8:28pm: VP of Baseball Ops Mark Newman confirmed to Norris that Betances had an MRI and has been diagnosed with shoulder tendinitis, so at least there’s nothing structurally wrong in there.
5:30pm: The year of the pitching prospect injuries continues. Josh Norris reports that right-hander Dellin Betances has been placed on the Double-A disabled list with a sore right shoulder following last night’s four-inning, 82-pitch outing. With both Manny Banuelos and Jose Campos missing most of the season with elbow trouble, the top three pitchers on my Preseason Top 30 Prospects List have now spent time on the shelf with an arm injury this year.
Betances, 24, is in the middle of a disastrous season split between Triple-A and Double-A. He’s pitched to a 6.44 ERA in 131.1 innings, with a walk rate (6.8 BB/9 and 15.7 BB%) that is far too high and a strikeout rate (8.5 K/9 and 19.6 K%) that is well-below his previous career norms. Arm injuries are nothing new for Betances, who had Tommy John surgery in 2009 and also missed about a month with a sore shoulder in 2008. The minor league season ends in less than two weeks, so he’s probably done for the year even if the Thunder make a deep playoff run.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.