The latest on Miami Marlins’ Trevor Rogers. And a key reliever returns from injury
For the time being, the Miami Marlins think they avoided the worst after Trevor Rogers was removed from his most recent start with left arm injury.
The team on Friday still placed the left-handed starting pitcher on the 15-day injured list, as expected, with a left biceps strain. His MRI, though, came back relatively clean and showed “just a little bit of inflammation,” Rogers said. The ligament, Rogers added, was in “perfect shape. No issues or anything whatsoever with that.”
“Definitely better than expected,” Rogers said Friday.
The main question now is exactly how long Rogers will be sidelined. The Marlins, obviously, are hopeful Rogers misses the least amount of time as possible. Rogers said he likely will not resume throwing until after the weekend. With a 15-day IL stint and the Marlins only having two off days in that 15-day span, Rogers will miss at least two — and most likely at least three — turns in the rotation while sidelined depending on when he resumes his throwing routine.
“Hate to say ‘good news’ with someone going on the IL, but that was good news,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said of Rogers’ MRI results. “We’re not going to miss him, I don’t think, for too long. He has a little strain. With rehab, I think you’ll see him [back] sooner than we thought initially.”
Rogers left his start on Wednesday in the fourth inning of Miami’s eventual 5-2, 11-inning loss to the San Francisco Giants after feeling tightness in his forearm and biceps. At the time, Rogers said, he didn’t feel pain but “didn’t have anything extension-wise.”
“At the point we’re at this season,” Rogers said, “it didn’t feel right to keep testing it.”
Who takes Trevor Rogers’ spot?
With Rogers now officially sidelined, the Marlins have an open spot in the rotation they will eventually have to fill. Rogers’ spot in the rotation is slated to start on Tuesday against the Atlanta Braves.
Miami has a couple options.
The first would be to have one of their long relievers already on the active roster — namely George Soriano or Devin Smeltzer — temporarily move into the rotation.
The other would be to call up a prospect from the minors. The most logical internal choice would be right-handed pitcher Bryan Hoeing, who made his MLB debut last season and is lined up to be on normal rest for that vacated rotation spot. Hoeing so far this season has a 2.08 ERA in four appearances (three starts) for Triple A Jacksonville, striking out 20 batters and walking just two over 17 1/3 innings. In his most recent outing on Thursday, Hoeing tossed five scoreless innings with seven strikeouts.
Hoeing is not on the 40-man roster, so a spot would need to be cleared for Miami to do this if chooses to go this route.
Steven Okert returns
In the meantime, the Marlins are using Rogers’ roster spot to beef up their bullpen.
The team activated left-handed relief pitcher Steven Okert on Friday after he started the season on the injured list with a left adductor strain.
Okert made four appearances with Triple A Jacksonville, tossing 5 2/3 scoreless innings with 11 strikeouts, while on a rehab assignment.
“It felt like forever,” Okert said. “Obviously it wasn’t that long, but it felt like I was there for a long time. It felt good to feel good on the mound and good to be back here for sure.”
Okert was used almost exclusively as a set-up man last season, pitching to a 2.98 ERA with 63 strikeouts in 51 1/3 innings while holding opponents to a .186 batting average against.
“Another veteran presence,” Schumaker said. “He’s just a guy that [former Marlins manager Don Mattingly] leaned on last year and that I’ll lean on this year. He’s a guy that when guys need days off, you trust. Luckily for us, we’ve had a lot of guys that have fille din some roles when they didn’t think that they would be in these back-end, high-leverage roles.”
More injury updates
▪ Right-handed pitcher JT Chargois (right oblique) played catch at 60 feet on Friday.
▪ Right-handed pitcher Nic Enright (Hodgkin’s lymphoma) pitched in an extended spring game Friday.
▪ Right-handed pitcher Tommy Nance (right shoulder) threw a 30 pitch bullpen Thursday.
▪ Infielder Joey Wendle (right intercostal) did cage work and took ground balls Friday.
▪ Right-handed pitcher Sixto Sanchez (right shoulder) is scheduled to pitch one inning in an extended spring game Saturday.
▪ Right-handed pitcher Johnny Cueto (right biceps) is scheduled to pitch in an extended spring game Tuesday.
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