back to top

Paul Blackburn out for the season with hand injury

angelsrising.info

The Athletics are shutting All-Star right-hander Paul Blackburn down for the remainder of the season, manager Mark Kotsay announced to reporters, via Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle. Blackburn has been plagued by discomfort in his pitching hand and recently saw a specialist regarding inflammation in his right middle finger. An exact diagnosis has not been announced by the team just yet, nor has a treatment plan, but it seems there’s enough concern that they’ll call it a season for the 28-year-old righty.

Blackburn was the Athletics’ lone All-Star representative — as one would expect for a club in the early stages of a rebuild — but was a plenty deserving candidate all the same. Through his first 16 starts this year, the right-hander worked to a tidy 2.90 ERA, and while that came with a pedestrian 18.8% strikeout rate, Blackburn’s strong 6.2% walk rate and 48.7% grounder rate helped him to overcome that sub-par mark.

Things have gone off the rails completely for Blackburn in his five most recent starts, however. In that span of 24 1/3 innings, he’s been tattooed for 25 runs on 31 hits — eight of which have left the yard — and eight walks. The average velocity on his sinker is down about a half-mile per hour over those five starts, and it seems quite likely that Blackburn was pitching at less than 100 percent as he labored through that ugly stretch of five starts.

That string of poor outings ballooned Blackburn’s ERA from 2.90 all the way to 4.28, but that’ll still go down as one of the sharper seasons of his career to date. Blackburn was removed from the A’s 40-man roster prior to the 2021 season, after all, going unclaimed on waivers and battling his way back to the major league roster. His early breakout and All-Star nod made for one of the best storylines of the year for A’s fans in an otherwise miserable campaign that has seen a beloved manager and several popular veterans depart while the front office commences yet another teardown of the roster.

Blackburn’s solid showing through 111 1/3 innings will net him a decent raise in arbitration, which he’ll reach for the first time this winter. While teams surely inquired on his availability prior to the trade deadline, it seems unlikely that the A’s would sell low on him following a season-ending hand injury. As such, even with a bump to a couple of million dollars or so in the offing this winter, Blackburn figures to be back with Oakland in 2023. The A’s can control him all the way through the 2025 season.


www.yardbarker.com

Latest articles

Rangers make one deal at the deadline —...

The trade deadline passed and the Rangers’ day was suspiciously quiet. Heading into the...

The greatest barrier-breaking African-American moments in MLB history

The plight of the African-American experience in America has been tightly intertwined with and displayed...

Mariners look to take advantage of slumping Yankees

The phrase "potential playoff matchup" hasn't been uttered by baseball folks in Seattle for a...

Uncertainty looms with Astros’ leadership despite

The Astros wrapped up the top seed in the American League Friday night, having already...
angelsrising.info

More like this

Assessing the Chicago White Sox’s offseason outlook

Aside from a new manager, the White Sox don’t seem destined for a major...

Offseason outlook for the Los Angeles Angels

Despite the continued excellence of Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, the Angels had another...

Previewing the 2022-23 free agent class: Designated hitter

Obviously, any hitter is capable of serving as a DH. Many of the players...

World Series Houston Astros vs. Philadelphia

The Phillies are red-hot, but the Astros are even hotter. Houston has yet to...

Mariners could be in position to deal from

Going into next year, the Mariners have considerable depth in their rotation. Luis Castillo...

Guardians have some tough middle infield decisions to make

Two months ago, I wrote about Andres Gimenez’s 2022 breakout and how it was a...