Cervelli hits IL after 7th concussion. And Miami waits to hear about upcoming Mets series
The Miami Marlins diagnosed Francisco Cervelli with a concussion Saturday in and now the catcher is heading to the seven-day concussion injured list.
The concussion is the seventh Cervelli has sustained since 2011, which leaves Don Mattingly feeling uncertain about any potential timetable for the 34-year-old Venezuelan to return.
“Unfortunately for Francisco, he’s had a little bit of a history with concussions,” Mattingly said Saturday. “He kind of knew it right away. I just feel bad for him. He apologized right away when he said he couldn’t do it. I don’t know what to expect from this just because he’s had a number of concussions in the past. I don’t know where this is going. I feel bad for him and obviously it hurts us as a catching staff. It hurts our pitching staff.”
Miami (11-10) split a doubleheader of seven-inning games with the Washington Nationals on Saturday and Cervelli left the Marlins’ 5-3 win in Game 2 after he caught the first two innings. Mattingly said he wasn’t sure when Cervelli got concussed, but a foul ball hit the catcher in the head in the second inning.
“I probably saw it, but didn’t register because I didn’t see him fall back or anything like that,” Mattingly said. “But obviously it was something that started the ball rolling.”
Cervelli’s injury pressed fellow catcher Jorge Alfaro into duty for the final five innings after he already caught all seven innings of Game 1 at Nationals Park. Alfaro, who made his season debut Friday against Washington (10-14) after missing the start of the regular season as recovered from COVID-19, went 1 for 5 with a run and a strikeout across the two games, catching 12 innings.
Chad Wallach and Brian Navarreto are the only other catchers on Miami’s 40-man roster, and Wallach has been on the 10-day IL since Aug. 4 for undisclosed reasons. On Sunday, the Marlins officially placed Cervelli on the IL and activated Navarreto, who was the catcher on the taxi squad in Washington.
Cervelli, who joined Miami as a free agent in the offseason, has quickly become a critical cog in the Marlins’ surprising start to 2020. While Alfaro was sidelined by the coronavirus, Cervelli emerged as the everyday catcher and earned plaudits from Mattingly for his role managing Miami’s young pitching staff, which was also significantly shorthanded because of the team’s COVID outbreak. In 62 plate appearances across 16 games, Cervelli is batting .245 with a .355 on-base percentage, .453 slugging percentage, three home runs, seven RBIs and eight runs.
After his sixth concussion last year, Cervelli said he was done catching in MLB before he was cleared by Miami’s medical staff and backtracked to join the Marlins. Michael Hill said he met with Cervelli after his latest concussion and expects the catcher to try to return after he meets again with Miami’s doctors.
“From my conversations with him,” the general manager said, “I think he is still as passionate as ever to get back to this club and help this club get to the playoffs, and make a deep run into the playoffs.”
Marlins await word on Mets series
The Marlins have already had to reschedule more than a week’s worth of games because of the coronavirus. Now Miami is waiting to hear whether it will lose even more this week.
The Marlins’ latest postponement came Thursday, when two members of the New York Mets tested positive for the virus, leading MLB to postpone a series finale in Miami. The Marlins are slated to travel to New York on Tuesday for a three-game series against the Mets, who haven’t played since the positive tests, and Miami is still awaiting official word on whether the series could be altered.
“We’re still waiting to hear back from Major League Baseball,” Hill said. “I’m assuming there’ll be some type of a release and they’ll let us know what the next steps are.”
The Marlins are currently slated to play a three-game series at Citi Field from Tuesday-Thursday, although MLB could turn one day into a doubleheader as a makeup for the Thursday postponement. This series is scheduled to the last one of year between Miami and New York.
The Mets’ entire three-game series against the Yankees from Friday-Sunday was postponed because of the COVID situation. The Mets are off Monday.
“They’re on our schedule to open up Tuesday night, so we’re expecting that we have a three-game series with the Mets until we hear otherwise,” Hill said, “but the expectation also would be that at some point, given the fact that this is the last series of the year versus the Mets, that we are indeed playing to make up that lost game.”
This story was originally published August 23, 2020 at 9:13 AM.
