One of you has done something horribly, unforgivably wrong and the baseball gods are punishing us daily for your transgressions. Step forward now, before more innocent people get hurt. Their, no, your latest victims? Martin Perez and Matt Harrison. What did they ever do to you? It doesn't matter. Look at what you've done to them.
Martin Perez, Matt Harrison latest victims of injury bug, David Ortiz still owns Twins
Matt Harrison and Martin Perez hit the disabled list as we’re quickly testing the limits of what it means to be a major league starting pitcher
Ezra Shaw
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Perez has a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, meaning rest and rehab (a 10-12 week process) that might ultimately require surgery, or ... he just gets the surgery now. Harrison received the roughest news of all, though, as his back injury is a displaced vertebra that causes significant nerve irritation. He can either learn to live with this or attempt to solve it with spinal fusion surgery.
Harrison’s injury and subsequent decision is no longer purely a baseball one. As serious as all baseball-related surgeries are, most won’t impact long term quality of life of the field to the degree that something like spinal fusion will. Harrison has had two surgeries on his back last year addressing disk issues, and was warned that spondylolisthesis (the condition he currently has) was a potential side effect.
Nick Tepesch and Nick Martinez will join the Rangers rotation in the absence of Perez and Harrison, with Joe Saunders a possibility in the near future.
Ortiz torments former club
Released by Minnesota after posting an 839 OPS in his age-26 season, David Ortiz signed with Boston and has found new life and a new identity there. Ortiz likes to make his former team's mistake obvious when the two clubs face each other.
Ortiz entered Wednesday’s game with a career .344/.436/.670 slash line in 55 at-bats against his former club. He piled on more, bashing two home runs and a double in four at-bats. Don’t think this is all happenstance either, as Ortiz has made his feelings toward his former club quite clear
David Ortiz said last night that he enjoys "whupping the Twins' ass." He's still doing that. Double, home run so far tonight.
— Brian MacPherson (@brianmacp) May 15, 2014 As for the Twins, well, they just have to grin and bear it as there's not much a team can do with a player like Ortiz
Ron Gardenhire on David Ortiz: "Guy is a great hitter, it's hard to figure out where to play him. And you can't play him in the seats."
— Jason Mastrodonato (@JMastrodonato) May 15, 2014 I guess penciling him at DH never occurred to the Minnesota brass.
Murphy catches Yankees napping
The Yankees are still working on this whole shift thing, and they haven’t quite figured out who is covering what base.
Bad news, everybody
The Mets released Kyle Farnsworth on Wednesday, per CBS Sports' Jon Heyman. It appeared to be a drastic move given Farnsworth's role in their closer by committee but then this news broke:
Kyle Farnsworth was related to advance consent agreement he signed. Only have to pay him for 45 days -- not full season. Today was deadline.
— Adam Rubin (@AdamRubinESPN) May 15, 2014 Ah. That clears things up a bit. It might seem cheap of the Mets, but they did just shift Jenrry Mejia to the bullpen, and prospect Jacob deGrom should be there too, so perhaps they think they'll have the depth that they need to finish fourth.
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