Brandon McCarthy may not hit DL

Oakland Athletics ace Brandon McCarthy has already missed a chunk of time this season with a DL stint, but he is not expected to be placed on the disabled list due to a shoulder injury.

McCarthy played catch a couple of days ago without any problems and will likely throw a bullpen session soon. He has been dealing with this right-shoulder injury throughout the season, and the Athletics will need to exercise caution with him, even though an MRI showed no structural damage.

In any case, A’s manager Bob Melvin said he’s, “more hopeful it’s a non-DL situation” with regards to Brandon McCarthy. Hopefully, the injury issues are behind him at some point soon and he can pitch injury-free for the rest of the year. McCarthy is a good starter, and the injury has not caused him to pitch poorly at all. The problem for the Athletics is that there is no starter in place for Saturday’s game; that will be an interesting development to watch for soon.

This season, Brandon McCarthy is on pace for a 3.50 ERA (exact same FIP this season) and has been worth 1.4 WAR in 71 innings after being worth 4.7 WAR in 170.2 innings. He has continued to pitch well, although his peripherals are a bit worse across the board in terms of strikeouts, walks, and groundball rate. That could be due to the shoulder injuries, but he’s still maintained a sub-3.00 ERA and should finish with a sub-3.50 FIP this season.

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