TODAY: Martin has chosen to undergo surgery to repair his lat tendon, Lovullo told Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic and other reporters. It is “doubtful” that Martin will be able to return before the end of the 2023 season, Lovullo said.
MARCH 18: Corbin Martin left Wednesday’s game due to injury, as the Diamondbacks right-hander was brought to his knees in obvious pain after throwing a pitch. Martin has been diagnosed with a tear in the lat tendon under his right shoulder, and though manager Torey Lovullo said that Martin is exploring a second opinion on the injury, “we’re talking months instead of weeks” before the righty can return to action.
“We’re going to get that second opinion but no matter what, we feel like it’s going to be a long road to recovery and he’ll get back out there as soon as possible,” Lovullo said during an appearance on the Burns & Gambo radio show.
Even if Martin is able to avoid a surgery, the lat tear represents another tough setback for the 27-year-old. Martin missed most of the 2019 season and all of the 2020 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, and an oblique strain prevented him from even a cameo appearance near the end of the abbreviated 2020 campaign. Martin has hit the injured list in each of the last two seasons while also being shuttled back and forth between Arizona’s roster and Triple-A Reno.
With only a 6.71 ERA to show for 57 2/3 career innings in the majors, Martin has yet to really get on track as a big leaguer. The Astros took Martin in the second round of the 2017 draft and the righty even drew some top-100 prospect attention prior to the 2019 season. His stock was high enough that even after the Tommy John surgery, Martin was still sought after by the D’Backs as part of the four-player package for Zack Greinke at the 2019 trade deadline. This spring, the D’Backs were using Martin in a new bullpen role in an attempt to help keep him healthy.
Between Martin’s lat tear and Mark Melancon’s shoulder strain, Arizona is suddenly facing two long-term injury absences and two holes to fill in the bullpen. The Diamondbacks have a long list of experienced relievers in camp on minor league contracts, and of that group, Jeurys Familia look to be the favorite to win a job on the Opening Day roster. Familia has looked sharp in posting a 1.59 ERA over 5 2/3 innings in Cactus League play, and he would receive a guaranteed $1.5MM salary if he did crack the D’Backs roster at any point during the season.
im going to guess it’ll be all the months in the season.
Sounds painful
Any injury that says “tear” makes me cringe.
Not going to lie, I saw Corbin and though Corbin Carroll was going to be out. Not even a AZ fan, but that would’ve been bad for both the D-Backs and for Baseball
My first thought was Corbin Bernsen. He’s not taking any grounders to the face. Free agency is coming soon.
Dorn stepped it up when the Indians needed him. Give the fictional third baseman his just due.
All because of the World Baseball Classic…
Totally saw Corbin and immediately thought Corbin Carroll was done for the year lol
I just saw Corbin, assumed it was Patrick, and thought “Wow, Nats fans are gonna be REAL torn up about this!”.
Unfortunate for the Real pitching Corbin, wish him a speedy recovery and comeback in 2024.
The reality however is that Martin and Melancon were the biggest question marks for the bullpen this year. Many fans were hoping for more reliable alternatives—for Melancon because of performance and for Martin because of injury and performance. But the Dbacks are deeper in the bullpen this year and others like Familia, Vargas and Martinez will get a chance to step up.
Martínez probably not unless he starts dazzling AA and then AAA.
Take your time. D-Backs aren’t competing this year so doesn’t matter how long you take.
Martin was on the periphery of making the roster (his stuff looked really good this ST); so even though it sucks that he’s injured, the Active Roster itself is no worse for wear.
In fact, the Melancon injury in addition actually leaves the bullpen in a better spot, and there are two open 40-man spots with quite a few interesting NRIs (one of which is Familia).
We’ll see how health holds up for everybody the rest of the Spring, but if bodies keep dropping around the league and a lot miss the start of the season the DBacks might artificially get a boost to their early odds.
Move MadBum to the bullpen and make him the closer. He can pitch for 3 batters or 15 pitches, but not much more than that. He definitely has the demeanor and several other starters have been successful in making this move (Eck, Smoltz, Lowe). Give him a chance to come out of the bullpen like a mad man with some crazy music, his walk to the mound, and watch him catch fire. Neither the Dbacks nor MadBum have anything to lose by giving this a go, especially early in the season.