That’s a bummer.
The New York Yankees have announced that Masahiro Tanaka will miss at least a month with tendinitis in his right wrist and a small strain in his right forearm. According to GM Brian Cashman, the strain is closer to the wrist than the elbow and is not related to the partially-torn UCL that Tanaka has been throwing with all season. Still, we know that forearm strains are often precursors to Tommy John surgery.
Despite his rough opening day start against the Blue Jays, Tanaka was striking out more than a batter per inning this month, even with diminished velocity. The right-hander will now be shut down from throwing for seven to ten days and the Yankees are hoping that Tanaka can once again avoid going under the knife.
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In place of Tanaka, Chase Whitley made the spot start for the Bronx Bombers on Tuesday night, allowing one run over five innings against the Tampa Bay Rays with five strikeouts. The right-hander finished the 2014 season with a 5.23 earned run average, but his 3.77 xFIP and .355 BABIP indicated he was unlucky. With some better defence behind him, Whitley could prove useful in deeper leagues and AL-only leagues thanks to decent strikeout numbers
Meanwhile it’s April and you know what that means? It’s time for Jose Reyes to get hurt. For the third straight April, Reyes finds himself on the disabled list, not being able to play through a cracked rib suffered on a check swing of all things.
Reyes was the fourth shortstop off the board in drafts after Troy Tulowitzki, Hanley Ramirez and Ian Desmond. After playing in 143 games last season and swiping 30 bags with 94 runs scored, he was a worthy gamble considering what the next tier of shortstops looked like (Starlin Castro, Elvis Andrus, and Ben Zobrist), but the risk remained high and hopefully you were able to add a serviceable shortstop on your bench for situations just like this.
If you’re trying to replace Reyes’ speed then Odubel Herrera is still out there in a ton of leagues, and if you’re eyeing a bit more power then give Wilmer Flores a look. The comparisons to Jhonny Peralta are legit and I truly believe there’s 20 home-run potential in that bat.
After starting the season hitting .182, Flores had an eight-game hitting streak snapped Sunday. Now that his average sits at .270, perhaps manager Terry Collins will think about raising him in the batting order. His notoriously poor walk rate can be off-set by a rise in his BABIP which finished a measly .265 last season.
Meanwhile, here are four players worth watching on the waiver wire:
Jesse Chavez, RHP (18 percent owned)
Kendall Graveman didn’t fare well in his first four starts and earned himself a demotion to triple-A. Enter Chavez. The former Blue Jay excelled in his 21 starts last season, compiling a 3.45 earned run average to go along with 119 strikeouts in 125.2 innings. In those starts, Chavez walked just under three batters per nine while throwing his improved cutter 37.5 percent of the time and generating 52 strikeouts. With an impressive arsenal, a lovely ballpark to pitch in and some added velocity, Chavez can be a nice source of strikeouts with some win potential who could keep Graveman in the minors for a while.
Andre Ethier, OF (11 percent owned)
With Yasiel Puig recovering from a hamstring injury and Carl Crawford on the DL with an oblique strain, there is suddenly plenty of playing time for Ethier in the Dodgers outfield. A decreased fly ball percentage and line drive percentage played a role in Ethier’s down 2014, when he hit just four home runs, but he is already up to two this year in 51 plate appearances. He’s three years removed from a 20-homer season, but with some spark left in that bat and a nice walk rate to boot, Ethier could provide a short-term stop-gap for owners who’ve lost Puig.
Daniel Norris, LHP (14 percent owned)
Norris rebounded nicely from his dead-arm phase to fan seven Rays in seven innings Saturday. He maxed out at 95 on the fastball and the changeup touched 89. All good signs. His effective changeup gives him such a dangerous weapon against righties and although it’s a small sample, the pitch has also led to eight of his 17 strikeouts. Norris is scheduled to make three of his next four starts on the road (Cleveland, Baltimore, Houston) with a home game against the Yankees mixed in. For now, he factors in as a streaming option in deeper leagues.
Hector Santiago, LHP (27 percent)
If you’ve lost Tanaka, Adam Wainwright or Homer Bailey, then Santiago is an option worth considering. You could argue that he has been the best pitcher in the Angels rotation at this point with 22 strikeouts in 23.2 innings pitched. He had also shown improved command before allowing six free passes against the Texas Rangers on Sunday — we’ll chalk that up to a bad day at the office. A notorious fly ball pitcher, Santiago gets to pitch his home games in a pitcher-friendly ballpark and is worth streaming in the right situations, including his next start in San Francisco. The slight uptick in velocity is also nice to see.