Under The Knife 5/17/24

Going Monumental

Ted Leonsis is making another bid for the Washington Nationals, hoping to lock up three of the big sports in DC. The move comes shortly after the collapse of his move to Virginia and on the heels of rumors that the Commanders’ ownership group might be looking to strengthen their own hopes for a return to RFK by owning the ballpark just down the Anacostia.

The Lerner family pulled the club off the market, officially, a few months back, which Leonsis acknowledged in his talk about the big to a local DC radio show. Still, Leonsis (and the Lerners) know that everything is negotiable. The Lerners had hoped for a Mets-like number and weren’t coming close, for many reasons. One of those is that there’s a number of teams for sale, in whole or part, shaken loose by a number of private equity firms like Arctos and Redbird buying up small stakes.

Besides the Nationals being unofficially available, we’ve seen sniffs around the White Sox, Angels, Diamondbacks, and Braves over the last 12 months, with several teams selling small stakes in minority transactions. The Orioles were quickly sold this spring. The Guardians have also made changes to their agreement to transfer the club from the Dolans to Josh Blitzer which could accelerate control going to Blitzer - who’s a partner of Commander’s controlling partner Josh Harris on several things - earlier than the planned 2028.

The key to Leonsis’ bid may be the sale of the Orioles. David Rubenstein hasn’t owned the club long enough to make many - any? - changes and with the way things are going, why would he? He has a long term deal to spruce up a great stadium, a winning club on the field, and the potential to create a dynasty with some smart signings. However, the MASN mess has been a problem for both franchises. With new ownership on both sides with deep knowledge of the media business, one of whom owns a local sports network, it could clear up and become at least more standard.

Having two new very rich owners in the DMV would be pretty interesting. There isn’t any talk of Leonsis having partners, though he likely will, in the same way that Rubenstein brought in some token guys to smooth the path. Leonsis has the additional knowledge of being a two-sport owner, widely vetted and known. I expect the deal to get done before the season is out, with a valuation around $2 billion, which could unlock a couple more franchises (and two strong groups in Nashville and Utah that might not want to wait for expansion.)

Now, let’s get to the injuries:

MAX SCHERZER, SP TEX (inflamed back/inflamed arm)

Max Scherzer’s situation has gotten a bit weird. The back issue was pretty straightforward and seemed to have gone well. The exact location isn’t known, but it was lumbar - the lower back, and one of the most common locations for anyone to have issues like he did. He was back throwing, things were looking well, and the team thought so much of how things were going, they kept Scherzer on the 15-day IL, thinking he might just beat that late-May 60-day date back.

Then there was an issue with his thumb. Ligament? Tendon? No, it was neither and perhaps a nerve issue. A report of multiple MRIs focusing on his triceps confuse things even more. If it were a nerve issue, an MRI wouldn’t be the go-to test and if they thought it was a nerve conduction or impingement issue, there would be other tests.

So what’s going on? Even sources inside that usually know what’s what don’t know on this one. Part of this is that things are being controlled externally - outside doctors and agent handlers - and part is that this is confusing. It’s clear that Scherzer isn’t coming back in the next two weeks, so with all the other injuries the Rangers are dealing with now that they weren’t at the very start of the season, it makes sense.

The biggest worry here is that there’s a chance this doesn’t clear up. Nerve issues can be transient, but also permanent. This could be gone tomorrow, this could need surgery, or this could be something that Scherzer has to learn to live with. Or he could walk away. There’s such a wide range of possibilities that it’s utterly unhelpful to state them all, impossible to narrow, but that’s what I do here. The context for this issue is that we’re all Jon Snow: we know nothing.

GERRIT COLE, SP NYY (inflamed elbow)

Credit to the Yankees media (and the team) that has been very specific about Gerrit Cole and how he’s progressing. His latest bullpen went 36 pitches, as planned, and had him up near 90 mph with an intended 80 percent effort. The medical and performance staff is being very stepwise with his progress, in an effort to know exactly what is happening and be able to accurately assess what, if anything, causes problem with his ulnar nerve if it recurs along the way. It’s slow, but it’s smart.

I continue to see things saying Cole faces Tommy John surgery, but the UCL has never been the issue. That was ruled out early, though there’s still precaution with any elbow injury, ligament involvement or not, due to the fragility of pretty much everything in there.

While everything is going well and he’s nearing full-intent throwing, there’s still no solid timeline on Cole. Sources tell me that he’s not likely to even start a rehab assignment until June, but that they don’t expect it to be a long one since he’ll be built up significantly before he even heads out.

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