Alex Avila to DL with Quad Strain, Tim Locastro called up

EDITED to correct the number of pitchers on roster below

Alex Avila was placed on the 10 day IL and Tim Locastro was recalled from AAA Reno the team announced this morning.

The Avila injury happened in Friday nights game after he rounded first and was on his way to second base. Oddly enough I remember noticing at the time he really slowed down as he entered his home run trot but figured he was just living up to his “Slo-Mo” nickname. Turns out that’s when he tweaked it.

Torey Lovullo said since then he was limited in what he could do, and although he pinch hit last night, it wasn’t right, so they decided to play it safe and put him on the IL

Torey had previously spoken about feeling like they were a little thin at outfield, so calling up Locastro is no surprise. He said he would like to rotate some of the guys that have been going pretty hard through the first 10 games of the season. (Presumably Peralta, Jones, and Marte). Locastro is a speed/on base buy when his game is going right. He can also play 2b if needed.

Asked if they may call up Caleb Joseph after the off day and go back from 13 to 12 pitchers, Lovullo said that is something they are considering, but haven’t decided yet. Notable that Jon Duplantier warmed up in the bullpen the last two nights in a row, even though he didn’t get in to either of the games.

John Ryan Murphy is catching today’s game, and when asked if Carson Kelly may get a turn catching Zack Greinke, Torey said without equivocation that they will stick with Murphy catching Greinke.

Other notes of interest:

Torey has not yet had any discussion with the front office about possible plans to add a left handed bat from outside the organization. He expressed confidence the Baseball Ops group is always looking for guys that may help, but nothing is imminent as far as he knows.

When asked if he might start using Yoan Lopez in more of Yoshi Hirano’s high leverage situations, Torey said he is not ready to make that move yet. He feels the biggest issue with Yoshi is his fastball location has just not been very good. He is not going to run away from him in those big situations, he will stick with him.

MY TAKE

I am not thrilled with the way Zack seems to frequently shake Murphy off. I’ll be watching closely Tuesday to see if that his still happening. This is their 3rd start together, so it should not be happening that much anyway.

I think that they should stay with 13 pitchers, unless they make the decision to remove Matt Koch from the MLB/40 Man roster. He is in no way a viable option in any game you are trying to win or don’t already have a 10 run lead. So in effect it’s like they are down to 12 pitchers anyway.