Ahmed sits vs. Cubs; Weaver feels ‘fantastic’ in rehab
In a surprising lineup move, Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed was absent from Friday’s lineup against the Chicago Cubs.
Ahmed was kept out of the lineup due to rest for his lingering shoulder issue. He was already sidelined for the first two weeks of the season from that injury.
The Cubs were set to have left-hander Drew Smyly on the mound, a matchup the Diamondbacks would have wanted to see. Against left-handed pitching, Ahmed is at his best with a .273 batting average and a .326 on-base percentage.
“I have to be mindful of the times that he’s playing. He missed a little bit of time with his shoulder. At times, (the shoulder) gets a little cranky for him. I’m aware of that. He’s 100 percent playable, I just elected to keep him out and give him a little bit of recovery on both sides of the schedule,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said.
Bucking last season’s trend, Ahmed will not be rushed back from the injury that he has dealt with over the past two years. Ahmed played through the injury last season and eventually was shut down in the later part of the season from the injury.
In an elevated role with the Diamondbacks, Ahmed was poised to become an everyday contributor following his success from the past few seasons. However, injuries played a big role in one of his least productive seasons. Lovullo doesn’t want to repeat those mistakes.
“My main objective with Nick is to make sure he stays healthy. His return to play program we got to follow very closely. At some point, he’s going to be turned totally loose and he’s going to play openly. For right now, we got to be really careful. He’s doing OK. It feels a little cranky today,” Lovullo said.
Helping the cause for Ahmed’s recovery timeline is shortstop Geraldo Perdomo. Perdomo made better progress in his first MLB season last year when Ahmed was unavailable and will continue to play in his place.
“We’ve got a very capable understudy that's growing and learning every single day. It’s never easy taking Nick out of the
lineup. He’s a tremendous defender and he’s the captain of our defense. I got to be smart about this and I can’t force feed something,” Lovullo said.
Lovullo is hopeful that Ahmed will start Saturday, even with Kyle Hendricks set to start for the Cubs. Ahmed has hit .056 in 18 at-bats against Hendricks.
Weaver completes third bullpen
Right-hander Luke Weaver completed his third bullpen session after being placed on the 10-day injured list with elbow inflammation on April 10. Weaver threw at Chase Field instead of Salt River Fields.
“We wanted to have him throw it here, which we’re all excited about,” Lovullo said. “I just quickly passed by (Brent)
Strom, he said it was very good and it was aggressive. Excited for Luke, I know it’s been a little bit of a grind for him the past month.”
The injury marked the third time in the past four seasons where Weaver has missed time with an arm issue.
“You sit there and go, Why am I here again?” Weaver said. “I think we as players push ourselves too hard sometimes and we try to make fixes there that are sometimes too drastic or too subtle. I think this time was a real lesson for me to take the two experiences and find that middle ground with what I did learn and let’s not do this again. It’s baseball, things are going to flare up. It hasn’t been in my favor, but I intend to clean that up.”
Weaver had his best bullpen session of the three after hitting 94 mph in the last
of his 31 pitches.
“It felt fantastic and it was borderline strike up so it wasn’t to the backstop or anything. That tells me there’s a little good sign of ripping it, so that was great to see,” Weaver said.
Weaver’s return is still unknown, but Lovullo expects him to go back as a reliever.
Short hops
● Carson Kelly (oblique) started to catch some bullpen sessions and taking some balls off the tee.
● Right-hander Sean Poppen (shoulder) threw 20 pitches yesterday and he will continue to be evaluated. Poppen is getting close to possibly returning to the lineup instead of a rehab assignment.