Melanie Newman: Bautista possibly back for September/October?

[emmett16]

6 minutes ago, Matt Bennett said:

I feel as though they bungled Bautista and Bradish’s injuries by delaying the inevitable. Because of those delays, it could be no Bautista until 2025 and no Bradish until 2026. 

I tend to agree.  RZNJ brings up a good point.  It takes two to tango.  The player has to be on board with the decision.  Impossible to know how it played out internally.  

[Tony-OH]

4 minutes ago, interloper said:

It's a little surprising she would go "off-script", so to speak, on MASN when Elias has denied any chance of Bautista pitching this year. But perhaps MASN folks have a little more freedom under Rubenstein. 

Obviously I'm going to put more weight into what Elias tells the media because he's a pretty straight shooter, but sometimes things change. No one really knows how quick of a healer Bautista is and maybe he's ahead of schedule? Maybe not. 

I'm going to assume Bautista is not going to pitch at all this season and if he does, I'll take it as a pleasant surprise.

[Matt Bennett]

1 minute ago, Tony-OH said:

Well, they got some good starts from Bradish so we'll see if that helps them win the AL East. If they win it by a game or two you can say he had an impact on this season.

Bradish could still be back by the end of 2025 if everything goes smoothly.

Elias said something to the effect of “Bradish was pitching through an injury and we’re surprised he did that well.” 

That’s troubling to me. I think the 2025 playoffs (and 2025 AL East Title) should have been prioritized over squeezing out any innings you can from him for a 2024 AL East title. 

It’s just been some questionable injury inaction and focus on hail mary outlooks that has backfired so far. Coming from a very smart Front Office. 

[Aristotelian]

9 minutes ago, Matt Bennett said:

Elias said something to the effect of “Bradish was pitching through an injury and we’re surprised he did that well.” 

That’s troubling to me. I think the 2025 playoffs (and 2025 AL East Title) should have been prioritized over squeezing out any innings you can from him for a 2024 AL East title. 

It’s just been some questionable injury inaction and focus on hail mary outlooks that has backfired so far. Coming from a very smart Front Office. 

Guys don't go under the knife when the doctors haven't recommended surgery. Until they recommend surgery, you rehab and try to pitch. Surgeries are medical decisions not baseball decisions. 

[Matt Bennett]

12 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Guys don't go under the knife when the doctors haven't recommended surgery. Until they recommend surgery, you rehab and try to pitch. Surgeries are medical decisions not baseball decisions. 

Did we ever get an explanation as to why surgery wasn’t recommended initially or if it was never recommended by any physician? Elias seems to keep injury news sealed until specific press conferences. Do we know that surgery wasn’t recommended and the player wanted to rehab instead? 

Bradish never seemed right, despite the good results. From mysteriously skipping a start to losing significant velocity in 1 inning against the Rays to pulling himself out of the Phillies game. Perhaps time for new physicians if they thought he could pitch through this. 

[Can_of_corn]

10 minutes ago, Matt Bennett said:

Did we ever get an explanation as to why surgery wasn’t recommended initially or if it was never recommended by any physician? Elias seems to keep injury news sealed until specific press conferences. Do we know that surgery wasn’t recommended and the player wanted to rehab instead? 

 

Why would they?  Could they even do so legally?  

[Aristotelian]

8 minutes ago, Matt Bennett said:

Did we ever get an explanation as to why surgery wasn’t recommended initially or if it was never recommended by any physician? Elias seems to keep injury news sealed until specific press conferences. Do we know that surgery wasn’t recommended and the player wanted to rehab instead? 

Bradish never seemed right, despite the good results. From mysteriously skipping a start to losing significant velocity in 1 inning against the Rays to pulling himself out of the Phillies game. Perhaps time for new physicians if they thought he could pitch through this. 

I mean, we didn't get a copy of the doctor's reports but we were told it was diagnosed as a sprain and he would get a PRP injection and rehab. Also told that subsequent MRI's showed signs of healing. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/04/kyle-bradish-to-begin-rehab-assignment.html

[Matt Bennett]

3 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

Why would they?  Could they even do so legally?  

I don’t know. I think there’s some obligations sports teams have about reporting injuries in a timely fashion. Think there was some NFL fuss about a Burrow injury and a Bijan Robinson illness that weren’t reported or something. But I don’t know how applicable those are to the MLB and the detail the reports need to go. 

[Aristotelian]

11 minutes ago, Matt Bennett said:

I don’t know. I think there’s some obligations sports teams have about reporting injuries in a timely fashion. Think there was some NFL fuss about a Burrow injury and a Bijan Robinson illness that weren’t reported or something. But I don’t know how applicable those are to the MLB and the detail the reports need to go. 

"just asking the question" lol

[NashLumber]

11 hours ago, SteveA said:

I think the whole Bautista / Omar thing is more about inspiring a feeling, the ominous feeling you get when Omar is about to do his thing juxtaposed to Felix coming out of the pen to dominate the opposition.

I think the metaphor breaks down when you take it too literally and start interpreting it the way you do and stretch it that much.   Felix when he is on is a dominant closer.   But he is not actually going to kill anybody.

They played Hell's Bells when Trevor Hoffman came out of the pen, but [as far as I know] they didn't actually perform any ritual Satanic sacrifices or draw pentagrams in blood.

I think the idea of Omar and the bags dropping out of the windows is surrender, not kill. Omar only uses his gun when kindness fails (to quote a line from Robert Earl Keen). 

"If you come at the king, you best not miss" - Omar Little 2006

Edited Monday at 16:41 by NashLumber

[Frobby]

Back to Bautista, I'm pretty skeptical he will be back this year, but Melanie's comment left me with at least a shred of hope.   I do think that the fact that he's a reliever makes it more feasible.  Like I said, I think they do the injury report every game on the pregame radio show, so I'll have to listen in some other night and see if this is repeated.

As to Elias, I don't think he's been asked about Bautista's timetable since before the season began.   He seemed pretty definitive then that we wouldn't see Bautista this year, but it's possible the situation has changed.

[Matt Bennett]

3 hours ago, Aristotelian said:

I mean, we didn't get a copy of the doctor's reports but we were told it was diagnosed as a sprain and he would get a PRP injection and rehab. Also told that subsequent MRI's showed signs of healing. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/04/kyle-bradish-to-begin-rehab-assignment.html

Athletes often get surgeries in the off-season for injuries sustained during the season that they played through. I think it’s misguided to think the team’s schedule has no impact and these are strictly medical decisions. Do you think Bautista’s schedule post injury would have been identical had the sprain happened in April as opposed to August? 

[Aristotelian]

1 minute ago, Matt Bennett said:

Athletes often get surgeries in the off-season for injuries sustained during the season that they played through. I think it’s misguided to think the team’s schedule has no impact and these are strictly medical decisions. Do you think Bautista’s schedule post injury would have been identical had the sprain happened in April as opposed to August? 

Yes, because Bradish's sprain happened in the spring and they did the same thing. 

[Matt Bennett]

22 minutes ago, Aristotelian said:

Yes, because Bradish's sprain happened in the spring and they did the same thing. 

Different spring, different sprain. Same unfortunate result. 

I wonder the same year return rate of a “partial UCL tear” as Bautista had. 

[Aristotelian]

36 minutes ago, Matt Bennett said:

Different spring, different sprain. Same unfortunate result. 

I wonder the same year return rate of a “partial UCL tear” as Bautista had. 

"Just asking the question" again? I don't know the exact number but if you do a google search you will see that nonsurgical options are often prescribed for Grade 1 and 2 injuries.