NEWSFLASH: Joaquin Benoit Undergoes Rotator Cuff Surgery
Joey Matschulat
Joaquin Benoit (pictured) may well have thrown his last pitch in a Texas Rangers uniform.One week to the day after the Texas Rangers somberly announced that 23-year-old right-hander Eric Hurley would miss the entirety of the 2009 season after undergoing arthroscopic shoulder surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff and a frayed labrum, the relentless war of pitching attrition claimed yet another victim: Joaquin Benoit.
General manager Jon Daniels announced on Wednesday that Benoit, 31, underwent arthroscopic shoulder surgery on Tuesday to repair a torn rotator cuff and could miss the entirety of the 2009 season:
"Joaquin was affected most of last season, and it didn't allow him to perform to his abilities," Daniels said. "He attempted to rehab the injury this off-season. He worked hard, but the results weren't there. From all accounts, the surgery went well and he can begin the process of strengthening his shoulder now."
The door was left open for a potential late-second-half return by operating surgeon -- and Reds medical director -- Dr. Timothy Cremchek, who reportedly indicated that the procedure went better than expected; however, the probability of Benoit being at a point in his rehabilitation just seven months from now where he could conceivably bolster the Rangers' relief corps seems awfully minute. Every injury is different, of course, and the preliminary reports are indeed encouraging, but knowing what we know about the seriousness of even minor shoulder procedures, entirely writing off Benoit's 2009 campaign is probably a safe gamble at this point.
The roles of southpaw C.J. Wilson and presumptive closer Frank Francisco should remain relatively static (though one would suspect Wilson might see even more high-leverage work in a setup role in Benoit's absence), but uncertainty now enshrouds the composition of the remainder of the bullpen. The odds of Derrick Turnbow (great arm, poor command), Dustin Nippert (ditto), Warner Madrigal (electric, but inexperienced) and Willie Eyre (mediocre) breaking camp as part of the active roster have presumably been amplified, while Josh Rupe might well be close to a lock in spite of the maddening inconsistency that beset his 2008 campaign.
Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram explicitly mentions that the Rangers have remained in contact with the agent of free-agent left-hander Eddie Guardado throughout the off-season; I legitimately doubt that Texas desires to go into Opening Day with Kason Gabbard or Joe Torres installed as the second LOOGY (left-handed one-out guy) behind Wilson, and it wouldn't come as much of a shock if a deal was indeed completed with Guardado -- or one of his similarly priced peers -- in the next week or two.
For what it's worth, Joe Christensen of the Star Tribute reported late Wednesday evening that that Twins had severed talks with free-agent right-hander Eric Gagne, instead opting to pursue relief help through trade. Gagne's reported asking price? One year, $3 million with $500,000 in incentives.
Interesting.
Benoit, coincidentally, is set to earn a base salary of $3.5 million in 2009. Toss in Frank Catalanotto's seemingly immovable $4 million salary (coupled with a $2 million buyout for 2010), and that's suddenly more than 10 percent of the projected 2009 payroll sunk into either damaged or superfluous goods.
Unless, of course, that whole Ben Sheets thing happens to work out as so many of us have envisioned.
[Hint: I still bet it does.]
Reader Comments (22)
Dammit. Can someone explain this? As well as Hurley? Do they have to wait for inflammation to go down or something before that can detect a tear? I mean... c'mon! Everyone knew he was pitching hurt last season.
GREAT! Pitchers & catchers have yet to report, and we've already lost two pitchers for the season!
Paging Jamey Wright...
Yep, our projected number 5 starter to go with probably who I feel is our best bullpen guy and top set up man. Well, this is good news for a number of guys like Rupe, Diamond, and Nippert.
So who's the odds on favorite to lay claim to the No. 5 spot in the rotation? Heck, who's occupying spots 3, 4, 5 ????
We all had to know this or something like it was the story with Benoit last season. He was never himself. Before 2008 he was a very solid late-inning guy.
Brandon,
Harrison is almost certainly going to grab a spot. Gotta have a lefty in the rotation. I figure McCarthy will get a spot and if he falters or gets hurt, his career as a Ranger is over. Finally Feldman likely will claim the 5th spot unless someone like Diamond, Rupe, Nippert, Gabbard, ect step up and take it.
Or unless Texas signs Sheets. That's the most probable alignment if that falls through however, Robert.
So the bullpen now comprises CJ, FX^2, and...um...
Welp, this sucks... I'd been hoping for a healthy Jack Benny to bolster the 8th inning again this year, but now he may have very well thrown his last pitch as a Ranger. Bummer.
This bodes well for guys like Diamond and Moscoso to make an impact in the bullpen at some point this year... but in the meantime, you have to think the Rangers are going to go out and get some more veteran insurance for the bullpen. And considering the 40 is fairly full right now, I'd bet that insurance winds up being of the NRI variety - which probably means we'll be welcoming Chad Cordero at best, but more likely some other washed up or injured reliever (i.e. Keith Foulke or Eric Gagne).
Edit: Although, I just remembered, losing Hurley and JB to the 60 day DL does clear off two 40 spots... so nevermind the high-octane logic that comprised that last sentence, I guess.
2 words: crap ola. The bullpen is a bit shaky right now.
I don't want to be perceived as either claiming "sour grapes" or delighting in evil, but this can definitely be a "felix culpa" (a "happy fault," leaving things better than if it had not happened).
I don't want us to sign any "set-up man" to replace Joaquin Benoit.
Remember Nolan's saying he wanted next year's relievers to stay out there, even beyond one time through the batting order? If you look at all the internal candidates vying for JB's spot, you realize now that, except for a lefty closer (CJ) and a righty closer (FX^2), we've got a bunch of starter/long men types whom we need to sort through anyway.
Just for drill, let's say we sign Sheets, and trade (at some point before the ASB) for one more starter (e.g. Sanchez or Nolasco or Buchholz or Hughes or at least Liz or Rich Hill... OR AT LEAST sign Jason Jennings to a minor league deal, and he swaps places with someone on the list below...) The name isn't as important as the likelihood that we probably have at least 2 new starters still coming.
Taking Millwood, Padilla and Mc Carthy as the other 3 starters, we've already used up 7 of our 12 pitching spots:
That leaves:
Harrison
Nippert
Feldman
Diamond
Moscoso
Bannister
Rupe
Gabbard
Madrigal
Mendoza
Mathis and even a wildcard, like Poveda, Laughter or ...
Holland
ALL competing for 5 long-man spots.
They could pitch in order as a "Relief Rotation," just like the starters, and only come out of the game if it becomes a save situation (for FrankFranc or CJ) in the 9th.
So, except for those cases, or if the starter went beyond 6 innings, they themselves could pick up a win or a 3-inning save every time (as Wes Littleton did when we won 30-3).
This way, they'd be competing on equal terms, trying first to move up into this year's rotation (if one of the first 5 went down), and second to join the 2010 rotation, when at least 1 spot, probably 2, will open up.
This, as well as Hurley, are things that make you go... hmm.
I feel badly for Benoit, but I think for the team, this is not all bad. Meaning, it's not like last season when Texas was absolutely counting on Benoit and his sub-4.00 75 innings & 90 Ks, but he flamed out in April and never got his act together, even after a long stay on the DL. And the team had to scramble to find someone who could pitch in that spot. At least this year we know going in that he's out, and ST can serve as an audition process for the 7th & 8th inning jobs. The only question is who's going to step up?
I do agree that the bullpen looks iffy, though, and I think now the onus falls on JD/Nolan to sign Guardado AND another righty - because seriously... how much can we count on Turnbow? You know the guy I would have loved to get in here? Russ Springer. But all indications are he's going to sign with Oakland. But anyway - that's the kind of guy we need - someone reliable and solid.
One other comment. Benoit was originally a starter who made his way into a setup role via long relief/mopup, and when he was converted he was probably overused a couple of years. For instance, 70 appearances / 82 IP in 2007 was heavy. I know Nolan would disagree, but I think it's also fair to say that very rarely do overworked relievers avoid injuries in the long term - they catch up to you eventually. So I'm not sure this can be blamed on Connor - at least not if we're talking about mechanics.
Forgive my ignorance, but I know all players had to be off the 60 day DL before the rule five draft. When can we add players back to it?
Right now, wouldn't be surprised if we signed someone like Guardado and then just went with what we have. We have tons of people to throw at the problem. I kind of like the idea of offering Gagne a one year deal + team option, and Cordero a ST invite if no one else bites on him. I certainly don't think Cordero is done, but I also don't want the Rangers to waste their time and effort (and money) to rehab him for someone else down the road either. Obviously if his velocity doesn't return, we'd be better off just using Rupe or Diamond.
I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but, given whom we've got, and what we need to know about them by year's end, why do we need a set-up man? This will show my ignorance, but other than lefty specialists and 2-pitch power closers, aren't relievers in the pen because they don't have a wide enough repetoire of pitches to make it twice through the batting order without getting figured out? But our bullpen is full of wannabe starters. Aren't they such because they might have enough pitches?
Is it so crazy, with whom we've got, to have a 5-man relief rotation? I'd rather see over thecourse of '09 whether Nippert can become the ace he was once predicted to be, than have him bumped into one- inning stints because of who else we acquire for our pen. After settling on a rotation, let's see
our next 5 best young long men get 9-12 outs every 5th day.
It has to affect ticket sales to know that your team is a loser before the starting gun even goes off.
Michael:
Again, I'm not a stat guy, and so I can't back up my assertions about this with anything other than my vivid memories of what I watched last season (and i watched 90% of Rangers games in 2008). But I don't feel like all these tweeners we have can't make the rotation because they don't have enough "out" pitches in their repertoire. What I saw was a collection of guys who suffered from the same malady - the inability to throw strikes, and a maddening tendency to walk the first guy or the first two guys they face when they come into the game. I don't know if it's a lack of a command, or fear, or what - but it's definitely a problem with this group. And I don't even have to name names because they all seem to suffer from it - from guys like Padilla in the rotation all the way to CJ and Franky Frank at the back end of the bullpen, and just about everyone in between.
That's why I have little confidence in guys like Nippert, Mendoza, Feldman, etc. I hope I'm wrong, but until they show they can throw strikes, I don't see them as legitimate MLB pitchers.
Thanks, JD$,
If they simply haven't shown the potential, then I agree with you, but if memory serves me, we have guys across the spectrum of potential.
On one side we have guys who never showed even #3 potential, and they're not actualizing even as AAA #5's. Then we have guys like Feldman, who never was projected to be a AAA #3, who are actualizing into considerable Major League #5's. Next we have AA guys who projected a little better, but are pitching a lot better than projected, albeit without being ready yet. Finally we have a few, such as Nippert, Moscoso and McCarthy who were projected as at least #2 guys, who have fared no better than Buchholz, Hughes or Bailey.
If they simply don't have it, we don't know that yet, in my puny opinion, because due to injury or
relegated role, they have never been given the opportunity to fail temporarily, over the course of a
season in a starting role, as Pedro, Maddux, Ryan, Sabathia, Lee, ... were given.
Some of these guys struggled, others didn't. I'm sorry I can't pull up the list right now-- maybe someone can, or I can later, but it's fascinating to see the first-full-year stats of some of the best pitchers of all time. A huge # of them struggled mightily, with ERA's north of 5.00 and some even in the high 6.00 range.
I agree we don't need to throw everyone out there. I'd rather trade all our projected #5 men plus a couple vets for all the unactualized McCarthys, Nipperts, Buchholzes, Hugheses, Lizes, YPetits, Baileys we can get, and use this year to help actualize 2 legitimate #2 guys, even if they only pitch as #4 guys so far.
Michael,
Excellent points across the board, but I think when you have that rookie pitcher... who might struggle with a high ERA, you still see something in him. I for one like Feldman. Though I don't have any numbers to back it up, I think he's very efficient with his fringe-average stuff which is more than just about any other pitcher on the roster. I'm willing to give these #5s a shot because maybe one of them comes in the a bulldog mentality... eats a ton of innings, pitches efficiently, but has a tad high ERA. I can live with that. It all comes down the throwing strikes. In Arlington, you're going to get shelled. You're going to give up homerun after homerun and there's nothing you can do about it really. You can simply try to minimize the damage by making sure that's a one run shot instead of a three run bomb because you decided to get cute and walked a couple guys. I get tired of seeing this 8 plus pitch at bats.
Robert: I hope your confidence proves well-placed. He'll no doubt log significant major league innings in 2009, for better or for worse, but I'm not sure I see him as a pitcher who will be a long-term component of this thing.
He should benefit from a massively improved infield defense in '09, but...well, he's not going to be a guy who impedes the parade of young arms (unlike the similarly-aged Harrison or a healthy McCarthy, who are both significantly more compelling than Feldman -- albeit for different reasons), and while he can probably fill the void Jamey Wright left behind as the resident relief sinkerballer once he's inevitably transitioned to the bullpen (assuming that his peripherals don't become any worse than they already are and that he doesn't completely fall apart first), I just don't know how much he does for me at the end of the day even in that role.
[Note: I'm not at all suggesting Harrison or McCarthy will actually impede the promotion of young, high-profile minor league starters in the vein of Feliz/Holland/et. al.; rather, I'm just trying to make a point]