Mariners Felix Hernandez Placed on 15-Day DL

Mariners veteran pitchers Felix Hernandez finds himself on the DL for only the third time. He will miss a couple of weeks with a calf strain.

The Seattle Mariners have not had much success recently, last playoff appearance was in 2001. However, the team has been lucky enough to have an ace pitcher in Felix Hernandez atop the rotation since 2005. But, all good things do come to an end. He will miss at least two weeks retroactive to May 28 with a calf injury. It isn’t a major concern, but something to keep an eye on.

Felix Hernandez has been good so far this season. He sits at 4-4 with a 2.86 ERA, 1.22 WHIP and 53 strikeouts in 10 starts. He’s had a couple of rough outings, including his most recent one. He went six innings, allowing six runs on eight hits and one walk with six strikeouts.

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The Mariners bats have woken up recently, but it hasn’t been consistent enough to help Hernandez in the wins column. There is some decline from last season to this season, though. He is down almost a strikeout and up over one walk per nine innings. However, the calf injury should not and does not affect his arm strength.

Though, it can affect how he plants and the direction of his pitches. Opposing hitters are getting more line drives and fly balls than ground balls off of Felix Hernandez. While he is allowing a lower fly ball rate, batters have become more patient in waiting for their pitch. He has a 27.6 O-Swing and 8.5 swinging strike rate this season and 33.4 and 10.7 last year, respectively.

The injury usually requires a four-week rest and recovery time. However, Seattle’s management believes he will only miss two starts. In his place, James Paxton will be called up and start in his place. He isn’t someone worth picking up in most league formats.

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If you own Felix Hernandez, and he is owned in 98.9 percent of leagues, he needs to be kept. It does ask, what are the other 1.1 percent doing? Anyway, the injury doesn’t look to be too significant.

As a fill in, there are plenty of options on the waiver wire. Nathan Eovaldi (46.6 percent owned), Michael Fulmer (23.7) and Jimmy Nelson (47.0) are all widely available. At this point in the season, it’ll be hard to find an ace-like pitcher. However, for the next two weeks, these players should do just fine.