The Diamondbacks will be making a lot of roster moves because the inevitable injury due to a batter getting hit in the head or hand against the Pirates happened again. Chris Iannetta will be going to the 7-Day concussion DL, suffering a broken nose after getting hit in the mouth by the pitch. The Diamondbacks operated the next two days with a short bench, coming back to bite them in the last two games of the series. In a corresponding move, the Diamondbacks haved added RHP Silvino Bracho.
Bracho isn’t the most talented pitcher in Reno right now, but given that both Rubby De La Rosa and Jake Barrett are still in the process of shaking off the rust, there is no reason to rush either back. The same goes for Jimmie Sherfy and his spiffy 0.68 ERA because of his limited experience in Reno overall. Bracho isn’t going to pitch in meaningful innings anyway although the team is going to need an 8th reliever against the Mets with Randall Delgado likely unavailable for at least the first game after pitching 3 quality innings in 2 days.
Iannetta won’t be the only player likely headed to the DL, as both AJ Pollock and David Peralta had to leave yesterday’s game with injuries. Pollock’s injury is a groin strain, his 3rd in the last 9 months. It really sucks because both Peralta and Pollock are never going to shed the injury-prone label at this point and cripples what little postseason hopes this team had going into the season. We’ll likely see Jeremy Hazelbaker get the call in the OF and play center field, or at least I hope that happens because Gregor Blanco is a disaster defensively.
In terms of outfield options, the Diamondbacks could consider Reymond Fuentes. I say consider, but I think they should leave him there because his numbers are worse than Ketel Marte’s line at the plate and he’s graded out negatively in the outfield in a small sample. Fuentes has been called up and will be batting leadoff and playing CF for the Diamondbacks, which pretty much confirms Pollock is going to the DL. Considering Fuentes and Peralta are left-handed bats, we’ll see a lot of Chris Owings in the OF and Nick Ahmed at SS. To make room for Fuentes, the Diamondbacks designated reliever Enrique Burgos for assignment. Burgos had been pitching for AAA Reno, but will have used all 3 options at the end of the season.