M’s king in a sling for three weeks
With Seattle fighting for AL wild card, ace sidelined with bursitis in his throwing shoulder
OAKLAND, Calif. — In the midst of the American League wild card chase, the Seattle Mariners will be without starter Felix Hernandez for three to four weeks because of bursitis in his right shoulder.
General manager Jerry Dipoto gave the update on Hernandez on Tuesday.
Hernandez was scratched from his scheduled start last Saturday in Kansas City and placed on the disabled list due to discomfort in his pitching arm. He returned to Seattle and was examined by team physician Dr. Edward Khalfayan.
Marco Gonzales, acquired in a trade with St. Louis last month, took Hernandez’s spot in the rotation. Hernandez is 5-4 with a 4.28 ERA in 13 starts this season. Hernandez missed nearly two months earlier this season because of shoulder inflammation.
“Obviously disappointed to lose Felix,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “It’s probably three to four weeks, but hopefully we can get that shoulder calmed down.
“We certainly need him in our rotation. We’re going to be playing a lot of big ball games here in September and we’d love to get him back at that time, but he’s going to have to work his tail off, get the arm strength back. Hopefully it won’t be that long, but three to four weeks is a little bit of a blow there.”
Seattle also placed right-handed reliever David Phelps on the 10-day disabled list with an impingement in his right elbow. He’s expected to miss two to three weeks.
“I think it’s positive on David Phelps,” Servais said. “We’ll get him back relatively soon, 10 days to two weeks. He did the right thing the other day kind of alerting us he didn’t feel right, so we got him out of the game before something else was worse.”
Rangers sell Frieri to Seattle for $1
Right-hander Ernesto Frieri was sold by the Texas Rangers to the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday for $1.
Signed by the Rangers as a minor league free agent on June 15, the 32-year-old was 0-1 with a 5.14 ERA in six relief appearances for Texas. He was assigned outright to Round Rock on July 7 and went 0-1 with a 1.42 ERA in seven relief outings for the triple-A club.
Frieri is 11-14 with a 3.59 ERA and 73 saves in 304 relief appearances with San Diego (2009-12), the Los Angeles Angels (2012-14), Pittsburgh (2014), Tampa Bay (2015) and Texas. He did not play in 2016, when he was released by Philadelphia.
Seattle assigned Frieri to triple-A Tacoma of the Pacific Coast League.
Frieri’s major league experience figured prominently in the acquisition from Seattle’s standpoint, Mariners manager Scott Servais said.
Servais was an assistant general manager with the Angels during Frieri’s Los Angeles days.
“I know a little bit about him,” Servais said.