Joe Nathan needs Tommy John Surgery

[RyDogg66]

http://www.mlbtraderumors...-tommy-john-surgery.html

 

A torn ulnar collateral ligament. It sounds like he needs the surgery but might try to pitch through it instead. Total bummer for the Twinkies. The curse of Target field perhaps?

[RyDogg66]

I thought the title was some sort of joke at first, may want to fix it

It was a joke, but I'll fix it for clarity.

[endaround]

I thought the title was some sort of joke at first, may want to fix it

[crewcrazy]

Huge blow early for a team that had high hopes for this season. I wonder who closes for them now? Rauch?

[JohnBriggs12]

Luckily for the Twins, assuming Neshek is back healthy, they probably had the deepest bullpen in baseball. Neshek, Condrey, Guerrier, Crain, Rauch and Mijares isn't a bad pen at all, Nathan or no Nathan. Any one of those guys could close. I would expect those six plus Duensing as the long man/2nd lefty to fill out the pen.

[TooLiveBrew]

Whoa, what a huge loss for the Twins. Their bullpen might be deep, but you can't replace a guy like Nathan.

[pitchleague]

totally figures!! Just last week, one of my teams traded Carlos Marmol to a rival because I had Nathan securely in the bullpen and he was a luxury item. ARRRGH!!!

 

Anyways, that is indeed a tough break for the Twins. How does he really expect to maybe pitch through it? Won't he be in pain all year? Couldn't he completely wreck the elbow or can't it get any worse?

[RobDeer 45]

Too bad for them. I think they will end up ok but their bullpen was setup nicely.

[JohnBriggs12]

Whoa, what a huge loss for the Twins. Their bullpen might be deep, but you can't replace a guy like Nathan.

Sure you could. Not saying they will, but Nathan himself had one career save when he replaced Eddie Guardado in 2004 after Guardado had 41 saves the year before. I'm sure there was a huge concern then on how they were going to replace "Everyday Eddie". They have a veteran group of relievers. It wouldn't shock me in the least if one of those guys stepped up like Saloman Torres did for the Brewers in 08.

[TooLiveBrew]

There is no one in that bullpen that can match Nathan's stuff. He is a legit relief ace, and outside of ponying up big-time in trade, no the Twins absolutely cannot replace his quality.

[FIPS133]

This is too bad for the Twins, rough injury.

 

Even though it doesn't apply to Nathan's injury, let me be the first to use the soon to be go to excuse for anything bad that happens to the Twins - "if only they'd put a roof on Target Field this wouldn't have happened"

[davemakovec]

I did not realize just how dominant Nathan has been, particularly within his division...

 

Posnanski on Nathan's Dominance

 

On the other hand, the Twins have enough solid-to-great relievers that they can probably just plug in one of their regulars and not lose too much in the spot.

[logan82]

Doesn't look to be hurting them so far. One less good pitcher in the pen of course but the closer's spot is in much better shape than ours.

[Invader3K]

Rauch has been a pretty solid closer for them so far. 10 saves already.

[logan82]

Not saying it can't derail of course, but I am a firm believer in not paying a lot for closers. Somewhat unrelated but Capps is also doing pretty well as a closer this year as well.

[homer]

I think Rauch will come back to earth a bit. He's currently leaving 89% of runners on base vs. 73% for his career. Of course, all his other peripheral stats are beating his career norms so maybe he's having a career year. We shall see.