Under The Knife 9/25/23

The Last Week, The Last Stand

As the people of Baltimore might say, in the spirit of Michael K. Williams, “playoffs comin’.”

Off topic here for a minute, but I’ve always thought The Wire was ripe for a return visit. David Simon’s done plenty else since and who am I to tell him what to do, but imagine another season of The Wire set in the present day. I’m sure some of the people could come back. Did Bunk and McNulty retire? Who’s still alive from the drug trade? In this “summer of strike” how are things at the docks? Baltimore and cities in general still have lots of problems and I think that structure would be a great way to look at it.

Back to injuries, but staying in Baltimore, I’m stunned at just how good this team got in a year. One of the keys is health and with John Means’s setbacks from Tommy John surgery, it was almost impossible for the O’s medical staff to stay on the low end of injuries. Yet here they are, just slightly behind the Astros and Phillies for fourth. (The Phillies should get a nod as well, with Bryce Harper only missing a month.) Better, Means is out there throwing near no-hitters, so I’d say the function’s pretty good.

The bulk of the O’s days are Means, Dillon Tate, Keegan Akin, and Mychal Givens. The late-season injury to Felix Bautista isn’t good, but hasn’t derailed the team or forced panic. That’s good health, that’s good management, that’s good planning. None of the teams young studs, including Keston Hjerstad, have loaded up the injury reports and that’s surprising in the breadth of it. Few teams have this many key young players, so keeping all of them functional is impressive.

I don’t want to be like the argument for MVP, where a player that doesn’t make the playoffs is often penalized by voters. The Guardians have, by far, the lowest days, but it shouldn’t just be about that. No Tommy Johns is about the only way to even be in the discussion these days, and that’s tough. I just hope the O’s vote their playoff shares properly, and that ownership and management realizes just what a huge contribution the medical staff has made to being back in the playoffs.

One more week, more or less, so let’s get to it:

SANDY ALCANTARA, SP MIA (sprained elbow)
EURY PEREZ, SP MIA (sprained hip)

Things were looking so good for the Marlins. Whether it was last year when Sandy Alcantara took a head-and-shoulder step above every other pitcher in the game, or earlier this year when Eury Perez showed dominating stuff at such a young age, it looked like the Marlins finally had the makings of a staff and enough other pieces and parts that a decade in the wildnerness, time lost under Derek Jeter, were coming together early in the Kim Ng era.

Even after Eury Perez was sent down as a wrong-headed workload management move and Sandy Alcantara went down with a sprained UCL, there were still positives. The new direction put in by Ng and her sports med advisors might not have been perfect, but there was at least direction and effort. I don’t always agree with the way teams do things, but I’m also open to learning more and understanding why they do things that way. I’m also focused on results; if you do the right thing and lose, you’re not going to be there long.

After Alcantara looked lights out in Triple-A, the elbow showed more issues. There was inflammation and the sprain looked worse. It’s unclear if that’s a bigger sprain, or that some of the healing scar broke. He’s headed for more imaging (likely already done) and consultations on what the next step is. Elbow surgery is possible, which could cost him much or all of 2024.

Eury Perez has a sacroiliac (SI) joint issue and hits the IL. He’s been limited to very short starts since returning from his inexplicable shutdown in the middle of the season. The Marlins managed his pitches and innings, not his load or workload. It sounds like the same thing, but isn’t. The fact that he’s come up with a hip issue rather than an arm issue might make it seems unrelated, but he’s likely having to make biomechanical adjustments that are leading to issues like this. Perez can return for the playoffs, but if they don’t make it, their management of him and other pitchers is going to be a huge reason why not.

LUIS ARRAEZ, IF MIA (sprained ankle)

Luis Arraez’s batting average could end the season at 353, which isn’t a number people will remember years from now. I doubt they’ll remember his contact rate and he’ll likely end up a trivia question 50 years from now, with his back to back batting titles in different leagues. Jose Altuve won back to back, while Miguel Cabrera did three in a row, but swapping leagues? I know it’s a quirk and that batting leaders don’t get traded often, but I don’t see it on the list.

Almost fifty years ago, Ralph Garr hit 353 for his own batting title. You probably haven’t thought of Ralph Garr since … well, 1974 and he’s certainly not as well known as Rod Carew, who won in the AL that year. While batting average has rightly been devalued over the last few decades, it’s the contact rate that makes him valuable. Last year’s 92 percent was amazing, but it actually went up in 2023 to 94!