MASH Report (10/22/15)

• Well, I have taken the Tommy John surgery information Jon Roegele (mainly) and I (a small bit) and created a Tableau graph (full page view) out of the year-to-year values. I know it is simple, but it is the most common way I have seen the information.

• Yasmani Grandal and Justin need surgery to clean up some injuries which bothered them during the season.

Catcher Yasmani Grandal and infielder Justin Turner of the Dodgers are having arthroscopic surgeries to repair injuries that bothered them during the season.

Grandal had surgery Wednesday on his left shoulder AC joint, a problem that affected his hitting in the second half. Turner will undergo a procedure on his left knee Thursday to clean up loose bodies.

The team said both players will be ready for spring training.

The injury had a huge effect on Grandal who had a .927 first half OPS which dropped to .498 in the second half.

• Daniel Norris will have surgery to remove a cancerous growth on his thyroid and is supposed to be ready by spring training.

The Blue Jays traded Norris to the Tigers as part of the David Price deal on July 30, one of the final moves Dave Dombrowski made as Detroit president/general manager. Al Avila, Dombrowski’s assistant GM at the time, said in an email Monday that the Tigers knew about Norris’ condition when the trade was made.

“This is a personal matter with Daniel,” Avila said. “Yes, we did know about it before the trade. We expect him to have a full recovery and be with us in Spring Training.”

• Ryan Braun had back surgery and also should be ready by spring training.

The Brewers made no formal announcement about Braun undergoing surgery, but the player and team knew for weeks before the end of the season that he would need a procedure to relieve a herniated disc in his lower back. Braun underwent confirmative tests in Los Angeles on Oct. 7 and had arthroscopic surgery the following day, according to agent Nez Balelo of CAA Sports.

Before the procedure, Braun anticipated rehabbing for a month or so, giving him ample time to have a “normal” offseason ahead of 2016…

• The Rangers have a few players dealing with injuries. First, Colby Lewis had knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus.

Rangers pitcher Colby Lewis had surgery on his left knee on Friday.
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The Rangers revealed on Friday that Lewis dealt with a torn meniscus in his left knee for much of the second half of the season and underwent surgery. Full recovery is expected.

Beltre has a torn ligament in his thumb and is still deciding if he will need surgery.

Daniels also revealed Beltre has a torn ligament in his left thumb. He injured the thumb at the end of May and was on the disabled list from June 1-23. It was originally announced as a sprained thumb.

Finally, two catchers had surgery.

Catchers Chris Gimenez and Carlos Corporan also underwent surgery on Friday. Gimenez had a cleanup on his right shoulder capsule, and Corporan had surgery on his left thumb. The latter did not play in the second half of the season.

• Masahiro Tanaka had a bone spur removed from his throwing shoulder.

Masahiro Tanaka had arthroscopic surgery on Tuesday to remove a bone spur in his pitching elbow and is expected to be ready for the start of Spring Training, the Yankees announced.

The club said that the bone spur was pre-existing, dating back to his pitching career in Japan. The procedure was performed by Dr. David Altchek at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York and was completed as expected.

• Chad Jennings at the LoHud Yankees blog looks at the injury concern of several other Yankee players.

1. Michael Pineda
In terms of health, this season was a good one for Pineda. He had the forearm strain right before the trade deadline, but he came back from that fairly quickly. His shoulder, which is always the real source of concern with Pineda, held up just fine. That’s definitely a positive step, but the Yankees count on Pineda to be an impact starter, and those past shoulder issues are still hard to dismiss completely. This is a guy who hardly pitched for three years. One healthy season doesn’t erase all of that.

• Yadier Molina had thumb surgery to repair some torn ligaments and expects to be ready for spring training.

Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, who played three games of the postseason with a compromised left thumb, underwent surgery on Thursday afternoon to repair torn ligaments in that thumb.

Molina will follow the procedure with 8-12 weeks of no baseball activity, general manager John Mozeliak said, but is expected to be ready for the start of Spring Training in February 2016.

• The Dodgers signed former Ranger Lisalverto Bonilla who is returning from Tommy John surgery.

A few teams have seen changes at the top of their medical staffs

• The Dodgers Stan Conte resigned.

• The Nationals dismissed their entire training staff.

• Nate Lucero will not be returning to the Astros as their head trainer.

Players on the DL in 2015

The Red players have had updates since the last report. Click on the “Date” for a link to go to the latest article on the player.