2 weeks Ago
Arizona Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo gave an update on left-hand reliever A.J. Puk and other players on Tuesday prior to the game against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Puk woke up Friday morning with a stiff elbow and was placed on the 15-day IL on Saturday with elbow inflammation. He had just worked on back-to-back games Wednesday and Thursday, serving as the co-closer along with Justin Martinez. He had four saves in as many chances and a 3.
38 ERA in eight innings. Lovullo said the team was still gathering information. "We want to be as thorough as possible.
And when imaging's done, you get other opinions. You just want to make sure that you hit it right." Lovullo later clarified that Puk was getting second and even third opinions.
The surgeons being sought for these opinions are Dr. Keith Meister and Dr. Neal Neal ElAttrache.
While that sounds ominous, the manager said he did not know yet if it signifies the worst case. "We're going to remain as optimistic as possible. I haven't had a chance to even see AJ yet today, so I haven't connected with him, but I don't know what that means, whether it's good or bad.
" There has been a lot of discussion surround bullpen and reliever usage of late. Lovullo was heavily criticized Friday on social media for not putting in Puk nor Martinez against the Cubs while other relievers were allowing six runs in the eighth inning to lose the game. Not only did the team already know Puk was injured as of Friday morning, but Martinez was not available either.
In fact as late as Sunday morning Martinez was still telling the training staff he was unable to pitch due to arm fatigue. He simply had not recovered from his recent outings. Martinez is expected to be ready for Tuesday's game, however.
"I said it the last day in Chicago. I want to pitch those guys every single day. I'm not the idiot in the room.
I know who the most valuable relievers are on this team, but you can't do it, otherwise you end up in a situation like this," Lovullo said. The Diamondbacks have a well-established medical protocol to manage pitcher usage that goes well beyond pitches thrown in games. The staff records and tracks every pitch thrown in the bullpen, on the mound during warmups, playing catch, and a myriad of other physical factors to assess workload.
That creates a matrix of availability. When a pitcher is in the yellow caution zone, Lovullo is advised to try to stay away, when the pitcher is in the red zone, he's considered down for that game. Lovullo adheres to the system for the most part.
That didn't stop him from feeling this injury could be in part due to his usage decisions, however. "I'm partly to blame for what was going on with A.J.
, for sure. I could have controlled the usage and been a little bit wiser, but we have something that we follow, we believe in, we keep relievers healthy here. He just got clipped," Lovullo said.
The Diamondbacks are closer to getting one more reliever back. Right-hander Kevin Ginkel threw 24 pitches in an extended Spring Training game. He's headed to Reno where he'll pitch in a Triple-A game for the Aces on Thursday.
Lovullo could not say if Ginkel would require more than one rehab outing. Kendall Graveman looks to be about a week behind Ginkel. He threw 25 pitches to live hitters on Tuesday.
This was the second time that Graveman has faced live hitters. The right-hander will pitch in an extended Spring Training game on Saturday. Ketel Marte is hitting live pitching (he hit against Graveman), and has done some light jogging down to first base.
The next step in the running progression will be for Marte to run "arcs" which is a wider turn around the edge of the infield dirt where it meets the grass. That intermediary step precedes running the actual bases in the running progression. Related Content.
