Cederlind suffers elbow injury
Blake Cederlind left the mound Wednesday night after struggling mightily.
He struck out the first New York Yankees batter he faced, then gave up a single and hit the next batter. He then struck out Armando Alvarez, before walking two more hitters, allowing the Yankees to score the goahead run.
Cederlind left, visibly frustrated with the outing. Since then, it only has gotten worse. When the Pirates officially announced that they had signed free-agent pitcher Trevor Cahill to a major league deal, it came with the corresponding move to make room for Cahill on the 40-man roster. Cederlind was placed on the 60-day injured list with a UCL strain.
As of now, Cederlind and the Pirates still are seeking a second opinion to decide on the proper course of action for the 25-year-old fire-baller. The toughest scenario could mean Tommy John surgery, which is meant to repair the UCL but requires more than a year of time without baseball for a full recovery.
It’s a possibility, to be certain, but the Pirates aren’t ready to say exactly what Cederlind’s treatment will entail.
“When there is an injury to the UCL, [surgery] is an option that’s on the table,” general manager Ben Cherington said Friday after a spring training win over the Toronto Blue Jays. “We’ll see. We’ll remain hopeful that we’ll get more information and ultimately end up deciding we can manage it conservatively and give that a shot. So don’t want to get ahead of that. [I] don’t know. We need more information first, but I think we need to be aware that both of those things would be on the table, potentially.”
Cederlind seemed to have pretty good odds of making the opening day roster, depending on how things broke for him. After all, he got time in the majors last season with the Pirates and impressed with the sheer power of his arsenal. Even if he hadn’t made the Pirates when spring training broke, he certainly would have gotten another shot with the team at some point this season.
That is still possible, as Cherington
noted, but the news is certainly a tough blow for a young, talented bullpen arm.
“He was competing for a spot in our bullpen,” manager Derek Shelton said Friday. “Like we said, we have a ton of competition. Obviously anyone who saw the Yankee game the other night, the first two or three hitters, his stuff was electric. The ball was coming out at 97, 98 [mph], the two sliders right off the bat were really good. So definitely in the competition. It’s an unfortunate situation for him and for us. We just have to see what we have moving forward, in terms of what the doctors say.”
Contract agreements?
The Pirates announced early Friday that they had come to terms with contracts for all of their pre-arbitration players. It’s more of a formality, of course, simply finalizing the amount they’ll play their players for the 2021 season.
Cherington has said before that spring training is a good time to start to discuss more serious contract situations, namely with players who could be deserving of extensions now or in the future. The subject, if not broached yet, will surely come up in the coming seasons as young players like third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes or even someone like left fielder Bryan Reynolds perform well.
As of right now, Cherington says the Pirates have been solely focused on coming to one-year agreements for 2021, but he says they are always willing to hear players out.
“I think the spirit of what I’ve said before is that when we get to that time of year between mid-January and March, that’s the time of year typically where those conversations happen,” Cherington said. “Most of the time, we were just focused on a one-year agreement, and would expect that’s what we’re focused on this year. But during that, we’re always open to conversations. We had open dialogue last year. We want to continue that, so I think hopefully players know that’s something we’re open to talking about and ultimately, that’s a personal thing that we would not talk about publicly.”
Cruz, other prospects
Conversations around young shortstop Oneil Cruz have surrounded whether he’ll be a shortstop in the future at all. There was fuel added to that fire when he was moved to center field at several points this spring, even starting a game in the outfield. Since, Cruz has exclusively played at shortstop again, but Cherington says the plan is still to integrate outfield play into the 22-year-old’s routine.
“I really think it’s just how the games have played out,” Cherington said. “I think it’s still a desire for us to expose him around the field a little bit more, and there will be chances to do that as we move forward.”
As for the rest of the young Pirates invited to spring training this season, the general manager seems to have taken a bit of a laissezfaire approach. Due to the COVID-19, social-distancing rules, Cherington says he hasn’t gotten much of a chance to work with some of the younger players as much as he may like, but feels comfortable that while many of the Pirates’ probable MLB players this season are playing games at LECOM Park, the younger players are still getting good work in at Pirate City, or wherever they may be.
“They’re getting a lot of reps at Pirate City. We’ve had B games,” Cherington said. “We will add more B games, and it’s a chance for those young players to work together a lot, get to know each other. So it’s been great from that perspective.”