Category: Sports News

The Mets recalled right-hander Huascar Brazoban from Triple-A before Saturday's game against the Braves in Atlanta.

In a corresponding move, New York placed Frankie Montas on the 15-day IL with a right elbow UCL injury. The move is retroactive to Aug. 22. 

The Mets optioned Brazoban at the end of July after a string of ineffective outings. In his last appearance (July 28 against the Pares), Brazoban allowed one run on three hits and one walk in just 0.2 innings. 

"You hate to send a guy down, especially a guy who, since Day 1, he's been huge for us," Carlos Mendozasaid at the time. "But we're going to use this time to continue to build him for a potential role here, because we told him you're going to be back here.

"The plan is for him to have more of a scripted throwing program where it's like throwing 35 pitches, maybe three days off, and at the big league level, you're not going to be able to do that. That's the plan with him."

In 51.2 innings of work this season with the big league club, Brazoban has pitched to a 3.83 ERA and 1.28 WHIP.

Since being optioned to Triple-A Syracuse, Brazoban has made seven appearances. Over that span, he's allowed eight runs on 13 hits and two walks across 10.2 innings. Most of that damage came in his third appearance with Syracuse, where he allowed seven runs in one inning of work. His last appearances (Aug. 20), Brazoban dominated, striking out four batters across two scoreless innings and allowing just one hit.

As for Montas, the injury comes at a time when his role has shifted. After returning to the team in late June after starting the season on the IL with a right lat strain, the right-hander made seven starts and was largely ineffective. He was then moved to the bullpen to facilitate the call-up of Nolan McLean, but Montas' bullpen work was also ineffective.

In nine appearances (seven starts) with the Mets this season, Montas has pitched to a 3-2 record, a 6.28 ERA and a 1.60 WHIP.

Zack Wheeler to undergo surgery, will miss rest of Phillies season originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Phillies announced Saturday that pitcher Zack Wheeler will be out for the rest of the season.

A statement from the team said: Wheeler was diagnosed with venous thoracic outlet syndrome, and the recommendation is to undergo thoracic outlet decompression surgery in the coming weeks. Details of the surgery are forthcoming. The timeline of recovery from the surgery is generally 6-8 months.

Wheeler had been dealing with something unknown in the shoulder since around the All-Star break and it caused him to be moved back a few days on a start. A dip in velocity and command heightened questions about what may be wrong, but it was after a start in Washington on August 15, in which Wheeler pitched five innings, gave up two runs and struck out six, where concerns grew. Though Wheeler said he felt really good during his outing, after the game he described “heaviness” in the shoulder area. That’s when red flags went up.

“Yeah, so that’s it (heaviness),” said Phillies head athletic trainer Paul Buchheit. “They weren’t very subtle but having some heaviness and fullness was one of the symptoms where we said, ‘hey let’s get this looked at’.

“He had a venous thoracic outlet syndrome, so it’s not the same as, say, a neurological vascular outlet, so the recovery can be a little bit different. The fact that he wasn’t dealing with this, it was more of an acute issue, that also is in his favor that he wasn’t dealing with this for a long time prior to going under for the procedure. He wasn’t exhibiting any of the symptoms that ultimately drove us to get the Washington Nationals docs involved in evaluating it, which they were great, by the way in expediting everything. We do think they were independent. Typically, these things kind of have a cluster of symptom patterns. He wasn’t exhibiting any of those until we had him evaluated.”

Wheeler underwent a thrombolysis procedure to remove the blood clot on August 18.

“He’s doing well,” said Buchheit. “He’s doing fine. (There were) two second opinions and they were the leaders in the industry on this topic.”

The human aspect of something like this always comes first, and from management to players that is first and foremost on everyone’s mind. After that, however, there is the business of baseball and the absence of Wheeler is a huge blow to this baseball team.

“He’ll miss this season, but then we figure he’ll come back in the six-to-eight-month time period and come back and be the Zack Wheeler of old,” said president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. “That’s what we were told. Unless something unanticipated happens, he’ll be able to come back and pitch like he has before this.”

Dombrowski said he hasn’t spoken to Wheeler but has shared texts. He also said Wheeler was at the ballpark Friday.

How the rest of the season will play out with the starting staff is now a little more mysterious. Manager Rob Thomson was on the cusp of implementing a six-man rotation just before Wheeler went out. Now, it’s all in a bit of flux.

“I found out a little bit more last night and he’s healthy,” said an obviously relieved Thomson. “It’s disappointing to lose him but we have a lot of depth on our club. So, the six-to-eight-month recovery was encouraging to me. I talked to him yesterday; he was in here yesterday.

“Our offense has kicked in. The three lefties threw very well. I was proud of (Taijuan Walker) getting us through five innings last night. We’ll see what (Aaron Nola) has today, I’m expecting more out of him today. I think they’ve responded very well (to not having Wheeler).”

While the tail-end of the recovery period takes Wheeler to about the beginning of next season, it really is all speculation at this point. So many factors will come into play over that time but for the time being, positivity seems to be prominent.

“If you have symptoms from a neurological perspective, they may be present for a long time and it takes a while to evaluate, treat through,” said Buchheit. “A lot of times you don’t go to surgical options right away. With Zack it was an acute onset. He doesn’t have that long, protracted time period where he’s been battling things. The surgeons say that he’s going to have a really good prognosis with this.

“The protocols on this are pretty general. A guy can start throwing, maybe eight weeks after the procedure. But that all really depends on how he’s presenting, how the procedure goes and how he’s doing in the rehab process.”

In the meantime, we will see how it all plays out without their ace’s presence. Does Andrew Painter get the long-awaited call-up? Is there someone else in the wings? Is there another game-plan? That is the challenge facing upper management.

“It’s disappointing but I think everyone knows it’s out of our control,” said Thomson. “We’re happy that he’s going to be healthy cause it’s a very serious thing that he went through. They’re baseball players and they kind of move on. We’ve got a game today and they’re not going to cancel it and we’ve got another game tomorrow.

“We just got to keep moving forward.”

As the Yankees look to bounce back after back-to-back losses to the Boston Red Sox, manager Aaron Boone addressed a few big issues facing his club before Saturday's matinee in The Bronx.

Aaron Judge progressing 

The Yankees slugger is still dealing with the effects of the flexor strain in his right arm, but he has progressed in his throwing program as the wait for his return to the outfield continues.

Boone said that he believes Judge was throwing with “a little more intensity” on Friday and was out to 150 feet. “I think we’re getting to introduce some paces, so hopefully we're getting close,” the skipper said.

With the reigning AL MVP limited to just hitting, Boone dismissed a question about whether the injury was impacting the slugger at the plate. “I don’t,” he said.

Giancarlo Stanton was in the lineup in right field for Saturday's game, his seventh start in the outfield since Judge's return from the IL.

But since coming back from the injury during the first week of August, the slugger has just 11 hits in 51 at-bats (.216) with a double and three home runs for a .412 slugging percentage and .806 OPS (boosted by 15 walks) through his first 15 games as a DH. 

In the 15 games before the injury, Judge had just 11 hits in 54 at-bats (.204) with three doubles and five homers for a .537 slugging percentage and an .836 OPS. He had nine walks to 21 strikeouts in that span compared to 14 since the injury.

Anthony Volpe could get a day soon

Boone said he didn’t consider giving Volpe a day off for Saturday’s game with Red Sox left-hander Garrett Crochet on the mound, but amid the shortstop’s struggles at the plate and in the field, it is something he is considering. 

“Especially now with [Jose] Caballero [able to play short], I gave him one the other day,” Boone said about a start for the trade deadline acquisition. “So those can be in play here, but wasn’t gonna do it with the lefty here.”

Volpe has struggled again at the plate this year as his .209 average entering Saturday's game matches his mark from his rookie season. His .403 slugging percentage is a career high, but his .276 on-base percentage is a career low.

The numbers have been particularly dire of late, as the 24-year-old has just eight hits in his last 18 games is slashing .127/.179/.254 for a .433 OPS with four walks and 18 strikeouts. 

Through his first 446 career games, Volpe is slashing .222/.285/.381 for a .666 OPS for an 84 OPS+ and 86 wRC+ (average is 100).

And his once-reliable fielding has abandoned him with 16 errors already this season (not including a mental error in Friday night's game) and a minus-7 outs above average (fourth percentile in MLB). On the other hand, his three defensive runs saved on the year are good for eighth among qualified shortstops. So he hasn't totally regressed.

On Friday, with a runner on second and nobody out in the ninth inning, Volpe fielded a grounder right at him and tried to get the runner at second rather than taking the out at first. Instead, the Sox got two on and nobody out.

“It’s obviously not the right play,” Boone said after the game Friday. “It’s a little bit of a heady play, too. He almost caught a guy off in scoring position there, and then he doesn’t come around to score anyway. He makes a really good play on the contact play. Are we going to really dive into that one a lot? I mean, I get it. It wasn’t an out, but it’s kind of a heads-up. Almost got a guy napping.” 

Fernando Cruz nearing return

The veteran right-hander is set to come back after a lengthy stint on the IL that has seen him sidelined since late June, either on Sunday or Monday, the skipper said. 

Cruz pitched to a .300 ERA and 1.000 WHIP in 33 innings over 32 appearances. He had 54 strikeouts to 14 walks, thanks to an absolutely wicked split-finger that had a 60.2 whiff percentage and .119 expected batting average against.