Injury News: Yu Darvish, Noah Snydergaard, Yordano Ventura
It really feels like it has been the season of injuries with so many top pitchers out for the season recovering from Tommy John surgery to guys like Prince Fielder who, seemingly out of nowhere, suddenly needed season ending neck surgery. This week had some injury scares to important pitchers for the Texas Rangers, New York Mets and Kansas City Royals. Let’s take a look at the latest injury news for these the pitchers of these three ball clubs as of Wednesday afternoon.
Yu Darvish, Texas Rangers
Luckily for the Rangers,Yu Darvish had a clean MRI this week reports Bleacher Report’s Will Carroll and it was announced Wednesday that Darvish is still scheduled to make his next scheduled start on Sunday. According to MLB.com manager Ron Washington explained why the Rangers weren’t going to start Darvish sooner in light of the good news,
"“He just missed his start, that’s all. We wanted to make sure he is 100 percent between now and Sunday. We’ll make it happen. Darvish is a different animal. He just doesn’t want to have any reason why he doesn’t feel well. So if he doesn’t feel right … we’d much rather know he’s OK. We don’t want him worrying about it. So we’ll hold him back until Sunday.”"
Still it is important to note that this is the same neck soreness that had him on the disabled list to start the season. It is a recurring injury that could still cause problems for Darvish and the Rangers in the coming months.
Noah Snydergaard, New York Mets
Mandatory Credit: Brad Barr-USA TODAY Sports
Yes, Noah Syndergaard is still pitching at Triple-A Las Vegas but he is probably the New York Mets’ top prospect and they were not going to take any chances with his ailing elbow. He was flown across the country for an examination and MRI with team Dr. David Altchek. They felt that his sore elbow was important enough to their future to utilize the best doctor they had available. He, like Darvish, also had a clean MRI which is obviously excellent news. There is no real time table for his return at this point however, BR’s Carroll reports that the team is still hoping to be able to call him up in September.
Yordano Ventura, Kansas City Royals
In this week’s third lucky turn of events the Kansas City Royals’ Yordano Ventura, who was removed from his Monday start against the Houston Astros, also received clean MRI results this week according to ESPN.com. His diagnosis? Mild valgus extension overload, a condition that puts pressure and pain on the elbow joint caused by repetitive motion.
What is the plan for Ventura’s return to the mound? Royals’ manager Ned Yost told reporters,
"“We had a pretty good idea exactly what would show up on the MRI, and that’s exactly what happened. He’s totally asymptomatic today, which means he doesn’t feel anything, but as a precaution we’ll skip him one start.”"
Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
So, Ventura is definitely skipping his next start and the plan is to have him rest for a few days then move up to throwing a couple of side sessions and it should be back to start by his next scheduled start. So he like Darvish will only have missed one start upon his return.
Given all the bad news that teams have received this season, the injury news reports for these three players were at least positive this week. Not one of them is expected to spend anytime on the disabled list. This year in Major League Baseball that is a small miracle.