Freak Guardians bullpen injury will make you squeamish, anxious about second half

Things went from bad to worse for the Cleveland Guardians in their 6-5 loss to the Twins on Wednesday. 

After both teams had settled in after an early-game offensive barrage, Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt called on Tim Herrin to get through the sixth inning. 

And he got one out in the inning before Royce Lewis stepped to the plate and smoked him with an 89 mile per hour liner that hit right off Herrin’s pitching elbow

To add some context to the comebacker, it hit Herrin so hard that it ended up careening to first baseman Rhys Hoskins, who was able to tag Lewis out. 

After the game, the Guardians announced that Herrin had suffered a left elbow contusion, and that X-rays were negative. 

"It was kind of the best-case scenario," Herrin said, per MLB.com’s Tim Stebbins. "X-rays were negative. It’s just a bruise. It squared it up, though. So it's a little sore right now."

But even if Herrin avoided the worst case scenario, it’s hard to imagine he’s going to pitch at any point between now and the All-Star Break, which could be a big blow to Cleveland’s bullpen. 

Tim Herrin's injury could change Guardians' trade deadline plans

Although Herrin has stumbled a bit since his red-hot start to the season, he’s still a valuable member of Cleveland’s bullpen. 

He’s one of two lefties in Cleveland's pen (along with Erik Sabrowski), and he’s usually called upon to retire a pocket of left-handed hitters in the middle innings. Even if walks are still a huge issue for him (6th percentile in walk rate), he’s able to generate just as much swing and miss (89th percentile in whiff rate). 

Any significant injury to Herrin could change the way the Guardians move at this year’s trade deadline. Coming into Wednesday’s game, it looked like their main priorities at the deadline would be adding a right-handed bat and starting pitcher, but they also may need another lefty reliever. 

Fellow southpaws Will Dion and Logan Allen are in Triple-A and have both seen time with the Guardians this year, but both of them are longman options. Fellow reliever Daniel Espino is also at Triple-A after he was optioned to the minors last week, but he’s right-handed. 

The good news for the Guardians is that it would be fairly easy to author a trade for a left-handed reliever given the abundance of options out there. 

Some left-handed relievers who could be available at a discount include Twins reliever Taylor Rogers, Mets relievers A.J. Minter and Brooks Raley and Rockies reliever Brennan Bernardino, among others. 

While none of those options may jump off the page, none of them are going to break the bank. Every year relievers of that quality get traded for a lottery ticket prospect or two, and there’s no reason to believe this year will be any different. 

Herrin was a clear victim of bad luck on Thursday. Now the Guardians are going to have to wait and see just how long that bad luck lingers for.

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