The Yankees suffered another injury, this one a potentially significant blow to Miguel Andujar. The Padres have a plan at catcher an in the outfield – we think. Maybe. Dexter Fowler injuries his foot. Some hurlers or note are also broken down, names like Archer, Castillo, Duplantier, Kelly, Karns, Norris, Nova and Julio Urias. Speaking of plans, the Dodgers seem to have one with Urias, but it’s messy. Again.
IS EVERY YANKEE HURT?
I wrote about the Giancarlo Stanton issue Monday. Today, I return to the Yankees to write about the Miguel Andujar situation. The Yanks’ third baseman has been placed on the DL with a right shoulder strain. As you will remember, I wasn’t a fan of Andujar in his Player Profile, so at least none of you reading this should be tied to Andujar (I hope). Regardless, Miguel has a small labrum tear in his right shoulder and a best-case scenario would see him miss the rest of April. A worst-case scenario would be surgery and the end of his season. They will shut him down for two weeks before reassessing.
The big winner in the short run would appear to be D.J. LeMahieu who will man the hot corner. DJL had a career best 15 homers last season, and he could replicate that number with a full season of at-bats in New York. Same time, his game is way more about trying to hit .300, something he’s done in 3-of-4 seasons. His value will also grow as he adds third base to his current second base eligibility. That said, he’s not a standout option as he’s a standard fill-in type in mixed leagues with just a smidge of power/speed, albeit accompanied by batting average help.
PADRES PLANS ARE… CONFUSING
The Padres sent promoted Fernando Tatis and Chris Paddack to the bigs and said what the hell with player control. They sent Luis Urias to the minors in favor of the aging Ian Kinsler. They have been a wildcard to this point, and that continued with their lineup. For their fifth game of the season, the Padres left Franchy Cordero, Francisco Mejia and Hunter Renfroe on the bench for the fourth time in five games Monday as they seem like the only team playing baseball in 2002 and not 2019. Yes, that means there is no spreadsheet baseball going on in San Diego right now, and there is very little lineup adjustment going on.
I’m on record as being a fan of Franchy, everyone should be given his power/speed combo, but it doesn’t seem like the Padres are. Not surprised that Mejia isn’t playing though, he’s not as good defensively as Austin Hedges, and the team has said they really don’t want Mejia trying to play third base (and with all their outfield depth, there’s just no room for him). Renfroe’s sitting on the bench is a bit surprising though. Renfroe has hit 26 homers each of the last two seasons, and he should be in the lineup every single time the Padres face a lefty (in the least) as he owns a .928 OPS against lefties in his young career.
On the hill, the Padres are playing 11 games in 11 days. What does that mean for the rotation? It sounds like Chris Paddack, who is set to throw three times in those 11 days, will have a start skipped. “All options are on the table, from bullpen days to openers to protecting certain starters by pushing guys back and having guys step in front of them in the rotation,” Manager Andy Green said. “We’ll be creative.” Even after that 11-game stretch, the Padres then have games in 6-of-9 games following. Paddack or Matt Straham could also have a start skipped in that span as well.
FOWLER INJURES FOOT
The Cardinals, like the Padres, have more than three players that could be starting daily in the outfield. Their logjam might be lessened in the short-term as Dexter Fowler has an injured foot after being hit on the foot. X-rays were negative.
That leaves an outfield of Marcell Ozuna and Harrison Bader in left and center, with right field now to be manned by a combo of Jose Martinez and Tyler O’Neil. Both of those guys can mash, but it seems unlikely either gets full-time work even if Fowler goes down for an extended period.
HURLERS OF NOTE
Chris Archer struck out eight batters over five shutout innings against the Cardinals. As we all know, the dude has a big-time right arm. For more, see his Player Profile. I think he will end up paying off as a solid addition this season given his draft day cost.
A change to be noted. Luis Castillo was set to throw Thursday, but the Reds didn’t want him facing the Pirates in back-to-back outings. Therefore, they’ve moved Luis to Wednesday so he can take on the Brewers. Castillo looked pretty sharp in his first outing permitting two hits and one run over 5.2 innings as he whiffed eight Pirates. A good start after what last season looked like, though as noted in his Player Profile, he looked much better in the second half.
The D’backs are calling up their best pitching prospect in Jon Duplantier. Unfortunately, he will work out of the bullpen meaning he simply doesn’t need to be added in most mixed leagues as a result (it’s also unclear how long he will remain with the team). He picked up a save in his first outing, as a result of throwing three innings in support of Merrill Kelly. In fact, Duplantier had a save and Kelly a win, the first time since the save was invented in 1969 that the save and win in the same game were both generated by the debut efforts of both hurlers. Kelly allowed three runs in six innings with three punchouts and a homer allowed. He wasn’t sharp, but he was effective in his first outing. Duplantier is still viewed as a starter long-term, but the team is going to the ‘let’s use him as a reliever to break him in route’ with Jon who has had a myriad of health issues over the years.
Nate Karns will start for the Orioles Wednesday as the Opener. Everyone is doing it these days.
Bud Norris is still working on building up arm strength in extended spring training. His velocity is still about 4-5 mph lower than normal. Given that he only needs to throw one inning, I can’t think that the Jays are very excited that Norris didn’t do enough this offseason to come to the team with his heater in check.
Ivan Nova allowed one run over seven innings against the Indians, and even though he didn’t get the win, the White Sox have to be pleased. That said, there’s no reason to get excited about Nova as he’s a fifth starter in the big leagues and nothing more than a mixed league streaming option since he simply doesn’t miss bats. Nova has long had some issues with lefties (.344 career wOBA) but he’s been pretty solid when facing righties (.322 wOBA).
Julio Urias worked five shutout innings in his ’19 debut allowing just three hits and no walks while punching out seven batters. He hit 97 mph on his fastball and looked sharp. Alas, he will be moved to the bullpen soon, perhaps as early as next week if Clayton Kershaw is ready to return. Apparently, the Dodgers plan to monitor, rather diligently, the workload of Urias early in the year in the hopes that he can dominate later in the year. That plan of micromanagement, simply hasn’t worked to this point of his career (see the link for more details). “I expect him to be up here with us and once he does go to the reliever role, it’s to take down two, three innings and still stay built up and have a routine versus a complete shutdown,” Roberts said. Dellin Betances of the National League is the goal, at least for the next few months before he transitions back to the rotation, from the sound of things emanating from California. Messy and unpredictable on his way to roughly 100-innings this season.
Adam Wainwright allowed four runs over four innings against the Pirates, and he might have looked worse than the number suggest. He’s basically just eating space and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if at some point the team takes him out of the rotation in favor of one of the myriad of younger, more talented options they could turn to.
Ray Flowers can be heard Monday-Friday, 8-10 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). Follow Ray’s work on Twitter (@baseballguys) and be sure to listen to his podcast work too.
