Under The Knife 9/2/22

The Home Stretch

It’s the home stretch for MLB, as teams set up for the newly constructed playoffs.

It’s also the home stretch for Under The Knife. I’ve kept the newsletter largely month-to-month for one reason: I didn’t want to have a subscription paid out beyond the period UTK might exist. I value each and every subscriber, especially in light of economic conditions and just, man, … *waves arms at the outside world*. (Speaking of, I took a number of free subscribers and comped them for this last month.) My hope is that I can convert some of you free subscribers to paid this year and make UTK sustainable for another year. Tell a friend, share the newsletter, or even just tell me what I can do to make you a paying subscriber. It would help.

Business aside, let’s get to the injuries:

BRUSDAR GRATEROL, RP LAD (inflamed elbow)
TONY GONSOLIN, SP LAD (strained shoulder)

One of the things that’s hard to understand is that some of the best medical staffs have some of the “worst” injury numbers. The Dodgers are regularly here, because not only are they willing to take chances on chronic cases like Clayton Kershaw, they have the depth to deal with high risk players like Brusdar Graterol. It pays off enough, and they have enough money and talent to keep doing it. It hurts the injury ledger, but it wins. The Yankees were regularly like this in their peak 2000’s, to the point of signing players who had just had Tommy John surgery because they realized early that it was very successful and predictable.

That doesn’t make losing a key reliever like Graterol any better, especially with another elbow issue. Graterol was barely more than a week back from a shoulder sprain when his elbow began to show inflammation. While there’s not concern for ligament damage at this stage, there’s clearly something going on to cause the inflammation. As with any situation like this, he’ll be given anti-inflammatories and rest, as well as treatment with a number of modalities. PRP is possible, but less likely given the non-specific diagnosis. Graterol won’t be back in the minimum, per Dave Roberts, so there’s some question about his availability for the playoffs. With Craig Kimbrel scuffling a bit in August, the back of the pen is in some flux without Graterol.

As for Tony Gonsolin, he’s headed for an MRI, though I’m honestly surprised that hadn’t already happened. That would at least make me think the medical staff thought this was minor, but that it hasn’t gotten better or didn’t react to treatment. (I think it’s the latter.) What they see on the images will determine the next step, but it’s less likely he’ll be back quickly now.