Pirates Avoid The Worst With Rookie Pitcher's Injury
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PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates recently lost one of their younger pitchers to the injured list, but there's hope that he comes back quicker than expected.
The Pirates placed rookie right-handed pitcher Wilber Dotel on the 15-day injured list with a right lat muscle strain on June 13, following his last outing, which came against the Miami Marlins at PNC Park on June 12.
Pirates general manager Ben Cherington spoke about Dotel on The Pirates Insider Show on 93.7 The Fan and said that they have optimism that the rookie won't miss significant time and that they found it earlier rather than later
“We are optimistic right now. This is going to be on the shorter side of things," Cherington said. "We got this early. That said, he did share with us after the outing the other night that he had been feeling a little bit throughout the week, including in that Dodgers game.
“It’s in a specific location. We believe, based on the information we have, it’s on the minor side, he’s going to recover from this quickly..."
Dotel Struggles After Strong Start
The injury for Dotel comes after he had two of his worst outings of the season, spiking his ERA up to 5.89.
He gave up six earned runs and got no outs in the seventh inning vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers, allowing five hits and a walk, hitting a batter and giving up a two-run home run, which was part of a 10-run inning for the road team in the 12-3 loss for the Pirates in the series opener at PNC Park on June 9.
Dotel then struggled vs. the Marlins, giving up four runs in the seventh inning in a 2-2 game that the Pirates would suffer an 8-3 defeat in.
It was a surprising turn for Dotel, who had previously thrown three straight outings with three scoreless innings and 11 combined strikeouts, with a 1.08 ERA over his first nine MLB outings and serving as a strong middle relief option for the Pirates.
Cherington didn't fault Dotel too much for potentially playing through the injury, understanding his drive, but was just glad that they found it before it could've gotten much worse.
“...He’s a young pitcher," Cherington said. "He’s here, he’s trying to help the team. He wants to take the ball when he’s asked and not surprisingly, sometimes a guy like that is not going to be super proactive with sharing how they’re feeling. He’s trying to compete and get through it.”
"It may have had some impact in his performance, hard to say, but I think for us, once we knew that from him that it was bothering him, it’s too important, let’s take care of this, let’s really knock this out, take some time on the IL and bring him back so hopefully he’s in a really strong spot.”
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Dominic writes for Pittsburgh Pirates On SI, Pittsburgh Panthers Pn SI and also, Pittsburgh Steelers On SI. A Pittsburgh native, Dominic grew up watching Pittsburgh Sports and wrote for The Pitt News as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh, covering Pitt Athletics. He would write for Pittsburgh Sports Now after college and has years of experience covering sports across Pittsburgh.