Boof needs surgery (apparently)
According to LEN3 Boof Bonser needs shoulder surgery. Actually, it was a direct quote from Boof. I don’t think this is an official/final decision, but the MRI didn’t come back looking good. Neal says the Twins could (and probably will) encourage Boof to rehab first. This never seems to be a good idea. Might as well just clean out the shoulder and hope he can recover quickly.
My theory has been that this might be good for Boof. If he goes on the DL, doesn’t that mean he technically doesn’t have to make the team right off the bat in order for us to keep him? We can stash him on the 15 day DL for a while, wait until he is 100% and then give him a chance to be an effective set-up guy. As frustrating as it has been dealing with the ups and downs of Boof, I am in the camp the believes he can be a good relief pitcher. I’d hate to lose him for nothing, and if hiding him on the DL for a few weeks (or months) in order to keep him for a second half push or something, so be it. I’m not all that familiar with the minor league option rules, but does it take an option to send someone to the minors to rehab? Or does that not count? If we want to keep him would he have to go right from the DL to the major league roster, or would he have to go through waivers first?
This could also be good for Humber. While I think he is a long(er) shot to make the team, knocking one candidate out of the competition certainly helps him. This story just further turns up the spotlight that is shining on the bullpen situation. We have discussed it alot here, so I don’t think we need to talk about it much more, but lets just summarize:
locks: Nathan, Crain, Guerrier, Breslow, Ayala
fighting for the two remaining spots: Mijares, Humber, and Jason Jones.
One could argue that Ayala is not a lock, but he probably is. Since the Twins are paying him lots of money (by our standards, and since he isn’t that good 1.3 mil is a lot). The more I think about it, without Bonser, this isn’t much of a competition. Mainly because I don’t know much about Jason Jones, so I would assume that Mijares and Humber have a significant advantage to make the team. This also assumes Gardy is going with a 12 man staff, which also isn’t a lock. So to summarize the summary: I don’t know a damn thing.
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Gardy was making noise about going with an 11-man pitching staff to keep both Buscher and Harris with the team. I can’t decide if that’s a good idea or not- on one hand, it would be nice to have a deep bench (and Joe Crede could need quite a few rest days)- but I wouldn’t want to run out of bullpen guys, either.
I agree. Its not like we added a lights out set-up man or anything. The bullpen isn’t improved enough from last year where we can afford to have fewer options. I also think a bench that has both Harris and Tolbert will be fine in terms of giving Crede enough days off. Buscher doesn’t do much for me as a pure bench player.
I believe we can only stash Boof on the DL and protect him from waivers if it’s the 60 day DL. The 15 day won’t work.
However, we CAN send him on a minor league rehab stint without putting him on waivers. I believe the way that works, however, is that there’s a time limit; once he starts his rehab stint, he has to come back to the majors within 15 days. Or something like that.
That is a bad alternative. Is this surgery major enough to put him on the 60 day DL. He’d be eligible to come off at the end of April, so its not like he would miss that much time. I hope they consider this and don’t try to force him to rehab or cut him or something.
I think the days only come off the 60 day DL during the season. So he’d be eligible to come off at the end of May.
I have no idea if the surgery would be that serious, but 8-12 weeks isn’t an ABSURD amount of recovery time by any means. And it gives us extra time to determine which guy isn’t working out and needs to be replaced by Boof.