Phillies lose starter Jerad Eickhoff before Opening Day

The Philadelphia Phillies suffered a rotation injury this week. Could it have set up the rotation for the early season?

Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jerad Eickhoff became the team’s first starter to break down in 2018, with almost two weeks still left until Opening Day.  He will miss six-to-eight weeks with a “mild” strain in the right side of his back.  The 27-year-old pitcher had been widely expected to take the third spot in the Phillies rotation behind Aaron Nola and Jake Arrieta.

This is the second year in a row that Eickhoff will miss an extended period with his team, but Phillies officials are somewhat sure, according to Philly.com’s Matt Breen, the injury is not related to last year’s back ailment and “nerve irritation” in his throwing hand. However, this development can’t be making team powers very happy. The “workhorse” Eickhoff seemed to be in 2016 (197 IP) may be turning into an injury-prone, mid-rotation question mark.

At 18-25 lifetime and with rising ERAs the past two years, this may well be the year Eickhoff is meant to demonstrate some real value, and the Phillies certainly won’t just throw their hands up on him yet. In fact, manager Gabe Kapler tried his best to quickly put a positive spin on the clearly negative situation. It could be a “blessing in disguise,” he said, allowing Eickhoff to rest early in the season and finish stronger.

The injury may have “closed the starter fight,” as Call to the Pen co-editor Ben Chase suggested by e-mail Mar. 17, the day after Eickhoff’s diagnosis. That fight was a bit of a quiet free-for-all as long as four starting spots were up for grabs behind Aaron Nola. That partly ended with the signing of Jake Arrieta although it was thought by some Eickhoff and Vince Velasquez would be the number three and four starters even before that acquisition. Ben Lively and Zach Eflin were considered to be battling for the fifth spot. Now it appears that Velazquez, Lively and Eflin will comprise the back end of the rotation. Eflin pitched five shutout innings his last time out and seems to have been revived by surgeries to repair both knees, ending a lifelong painful condition. Two other possibilities technically remain (and in case of another injury): Mark Leiter, Jr. and Tom Eshelman.

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The Phillies seem to like Leiter coming out of the bullpen, however, and Eshelman probably does need a little more seasoning in the minors as his major league role is likely to be as a command-dependent starter.