Mariners’ Drew Smyly lands on DL with flexor bundle strain
Mar 31, 2017, 12:18 PM | Updated: Apr 6, 2017, 1:07 pm
Mariners left-handed starting pitcher Drew Smyly will miss six to eight weeks with an elbow injury. (AP)
(AP)
PEORIA, Ariz. – The Mariners will test their pitching depth early. General manager Jerry Dipoto announced Friday that Drew Smyly will start the season on the disabled list with a flexor bundle strain.
“We don’t think this is going to result in a surgical intervention, more rest and rehab,” Dipoto said. “This will probably be a six-to-eight-week stretch that we are going to be without Drew.”
Smyly, an offseason trade acquisition from Tampa Bay, has left camp to have his elbow further evaluated, but the club is very optimistic that surgery will not be required. Regardless, since he will be shut down for a significant amount of time, he will need to build back up and get innings before he can return to the rotation. If surgery is not required, realistically the Mariners are most likely are looking at a June return for Smyly.
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Ariel Miranda will take Smyly’s place in the rotation. He is stretched out and has been throwing bullpens since being optioned to Triple-A Tacoma earlier this month. He is scheduled to throw five innings in the final game of spring training, then start April 6 in the series finale of a four-game set against the Astros.
“I am happy that the club kept me in mind for when the situation arose,” Miranda said. “Now I just have to focus on getting the job done.”
Dipoto believes that this is the first occurrence of elbow trouble Smyly has encountered in his career. He missed the majority of 2015 due to shoulder tendonitis and a torn labrum, which he chose to rehab rather than undergo season-ending surgery that year. He pitched a full season in 2016, making 30 starts.
Smyly made one start in the World Baseball Classic, and questions about the possible impact of having his routine disrupted by the tournament are bound to come up, but they are not questions anyone feels comfortable answering.
“He was throwing great when he got to camp, when he left for the WBC and in the WBC,” said Dipoto. “Good, bad or indifferent, he has not been the same since he got back.”
Smyly, a late add to Team USA, left Mariners camp March 10 to join the team, pitching an inning in an intrasquad game before he left. That inning was the only time he faced live hitters in a nine-day stretch. He threw bullpens but was slightly out of a normal spring routine at that point. He had a stellar outing against Team Venezuela, striking out eight in 4 2/3 innings, but he gave up six and five runs, respectively, in his next two outings for the M’s. Shortly after that, he told the team something did not feel right with his arm in a bullpen.
He was originally scheduled to pitch Friday for the Mariners against the Colorado Rockies, but the team announced Wednesday that he would not pitch in that game and was scheduled to see a doctor.
“He didn’t feel great coming out of his bullpen yesterday,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said Wednesday. “He’s just a little soggy.”
Losing a starter from the rotation a week before the season opens is a blow, but it is not something Dipoto wants his team to focus on.
“This is part of the reason why we grabbed depth,” he said. “My glass-half-full way of looking, this is sometime around the start of June we are anticipating of acquiring Drew Smyly again to rejoin our rotation and help us get over the hump.”
