MASH Report (5/23/16)

• Sonny Gray will miss some time with a strained right trapezius (back/shoulder/neck muscle).

Gray said he got a cortisone/anti-inflammatory shot for the issue Friday and he believes he will not miss a great deal of time. He said he got treatment for the muscle strain in the trapezius and his neck before his start at Tampa Bay last Sunday and it felt OL during that game but it nagged a bit during the week.

“Warming up against the Yankees in the fourth inning, it locked back up the way it did in the bullpen in Tampa,” Gray said. “I definitely noticed a difference warming up the inning. It’s just a matter of getting extension and getting out in front.”

Said A’s manager Bob Melvin: “I don’t think it’s really affected his velocity, but it’s affected the command. It’s like pitching with a rock in the bottom of your neck.”

Sounds like minimum time lost and not a major injury.

• Kevin Kiermaier broke a couple of bones in his hand.

How long Kiermaier will be out is yet to be determined. The Gold and Platinum Glove center fielder will fly to St. Petersburg on Sunday and be re-evaluated on Monday by Dr. Douglas Carlan, the team’s hand and wrist consultant.
“They just said [it’s a] good thing it’s not my wrist,” Kiermaier said. “That was the good news-bad news. Bad news, I broke my hand, but the good news, it wasn’t the wrist. Because that’s a lot more serious.”

It seems like more information will be coming out in the next few days. I ran my application which looks for the days lost and it put the median days at 40 and the average at 51 for a broken hand, so expect around six weeks.

• Ketel Marte is on the DL with a sprained thumb and should only miss the minimum number of days

Marte was injured when he slid head first into second base while stealing the bag in the fifth inning. It is the same thumb he fractured last season while playing for Triple-A Tacoma. Marte feared he had again broken the thumb, but X-rays showed no fracture.

“Everything indicates that it shouldn’t be anything longer than 15 days with Marte. It’s not as bad as originally thought,” manager Scott Servais said.

• Chris Taylor is getting the call to the majors and may be worth a look in deeper leagues.

• Josh Reddick fractured his thumb and expects to be out at least a month.

Reddick, who will see Dr. Mathias Masem, told reporters Thursday night he expects to miss four to six weeks. The A’s now have 12 players on the disabled list, the most they’ve had at one time since at least 1979.

I would not be surprised one bit if he makes it back in before six weeks.

• Brock Holt is out with mild damage to the brain.

“I went in and I played second base when were up in one of those games and I made a dive and I hit the ground pretty hard,” said Holt. “I didn’t hit my head, but I remember getting up from the dive and I knew that I hit the ground pretty hard. I went home that night and was pretty dizzy at the house, dizzy and light-headed.

“I came in the next day and told the trainers and thought I had a bit of a whiplash, so we’re treating my neck. And like I said, once my neck started feeling better, but I was still getting dizzy and light-headed, I knew something was probably going on.”

Holt hopes he is symptom-free when the seven-day disabled list stint ends on Wednesday, but he knows there are no guarantees.

It seems like he has been dealing with the concussion for a while.

• Domingo Santana will likely miss the minimum 15 days as he deals with a sore shoulder.

The Brewers placed right fielder Domingo Santana on the 15-day disabled list with right shoulder soreness on Friday before their series opener against the Mets at Citi Field.

“It was just a case of him not making any progress with his shoulder,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “With two weeks off, hopefully that will get rid of it.”

• Timothy Adleman with likely miss the minimum 15 days on the DL.

• Carson Smith is again on the DL with a sore elbow.

• The Rockies relief-pitcher Christian Bergman will head to the DL with an oblique injury.

Fastball velocity reading for pitchers returning from the DL

• Joaquin Benoit’s average fastball velocity is up a bit after his 2nd relief appearance.

• Miguel Castro’s velocity is fine.

• Yu Darvish was touching 96 mph. The only velocity reading from his last game was a high reading so I could see him sitting around 93 to 94 mph.

• Edwin Jackson’s velo is down, especially considering he is throwing short stints out of the bullpen.

• Joe Kelly’s fastball speed is basically fine.

• George Kontos’s speed is down.

• CC Sabathia’s stable from earlier this season, but this is down about 3 mph from ’15.

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.