MASH Report (4/15/16)

• Sorry for the delayed report. Real life got in the way. I hope to have the season’s first PAIN report on Monday

• Charlie Blackmon lands on the DL with turf toe. Not a lot of news on his injury yet. I expect more today after the Rockies have a news conference. Looking back at past turf toe injuries, a three to four-week timetable is about right.

• Well, the Pablo Sandoval’s DL situation seems like a great drama, but not much more. Sandoval basically put himself on the DL after hurting his shoulder (probably trying to tighten his belt).

Sandoval, who lost his starting job to Travis Shaw late in Spring Training, made just one start in the Red Sox’s first seven games. He is 0-for-6 with four strikeouts in seven plate appearances.

“I woke up this morning with soreness, so something happened,” Sandoval said. “We’ll see what was going on later on, when the doctor gets here. I had this injury before, in 2011, but that was swinging a bat during the game. I don’t know what happened right now.”

“To give you an exact moment when it took place, I don’t have that, to be honest,” said Red Sox manager John Farrell. “He’s been hitting a lot extra before [batting practice] and during the game and in the cage. He’s got very limited range of motion. That was revealed after he went through a battery of tests with the medical staff. He’s unavailable.”

I think his time as a Red Sox regular is done. The issue keeping a trade from happening will be how much of his contract the Red Sox will have to eat to find a taker. Truthfully, they may need to eat nearly all of it and only a get a 40-grade prospect in return. In shallow leagues, I would move on past Sandoval. In deeper leagues where he can be DL’ed, wait to see how the situation plays out and if he finds playing time on another team.

• Watch Evan Gattis closely to see when he may be 100%. I think he has some lingering issues which are keeping him from catching. Once he has caught a couple games, I may buy in.

• Glen Perkins is on the DL with a strained shoulder.

Perkins said he won’t throw for at least a week and he envisions he is likely out longer than 15 days.

“When I come back, it’s not going to be an issue again,” Perkins said. “That’s kind of my hope. Off the top of my head, you take a week off of throwing, which I think is the minimum of what I’m going to do right now, you’re not coming back in another week. So, 15 days is a little quick. Could it be 18? Yeah. Who knows? I won’t be coming off that first day off, I know that. I don’t think that’s feasible.”

It looks like Kevin Jepsen will now be the closer with Perkins out. Remember to follow our Bullpen Report for all closer news.

• Sergio Romo is on the DL with a strained shoulder.

Giants reliever Sergio Romo was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a flexor strain in his right elbow on Thursday. Romo will not throw for at least two weeks.

The key point in the above statement is the no throwing for two weeks. After he starts throwing again, it will take him a couple weeks to get up to speed. The earliest he will return is mid-May.

• A possible interesting DL stash is Mike Minor who was hitting 96 mph in a bullpen session. He has never been close to 95 mph with his average around 90 to 91 mph.

Heard that #Royals left-hander Mike Minor touched 96 mph with his fastball, sat comfortably at 93 in first extended spring outing today

— Jeffrey Flanagan (@FlannyMLB) April 12, 2016

• The Cardinals farmhand Marco Gonzales is off for Tommy John surgery. He had quite a bit of potential a couple of seasons ago. Now, he looks to be a shell of his former self.

• It’s a little later than normal this year, but Johan Santana has decided to give it another shot at pitching. Ignore him until he actually throwing with an independent team.

johan is gunning for mid-year comeback. has milestones in mind. has comfort/familiarity in mind. so twins? mets?

— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) April 13, 2016

• The Red Sox expect to activate Christian Vazquez today.

Players on the 2016 DL

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.