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New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey was placed on the 15-day disabled list Wednesday with discomfort in his right shoulder. He will miss the rest of the season because of thoracic outlet syndrome. 

Continue for updates.

Harvey Out for Season

Friday, July 8

Harvey’s agent, Scott Boras, said the pitcher would miss the rest of the season to undergo surgery on his thoracic outlet syndrome, per Adam Rubin of ESPN.com. 

Harvey Comments on Injury

Thursday, July 7

“My shoulder’s dead, my arm’s dead, there’s no energy there, I couldn’t feel the ball,” Harvey said after his last start, according to manager Terry Collins (per Wagner).

Harvey Placed on DL

Wednesday, July 6

The Mets announced Seth Lugo was recalled from Las Vegas to fill Harvey’s spot on the roster.

Harvey No Stranger to Injuries

The setback represents just another injury woe for the ace, who has struggled with consistency throughout the 2016 season.

Harvey dealt with a blood clot in his bladder in late March, but it didn’t prevent him from taking the mound on Opening Day. However, the 2015 National League Comeback Player of the Year didn’t look like himself over the first month of the season.

He went 1-3 over his first four starts with a 5.24 ERA, 14 strikeouts and eight walks. Some poor mechanics may have been to blame.

According to Newsday‘s Marc Carig, Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen said Harvey was “collapsing his back leg in the stretch,” which hindered his consistency.

All told, Harvey is 4-10 this season with a career-worst 4.86 ERA, 1.486 WHIP, 76 strikeouts and 25 walks.

Manager Terry Collins can take solace in the fact that he has one of the strongest rotations in baseball to help compensate for Harvey’s absence. Between Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, Bartolo Colon and Steven Matz, the Mets have enough firepower to keep opposing batters at bay.

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We better have a good excuse if we’re going to put a modern pitcher in the company of Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez. Their names are not to be used lightly.

Currently providing a good excuse, however, is Jose Fernandez.

You might have noticed the Miami Marlins ace racking up strikeouts like crazy in 2016. With a rate of 13.10 strikeouts per nine innings, he has a comfortable advantage over Max Scherzer (11.56) for the MLB lead.

Lest anyone think a strikeout rate that huge is nothing out of the ordinary, here’s the up-to-date list of the highest single-season strikeout rates ever recorded:

1. 2001 Randy Johnson: 13.41
2. 1999 Pedro Martinez: 13.20
3. 2016 Jose Fernandez: 13.10

Hence, Fernandez is in the company of Johnson and Martinez. This is a thing that is happening, and it’s worth investigating.

Fernandez being a strikeout pitcher isn’t anything new. Mainly with a blistering fastball and a knee-buckling, humiliation-inducing curveball, he posted a 10.5 K/9 across his first three seasons.

But in 2016, the Marlins’ hope was that the 23-year-old right-hander would actually become less of a strikeout pitcher.

“We want to see him continue to pitch and continue to develop his weapons, where he’s not having to have the mentality that I’ve got to strike everybody out,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said in March to Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald. “There’s nothing wrong with having guy hit a ground ball early in the count. That’s what I’ve talked to him about.”

To some extent, it looks like Fernandez is trying to oblige. He’s cut down on his fastball usage, dropping it from 55.6 percent in 2015 to 54.4 percent this year. He’s also eased up on his velocity. His average fastball has been 94.9 mph. That’s still really good, but it’s a substantial drop from last year’s average of 95.8.

But strikeout rates as high as 13.1 per nine innings don’t happen by accident. More recently, Fernandez provided a few clues to what’s going on.

“A lot of it is location and making the right pitches at the right time,” Fernandez said in June, per Steven Wine of the Associated Press. “It’s something we’ve been working on. I like to throw 155 mph every pitch, but there are things you learn, and you become a pitcher and not just a guy who has good stuff.”

The main key for Fernandez, as it is with every non-knuckleball pitcher, has been fastball command. This is something that got away from him before his Tommy John surgery in 2014, when a career-low 56.2 percent of his fastballs were finding the strike zone.

As Fernandez was on the comeback trail in 2015, one thing he stressed to Christina De Nicola of Fox Sports Florida was not letting his arm drop, so as to avoid putting stress on his surgically repaired elbow. Sure enough, Brooks Baseball shows his release point went up in 2015 and again in 2016:

When Fernandez’s release point was higher in 2013, his fastballs found the zone 57.6 percent of the time. Not so coincidentally, raising it back up led to a 58.9 zone percentage last year and an even better 60.6 mark this year.

And there’s more! As August Fagerstrom of FanGraphs highlighted last month, Fernandez has gone from mostly working right down the middle with his fastball to working on the arm-side edge of the zone. That’s in on right-handed batters and away from left-handed batters. Either way, tough to hit. 

With a better-location/harder-to-hit dynamic at play with Fernandez’s primary pitch, it’s naturally become more difficult for batters to gain an advantage against him. According to Baseball Savant, he’s been behind in the count at a career-low rate. 

When Fernandez has gotten to two strikes on hitters, there’s one thing that hasn’t changed: His curveball is still his preferred finishing move. What’s changed is the effectiveness of his two-strike breaking balls. Witness:

The big difference has to do with location. While Fernandez is throwing more fastballs in the strike zone, he’s throwing more curveballs outside the strike zone in 2016. Only 36.8 percent of his hooks have been in the zone. Moreover, their hot spot is in a place that makes them tough to lay off and tough to hit.

With movement that made it a legend in the first place now combining with its new location pattern, we’re seeing a lot of swings like this at Fernandez’s curveball in 2016:

Fernandez would be dangerous enough if he had only his fastball and his curveball working. But 2016 has also seen him continue to develop his changeup.

It’s always had the movement to be a third dominant pitch in his arsenal. It was drawing a crowd as far back as his rookie season in 2013. Three years later, it has become the stuff of GIFs:

Like he’s doing with his curveball, Fernandez is now making the most of his changeup’s movement with his location. He’s throwing only 42.1 percent of his changeups in the zone. Also like his curveball, the hot spot for Fernandez’s changeup is in a place that makes it tough to lay off and tough to hit.

All of this adds up to a pitch that would be especially useful as an out pitch against left-handed batters. You can guess where this is going:

The only thing that doesn’t make the grade here is the rate at which Fernandez’s changeup is finishing off strikeouts of left-handed batters. But next to everything else, that also looks like something that could fix itself and potentially take his already sky-high strikeout rate even higher.

In all, that’s three plus pitches working beautifully in tandem with one another. The result is a historic strikeout rate that, though eye-popping, feels inevitable.

Fernandez was an elite prospect with huge minor league strikeout numbers when he arrived in 2013, and he really needed only his fastball and curveball to win Rookie of the Year. If further development wasn’t in the cards then, Tommy John surgery has a way of changing things. In his case, the change has been better use of talent that was already there.

Fernandez is not without his flaws. He’s giving up too much hard contact in 2016, suggesting he’s not above getting hurt by mistakes. In addition, his rate of 2.8 walks per nine innings has reversed what had been a downward trend in that department.

Still, strikeouts are the most foolproof way to collect outs. Fernandez is collecting those en masse by setting hitters up with his awesome fastball and knocking them down with his awesome secondaries. 

If a pitcher can do that, he may indeed find himself sharing some special company.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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The New York Mets announced Monday they expect to activate veteran shortstop Jose Reyes ahead of Tuesday’s game against the Miami Marlins.

Reyes signed a minor league deal to return to the Mets in June after stints with Miami, the Toronto Blue Jays and most recently the Colorado Rockies.

On Tuesday, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com noted Reyes will once again wear No. 7, with Travis d’Arnaud wearing No. 18.

The 33-year-old was a four-time All-Star, three-time National League stolen-base leader and the 2011 NL batting champion during his heyday with the Mets.

Now, Reyes is returning to the organization following an abrupt halt to his time in Colorado. MLB suspended him through May 31 for violating its domestic violence policy, and once he was removed from the restricted list, the Rockies designated the shortstop for assignment.

ESPN.com’s Darren Rovell noted the Mets’ transaction absolves them from paying the vast majority of Reyes’ lucrative contract:

At least one teammate believes Reyes will make a considerable impact upon his arrival.

“He’s going to bring us a ton of energy,” team captain David Wright said, per ESPN.com’s Adam Rubin. “And I think that’s something we can really use is his dynamic on the field—his speed, his charisma, his ability.”

Wright is on the disabled list with a neck injury, forcing the club to scramble and reshuffle personnel. The good news is New York is riding a five-game winning streak. Four of those victories came in a sweep of the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs before Monday’s 8-6 win over the Marlins.

As NJ.com’s Maria Guardado reported Sunday, Reyes was working exclusively at third base in the minors, so he figures to take Wilmer Flores’ place at the hot corner when he makes his debut.

According to Rubin, Mets manager Terry Collins plans to put Reyes in the leadoff spot ahead of Curtis Granderson, who will slide to No. 2 in the batting order.

Although he has a long way to go to prove himself in the clubhouse, as well as on the field, the fresh start in New York may be what Reyes needs to get his career back on track.

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The Washington Nationals‘ Stephen Strasburg carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning Sunday before getting the hook with two outs and 109 pitches under his belt.

So the right-hander didn’t make history in his team’s 12-1 shellacking of the Cincinnati Reds. But he did ease a lot of nerves in the nation’s capital.

First, let’s get this out of the way: The decision to pull Strasburg was a no-brainer, as Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post elucidated:

Manager Dusty Baker has drawn criticism in the past for overworking young pitchers. In this case, he took no chances with Strasburg, who was making his first start since landing on the disabled list with an upper back strain.

That’s what this game was about: getting Strasburg back in action and watching him pitch like the ace he’s been all season.

Mission accomplished.

“You’ve got to weigh the future with the present,” Baker said afterward, per Byron Kerr of MASNSports.com. “You just think we’re going to need him.” 

With his 6.2 hitless, scoreless frames, Strasburg lowered his ERA to 2.71. He ranks among the top 10 in the game in strikeouts (123) and opponents’ batting average (.208). And his 11-0 record puts him in rarefied historical air, per ESPN Stats & Info:

Speaking of Max Scherzer, Strasburg’s rotation mate is having a stellar campaign of his own, with a 9-5 record, 3.30 ERA and MLB-leading 148 strikeouts.

When Strasburg went down, however, there was cause for stomach-churning consternation in D.C. unrelated to presidential politics. 

Yes, at 50-33, the Nationals sit in first place, as they have for much of the year. But with the defending National League champion New York Mets (44-37) and scrappy Miami Marlins (42-39) lurking, losing Strasburg for any significant stretch would have been a debilitating blow. 

Counting Sunday’s gem, the Nats are 14-1 in Strasburg’s starts. Without that dominance, the standings would undoubtedly look different out East.

“It was awesome to see him come off the DL and see him throw like that,” said shortstop Danny Espinosa, who drove in six runs Sunday, per Janes. “He’s a huge part of this team and a huge part of a reason why we win.”

Yes, rookie Lucas Giolito softened the blow of Strasburg’s injury, twirling four scoreless innings in a promising, rain-shortened debut on June 28. 

But the Nationals placed right-hander Joe Ross on the disabled list Sunday with right shoulder inflammation, per MLB.com’s Bill Ladson. 

So even if Giolito stays up, which seems likely, there would have been a hole in Washington’s rotation.

Instead, it got one of the top pitchers in baseball back on the bump. 

Strasburg’s career has been partly defined by injuries, from his 2010 Tommy John surgery to upper back issues that sidelined him last season. One excellent outing won’t erase all concern. Nats fans will still hold their collective breath every time the 27-year-old stud winces.  

But if Strasburg looks similarly strong in his next outing—which will likely come in the middle of Washington’s pivotal July 7-10 series against the Mets—he’ll roll into the All-Star break with the doubters choking on his dust.

Last year, Strasburg was transcendent in the second half, posting a 1.90 ERA with an eye-popping 92 strikeouts in 66.1 innings. 

If he can approximate that output, it’ll help push Washington over the postseason finish line and erase the memory of the club’s acrimonious 2015 flameout.

Strasburg has made just one career playoff start, a loss to the San Francisco Giants in the 2014 division series. With his team sitting five games up on New York entering play Monday, he’s got a real chance to bolster that October resume and maybe even carry the Nats to the first championship in franchise history.

A no-hitter Sunday would have been cool; no argument there. But a few more months of healthy, superlative Strasburg could lead to something much cooler.

All statistics current as of July 3 and courtesy of MLB.com and Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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The Washington Nationals pulled starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg after 6.2 innings of no-hit ball Sunday against the Cincinnati Reds. 

Strasburg threw 109 pitches in the outing, striking out five batters and walking four. But the 27-year-old just came off the 15-day disabled list with an upper-back strain, and the Nationals clearly weren’t keen on pushing him too hard in his first start since June 15.  

That made the decision to remove him the right one, as AJ Mass of ESPN.com noted:

Strasburg isn’t the only pitcher to be removed during a no-hitter this year, per ESPN Stats & Info:

With pitcher Joe Ross on the disabled list with right shoulder inflammation, the Nationals had room to activate Strasburg on the roster. That likely means promising prospect Lucas Giolito will remain in the rotation, at least for the time being.

But little is more important in Washington than keeping Strasburg healthy. The star pitcher, who signed a seven-year, $175 million contract this year, came into Sunday 10-0 with a 2.90 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and 118 strikeouts in 93.0 innings pitched. 

Alongside Max Scherzer, Strasburg gives the Nationals one of the best one-two punches in baseball, while Ross, Tanner Roark and Gio Gonzalez round out a nice rotation. And the Nationals have excellent depth at the position as well, as they can simply call on baseball’s top prospect, Giolito, to fill in for Strasburg and Ross as needed. 

But an ace like Strasburg is the difference between the Nationals competing for a World Series this season and potentially missing the postseason altogether. Keeping him healthy will be prioritized above all else, even if a no-hitter is on the line.

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.

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Philadelphia Phillies pitching prospect Matt Imhof lost his right eye in a training accident last Saturday.

Imhof explained the situation in an Instagram post:

As many of you know on Friday June 25th I had an accident. A large price of metal hit me in the head/eye resulting in a fractured nose, 2 fractured orbital bones, and most significantly, the loss of vision in my right eye. I was immediately taken to the ER and then transferred to Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, the #1 eye hospital in the world. That night, the doctors informed me that the damage to my eye was extreme and essentially that my eye had been crushed like a grape. The doctors told me they were going to do everything possible to reconstruct it but in all likelihood I would never regain sight in my right eye. The first surgery was somewhat a success but overall nothing had changed, so after discussions with my family and my doctors, it was decided that the best chance I had to live a normal life was to have my right eye removed and have a prosthetic one put in. This decision was not an easy one to make but to me it seemed like the right one so on Tuesday afternoon I went forward with the surgery. I’m currently still in Miami recovering from surgery but I’m doing well. This has been the hardest week of my life but I’ve had amazing support from my family and friends to help me get through it. For those who have been wishing me well, your support has not gone unnoticed and I appreciate everyone who has kept me in their thoughts and prayers. I had the best doctors in the world doing their best work on me and for that I am grateful as well. Although this injury has been tough it could have been much worse…I’m lucky to still have vision in my left eye…I’m lucky that i didn’t have brain damage…and I’m lucky to be surrounded my the most loving and understanding people in the world. I just wanted to write this message to let everyone know that even though I suffered some bad luck, I’m not dead. I’m gonna be alright, I’m gonna persevere, and I’m gonna succeed. It takes more than this to bring me down. Again thanks to everyone for the support .

CSNPhilly.com noted the accident occurred during a “postgame stretching routine.”

The 22-year-old Imhof was in his second full season of professional baseball after being a second-round pick in 2014. He was pitching in High-A Clearwater before his injury, posting a 3.91 ERA with 48 strikeouts and 43 walks in 53 innings.

Even though Imhof’s stock had dropped off in the last year because of his command struggles, he was regarded as a potential back-end starter who could move quickly as recently as 2015.

Here is what MLB.com said about Imhof in 2015, when he ranked as the Phillies’ 19th-best prospect:

Imhof has a solid three-pitch mix and a good feel for pitching. He throws his fastball in the upper 80s to low 90s. The pitch plays up, thanks to its natural cutting action and the downhill angle he throws from. His breaking ball can be an out pitch, and he also mixes in a changeup.

Though Imhof doesn’t have premium stuff, he was one of the top strikeout pitchers in the country as a junior at Cal Poly. If he can rediscover that success in the Minor Leagues, he could start advancing quickly.

This doesn’t necessarily spell the end of his pitching career. Los Angeles Dodgers phenom Julio Urias has vision problems in his left eye, yet he is doing OK for himself.

Hopefully things work out for Imhof in the future, whatever he decides to do.

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The San Diego Padres reportedly traded relief pitcher Fernando Rodney to the Miami Marlins on Thursday, according to Jon Heyman of the MLB Network and Chris Cotillo of SB Nation.   

According to Heyman, the Padres are receiving minor league right-handed pitcher Chris Paddack in the deal:

Rodney, 39, has been superb this season, going 0-1 with 17 saves, a 0.31 ERA, a 0.87 WHIP and 33 strikeouts in 28.2 innings pitched. A.J. Ramos has also been excellent as the team’s closer, with 24 saves in 24 opportunities and a 1.74 ERA and a 1.19 WHIP. So the Marlins now have two strong options in the eighth and ninth innings.

That means Rodney will either slot into the team’s closer role or become the team’s setup man, as the 41-37 Marlins are both in the hunt for the National League East (5.5 games behind the Washington Nationals at the time of publication) and a wild-card berth.

With the Marlins in the postseason picture, Rodney wasn’t the only player the team considered to bolster the bullpen, per Joe Frisaro of MLB.com:

Carter Capps was expected to compete for the closer’s role this season, but he required Tommy John surgery in March and is done for this campaign. 

Rodney is an excellent option in the meantime. The two-time All-Star has been borderline unhittable this season and is due to make just $2 million next season on a 2017 club option that includes a $400,000 buyout, per Spotrac.

Giving up Paddack wasn’t cheap, but Rodney’s ability to serve as the team’s closer this season and his reasonable contract for next year made the move a smart addition for the Marlins. 

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.

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The Washington Nationals signed pitcher Mat Latos to a minor league contract on Wednesday, manager Dusty Baker confirmed to Dan Kolko of MASN.  

Baker noted that the move was primarily for depth, per Mark Zuckerman of MASN:

Latos, 28, struggled with the Chicago White Sox this year, going 6-2 with a 4.62 ERA, a 1.46 WHIP and 32 strikeouts in 60.1 innings pitched over 11 starts. He was excellent for the team early in the season, allowing just two total runs in his first four starts, but he then gave up four or more earned runs in five of his next seven starts.

The White Sox released him earlier in June. Baker thinks the White Sox might have cut ties with the right-hander a bit soon, however.

“They didn’t give him a whole bunch of time to fall apart,” the Nats manager told Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post. “Maybe they didn’t believe what they were seeing in the victories that preceded us getting there. I don’t know. I can’t speak for another man, but I thought it was a bit premature to release him at that time.”

Per Janes, “Latos will be a Class AAA starter for the Nationals, who do not view him as a potential bullpen option, according to a person familiar with the situation.”

The move comes after Washington placed Stephen Strasburg on the disabled list with an upper-back strain. The Nationals do have solid pitching depth, however, with top prospect Lucas Giolito making his MLB debut against the New York Mets on Tuesday.

Giolito pitched 4.0 innings, giving up just one hit, two walks and no runs while striking out one batter before a rain delay ended his night. He earned himself a look while Strasburg is sidelined—and perhaps even beyond that.

Latos, meanwhile, will join MLB prospects Reynaldo Lopez and Austin Voth in Syracuse, rounding out a nice stable of arms for the Nationals at the Triple-A level.

You can follow Timothy Rapp on Twitter.

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On Tuesday, only one opponent bested the Washington Nationals‘ Lucas Giolito in his hotly anticipated MLB debut: Mother Nature.

First, rain delayed the 21-year-old right-hander’s start against Matt Harvey and the New York Mets at Nationals Park by nearly an hour.

When he finally took the hill, Giolito surrendered a leadoff single to Curtis Granderson and then proceeded to retire 11 of the next 13 hitters he faced.

By the time the clouds opened again, interrupted the action for another hour-plus and prematurely washed out Giolito’s evening, he’d recorded four scoreless, one-hit innings with a strikeout and two walks.

Most impressively, Giolito needed just 45 pitches—29 of them strikes—to get through those four frames. Maybe he was about to wear down. Maybe he’d have coughed up a crooked number if the game had continued and changed the result of a 5-0 Nats victory that moved them five games ahead of New York in the National League East.

He sure didn’t look like it, though.

Working quickly and betraying little emotion, Giolito sat in the mid-90s with his fastball and complemented the heater with a plus curveball and surprisingly effective changeup.

If you’d like some visual evidence, here’s his first big league punchout, courtesy of MLB:

His command rarely faltered. If you’d stumbled upon the game without knowing the backstory, you might have assumed—understandably—this kid had been in The Show all season.

The backstory, however, was nearly impossible to avoid.

Washington’s No. 1 prospect, according to Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter, and the No. 1 prospect in the game, according to MLB.com, Giolito got the call after Stephen Strasburg went on the disabled list with an upper-back strain.

So not only was the 2012 first-round pick toeing an MLB rubber for the first time, he was temporarily filling the cleats of a former phenom and one of the Nationals’ most important players.

No pressure.

Again, if Giolito felt the weight of expectations, he didn’t show it. The Mets hit some balls hard, but his defense backed him up. Second baseman Daniel Murphy made a particularly slick play in the first on Neil Walker’s ground ball with Granderson in scoring position that likely saved a run.

That’s how you enjoy success at the highest level: Trust your stuff and trust your teammates.

The road hasn’t always been easy for Giolito, who underwent Tommy John surgery in August 2012—barely two weeks after he made his pro debut in the Florida Gulf Coast League.

Like so many power pitchers before him—including Strasburg and Harvey—he came back strong. He posted a 1.96 ERA with 39 strikeouts in 36.2 innings between Rookie and Low-A ball in 2013 and rose through the system, reaching Double-A Harrisburg in 2015 and starting this season there.

Harrisburg Senators pitching coach Chris Michalak tweaked Giolito’s delivery in the spring, according to ESPN’s Keith Law, but it produced less than stellar results.

“Fortunately,” Law noted in May, “there doesn’t appear to be any lasting damage to Giolito’s stuff or arm—just a delay in his arrival in the big leagues.”

Now, the delay is over.

“For being 21 years old, he shows a lot of maturity being here,” veteran right-hander Max Scherzer said in March, per Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post. “He’s got a sense of humor, so he’ll blend in well with the clubhouse. He seems interested in learning the game and trying to think on the next level.”

Speaking of which, it’s worth wondering if Giolito will stick in the rotation. Strasburg, who was put on the DL retroactive to June 16, threw a bullpen session Tuesday, per the Associated Press (via ESPN), and could be back sooner than later.

Tanner Roark is ensconced, along with Scherzer and Strasburg, and Joe Ross is 7-4 with 3.30 ERA in 90 innings. Left-hander Gio Gonzalez has struggled, losing his last six decisions and watching his ERA balloon to 4.73. But it’s tough to imagine Washington bumping the two-time All-Star.

More likely, Giolito will head back to the minors for more seasoning when Strasburg is ready. Will the California native be back? Undoubtedly.

Will he build on Tuesday’s rain-shortened tease and blossom into an ace-level talent?

“He’s a prospect,” Nationals manager Dusty Baker said prior to Giolito’s maiden outing, per the Washington Post‘s Jorge Castillo. “You know how many prospects I’ve seen? Some work, some don’t, but we’re trying to ward off the Mets. My son’s really excited to see ‘his boy Giolito,’ as he said.”

Despite Mother Nature’s best efforts, Giolito delivered.

All statistics accurate as of June 28 and courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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Philadelphia Phillies pitching prospect Matt Imhof suffered a severe right eye injury last week that required surgery.

Continue for updates.

Imhof ‘Likely to Need Further Procedures’

Monday, June 27

ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick reported the unfortunate news Monday, noting the 22-year-old’s injury is “potentially career-threatening.”

Crasnick explained what happened to Imhof, a member of the Class-A Clearwater Threshers: While he was doing band work as a means of stretching his arm after a game, a piece of equipment malfunctioned and struck Imhof in the eye.

Imhof’s agent, Adam Karon, provided Crasnick with the information and indicated the pitcher’s family has requested privacy while he recovers.

The Phillies drafted Imhof with the 47th overall pick of the 2014 MLB draft out of Cal Poly. The southpaw has posted a 4-3 record with a 3.91 ERA this season but has logged 43 walks in 53 innings pitched.

Among 14 appearances on the mound this year, Imhof has made nine starts. According to Crasnick, Imhof was making a move to the Threshers bullpen because he was struggling with his command, which was evident in his high walk rate.

Minor league stats courtesy of MiLB.com.

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