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Willson Contreras has a broken arm, Ken gets the inside story on a late spring trade, we have a concerning story about Perfect Game and Fanatics and Jarren Duran is doing something special in Boston. I’m Levi Weaver, here with Ken Rosenthal — welcome to The Windup!
Contreras injury a blow to Cards’ struggling offense
It has already been a pretty miserable season for the last-place Cardinals. Things just got worse.
In the second inning last night, J.D. Martinez of the Mets swung at a pitch and connected hard — but not with the ball. His bat nailed the left forearm of catcher Willson Contreras, who reacted immediately and demonstrated he was in a lot of pain. X-rays later showed a fracture in his arm.
It was an awful injury, and it’s especially bad for the Cardinals, whose already struggling offense is losing their best hitter this season. Coming into Tuesday’s game. Contreras led the team in bWAR (1.7), home runs (6), and all three slash lines except batting average. His .931 OPS was nearly 200 points better than the next-best on the team (Nolan Arenado, .740).
For now, backup catcher Iván Herrera will be pushed into regular playing time, He’s hitting .232 (.653 OPS) after 69 at-bats this year. They also have Pedro Pagés, who is expected to be called up today. He was in the big leagues briefly last month and went 0-for-2 with a walk in limited action.
After the game, Contreras expressed optimism that he would be back by the All-Star break (July 15-18).
Oh, and if all that wasn’t bad enough, the Cardinals — who led the Mets 3-0 at the time of the injury — gave up six runs in the fifth inning and lost 7-5.
Ken’s Notebook: Doing deals over coffee
General managers rarely negotiate face-to-face anymore. Trade conversations and free-agent negotiations are conducted mostly by text, email and phone. Even at the winter “meetings,” in-person discussions often are the exception, not the rule.
On March 27, the day before the season opener, Tampa Bay Rays president of baseball operations Erik Neander and general manager Brian Cashman got together the old-fashioned way. The result was a three-team trade: The New York Yankees landed infielder Jon Berti from the Miami Marlins, the Rays acquired catcher Ben Rortvedt from the Yankees and the Marlins wound up with a minor leaguer from each team.
Cashman’s spring home in Tampa, site of the Yankees’ training facility, sits directly on the route between Neander’s home and the school one of Neander’s sons attends. After dropping off his son, Neander called Cashman and said he would be driving by his house. The talks between the three teams were stalled. Cashman invited Neander to come over for coffee.
The Yankees already were in Houston. Rortvedt, who had made the club’s 26-man roster as one of three catchers, was at the team hotel. Cashman, though, had stayed behind in Tampa, and made Rortvedt aware teams were interested in trading for him. If a rival club offered something that, in Cashman’s words, “moved the needle,” Rortvedt would be gone.
The Yankees, knowing DJ LeMahieu would begin the season on the injured list, needed an infielder. They earlier had pursued free agents Amed Rosario, who signed with the Rays, and Kiké Hernández, who returned to the Dodgers. The Rays, meanwhile, had two catchers, René Pinto and Alex Jackson, but were looking to upgrade. Jackson was only on a minor-league deal.
Sipping their coffees, Cashman and Neander worked on the framework of the deal, looping in Marlins GM Peter Bendix. Jackson, who thought he had made the Rays as one of two catchers, was stunned to learn after the team’s final workout that he was being sent to Triple A. Opening Day was less than 24 hours away.
A little more than a month later, things have changed again. Rortvedt has proven to be one of the Rays’ best hitters…
This article was originally published by a theathletic.com . Read the Original article here. .