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Oakland Athletics relief pitcher Sean Doolittle is headed to the disabled list with a shoulder strain. 

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Doolittle Headed to the Disabled List

Saturday, May 30

Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle noted that Doolittle will go to the disabled list with a left shoulder strain. The A’s recalled Angel Castro to take Doolittle’s place.

Jimmy Durkin of the San Jose Mercury news reported A’s manager Bob Melvin said Doolittle faces at least two weeks of inactivity to reduce the inflammation in his shoulder.

Doolittle’s latest setback was explained by Joe Stiglich of Comcast SportsNet California:

Doolittle felt pain in shoulder Wed night after pitching, then really bothered him throwing Fri. Different than before — back of shoulder. Doolittle got MRI this morning. No tear, just inflammation in shoulder blade and into shoulder capsule a bit.

Doolittle discussed the injury, via Stiglich:

John Hickey of the Bay Area News Group pointed out that Doolittle just returned to the bullpen before this latest setback:

Jane Lee of MLB.com acknowledged that Doolittle didn’t look like himself even playing catch recently:

While Doolittle only has the one appearance this season, he was a critical part of the Oakland bullpen in 2014. He finished with a 2.73 ERA, 0.73 WHIP and 89 strikeouts in 62.2 innings pitched and was one reason why the Athletics reached the postseason as a wild card.

As of Saturday, Oakland is dead last in Major League Baseball in bullpen ERA, and Doolittle’s absence is a primary reason for the struggles. The hope is Castro can pick up some of the slack for the last-place team in the American League West, although he’s already allowed a home run in his three innings this season.

It is difficult to envision Oakland turning things around this season in a difficult AL West, even if there is plenty of time remaining on the 2015 schedule.

The bullpen has been a disaster, and the Doolittle news is deflating for a squad that was hoping his return would provide a serious boost for a group in dire need of it. Rather, it must put the pieces back together as the calendar flips to the dog days of summer, and there is little on-field evidence to suggest that is going to happen.

That is especially the case without Doolittle.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Shortly after creating MLBDepthCharts.com, I quickly realized just how important it was for fantasy baseball players to find the guy who was “next in line” for saves. Even if it’s just to give the regular closer a break after a few consecutive days of work, saves are valuable for fantasy geeks. 

A closer’s job is rarely on solid ground from one game to the next. Despite what else happens throughout the game, a blown save is not something that’s taken lightly in the media or by fans because it’s almost always directly correlated with the final result of the game. 

Even the best closers in the game will be scrutinized if they blow three or four saves in a month. If you’re not the best closer in the game and you blow a save or two over the span of a few games, the pressure builds as the next unsuccessful opportunity could be the last. 

Take a look at the Washington Nationals’ 2012 season. Brad Lidge and Henry Rodriguez shared the closer’s gig to the start the season with Drew Storen on the disabled list. The hard-throwing Rodriguez took over the job on his own after Lidge landed on the disabled list in late April. 

Less than a month later, Rodriguez was removed from the role after a string of shaky outings and manager Davey Johnson said he would go with a closer-by-committee, which never happened. Tyler Clippard got the first shot and then didn’t relinquish the role until Drew Storen returned from the disabled list and shared saves with him the rest of the way. 

Injuries and ineffectiveness will occur, as I’ve shown with one extreme example from 2012. So it’s important to have the right guy on your team at the right time. Here are several relievers not projected to close that could either “vulture” some saves throughout the year or eventually take over the closer’s role if the opportunity presented itself … 

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