitch on September 10, Jake Cronenworth’s status was in question, though the Padres were holding off putting Cronenworth on the injured list. It now looks like the utilityman will return this week for the Padres’ critical series with the Cardinals, San Diego manager Jayce Tingler told The Athletic’s Dennis Lin and other reporters. The versatile Cronenworth has mostly played second base and shortstop this season, and Tingler said that Cronenworth could see action at both positions as well as some first base time.
Between an All-Star appearance this season and a second-place finish in the 2020 NL Rookie Of The Year vote, Cronenworth has emerged as a big force in San Diego’s lineup. Beyond just his multi-positional ability, the 27-year-old has also batted .274/.350/.369 with 24 homers in his first 773 plate appearances at the MLB level, and this season took another step forward by hitting left-handed pitching almost as well as he has performed against right-handers. Though Cronenworth (like pretty many of the Padres) had been in a hitting slump over the last few weeks, he had collected two hits in each of the three games prior to his injury.
More injury updates from around baseball….
- Nelson Cruz left tonight’s game due to a right forearm contusion after being hit by a Tyler Alexander pitch. X-rays were negative on Cruz, and Rays manager Kevin Cash told The Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin (Twitter link) and other reporters that the slugger should be “fully available” for tomorrow’s game against the Tigers. That said, Cruz might not play just for precautionary reasons and because Cash said Cruz might have been due for an off-day even before the minor injury. After being acquired in a July trade with the Twins, Cruz got off to a slow start in Tampa, but has started to heat up again over the last couple of weeks.
- After Shane Baz was scratched from a Triple-A start today, there was speculation that the Rays might give the star pitching prospect his big league debut during this series against Detroit. However, reporter Patrick Kinas tweets that Baz was actually scratched due to back spasms, though the issue might only sideline Baz for a few days. Baz has only continued to impress since making his Triple-A debut earlier this season, as the right-hander has a 1.76 ERA and a very impressive strikeout (36%) and walk (6.2%) rates over 46 innings with the Durham Bulls. MLB Pipeline ranks Baz as the 20th-best prospect in the game, and he stands out as a very intriguing x-factor of a weapon for the Rays heading into the playoffs.
- The Astros placed Jake Odorizzi on the 10-day injured list earlier this week due to a foot injury, and Odorizzi more directly described the issue to reporters (including The Houston Chronicle’s Chandler Rome) as “a mid-foot sprain.” The injury was caused by a “flukey” bad step that forced Odorizzi out of Monday’s game in the second inning. Fortunately, Odorizzi didn’t think the problem was serious, and the right-hander believes he’ll be able to return from the IL when first eligible on September 24.
TheIncident
Sliced 100 points of Jake’s career SLG% there.
Crunchtime1969
He’s a stud. I hope they sign him soon. That’s a baseball player.
Jesse Cook
Cardinals fan here. I know I will get a lot of static for this, especially from Cardinals fans, but at the end of this weekend the Padres only real competition for the 2nd wildcard spot will be the Reds! Can’t count out the Phillies or Mets yet, but the Cardinals will be a very distant memory come late Sunday afternoon. They will be watching the playoffs from the comfort of their home preparing for the offseason while wondering where they will be playing at next year and if Mike Shildt and any of his staff will be back in St. Louis. Hope all Cardinals fans are ready for some very lean years just like it was back during the whole decade of the 1970’s.
gbs42
Have you seen the Padres starting pitchers for this weekend’s series? It’s not an impressive trio.
And what does “wondering where they will playing next year” mean? They’ll be in Busch Stadium.
JoeBrady
That’s a strange prognostication. SD is likely to be an underdog in all three games, so you think a maybe 8-1 underdog will come through?
I can understand a SD fan thinking that, but I’d 99% of SD would probably be happy with 2-3.
ck99
I’m an SD fan and I think the Padres are in trouble for the reasons gbs42 mentioned and a lot more.
DarkSide830
are you sure? the competition is meager. CIN cant beat the Pirates, the Pads rotation is in shambles, and you saw firsthand how mediocre NYM is, and I can tell you firsthand PHI needs a miracle.
Thomas Walker
You should catch static for this awful take. Your team (supposedly) holds a spot as of today. They control their own fate, and they can deliver a real blow to a very depleted Padres team this weekend. Vince Velasquez is starting for the Padres, and you’re at home! You should be all kinds of fired up right now, instead of this self loathing whiny crap. Buck up son! The playoffs already started for you, and you don’t seem to know it.. You get an extra 2 weeks…..you know, if your stomach can handle it.
Bounty Hunters IA
I appreciate seeing a realistic cards fan. That franchise is in decline, and has been for a few years. The farm system is not very good and their two best players are almost 40. Arenado would be smart to opt out and get out of that train wreck. Goldy is in rapid decline as well. Most free agents don’t want to go there and the best players do whatever they can to avoid getting traded there. It was a great run but it’s over. Time to tear it down, not that’s there’s much to tear down
gbs42
champ with a worse take than Jesse. Impressive.
Thomas Walker
Man these dudes are the worst sad sack Cardinals fans I’ve ever seen! Almost 40!? The first guy was whiny. This guy is completely ridiculous. As a Cubs fan who would love to play meaningful baseball right now, you two definitely don’t deserve to watch meaningful baseball, probably ever again. Find a new sport, because you know nothing about this one.
dodger1958
This weekend the Reds play the reigning champs and go up against Walker, Max and Clayton. They could easily lose all three.
larry48
without Cronworth Padres win with him, they lose why?
gbs42
Random chance.
DarkSide830
baseball is like that sometimes
Bob Lablah
Rays screwed up bigtime on Jake C. He was only hitting .400 in Durham that year he was traded. Wasn’t he pitching in relief and being clocked at 100mph? Might be confusing him with another 2 wayer in Rays system.
CrikesAlready
They gave up a lot to unload the teetering mental case Pham.
When your daddy is convicted for fooling around with kids, I guess being nasty-crazy is a defense mechanism.
Richard Head
Man, Baz looks like he’s going to be one heck of a pitcher. I truly believe the argument could be made that the Chris Archer trade is one of the top five worst (or best, depending on which side of the fence you’re on) trades in MLB history.
Furthermore, after declining his 2021 option with the Pirates, Archer is of course back in a Rays uniform – the Pirates have nothing but memories (or nightmares) to show from this trade! Imagine if Meadows, Glasnow and Baz were still Pirates; they would have an exciting core in Pittsburgh.
mlb1225
While I’m not disagreeing that it’s bad (it was awful), I defintiley don’t think it’s top 5 worst of all time. Glasnow has pitched 100 innings in a season once in 6 seasons since arriving to the MLB. Now with Tommy John surgery, he’ll miss all of 2022, and 2023 will be his age 29-season with less than 500 innings pitched since his debut back in 2016. Meadows’ 2019 was really good, but has a 105 wRC+ and 1.5 fWAR since the begining of 2020. Not necessarily irreplaceable production. Heck, Ben Gamel has a higher wOBA, and both a wRC+ and OPS within 5 points of Meadows this year.
Imo, Baz will end up being the best piece of that trade. Among all the players the Pirates gave up in that trade, he hurt the most. He looks really good, but another ‘time-will-tell’ kind of thing.
I’m not trying to say that the trade wasn’t bad. I’d much rather have an outfield of Meadows, Reynolds, and Gamel in the outfield with Glasnow in the organization, and Baz alongside Quinn Priester, Roansy Contreras, Miguel Yajure, Carmen Mlodzisnki, and Bubba Chandler. But defintiley far worse trades out there.
Ghost of past pirates
The name Richard head fits you perfectly. It was only a matter of time before an idiot brought up the archer trade. Your nothing but a pirate hater. The article on baz had nothing to do with that trade. GET A LIFE