Astros place Dallas Keuchel on 10-Day DL, Fantasy Impact
By Bill Pivetz
The Astros ace Dallas Keuchel is the newest member of the 10-day DL. There are a couple of starting pitchers worth adding as a replacement.
The Houston Astros look poised to run away with the American League West crown. The offense is clicking, the starting pitchers, even the back-end of the rotation, are doing well and the bullpen is shutting down batters. Unfortunately, this train may be slowing down soon as Dallas Keuchel was placed on the 10-day DL with a pinched nerve in his neck.
The DL stint is backdated to Wednesday, so he will be eligible to return on May 27. If he does return then, Keuchel will be available to face the Baltimore Orioles over Memorial Day weekend.
Keuchel is off to the best start of his career. He has a 7-0 record, seven quality starts, 1.84 ERA, 0.864 WHIP, 54 strikeouts and 14 walks in nine starts.
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His most recent start was the one that raised an eyebrow. Against the Miami Marlins on May 16, Keuchel pitched just five innings and allowed two runs on four hits and struck out four.
Keuchel isn’t a big swing-and-miss pitcher, 7.6 K/9, but induces a lot of weak contact, 67.1 ground ball rate. His HR/FB rate of 19.4 percent is a career high, so there are some negative parts of Keuchel’s game.
The positives are that he has an 88.2 left on base percentage, 31 soft contact rate and 10.5 swinging strike rate. These are all career highs for Keuchel.
While his 3.27 FIP indicates a possible rise in ERA, he has been good enough to keep the ERA below 2.50.
Brian McTaggart of MLB.com tweeted out the news.
Astros to place Dallas Keuchel on the 10 day DL with a pinched nerve in his neck. He will miss one start
— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) May 20, 2017
While it may not be obvious, a pinched nerve in the neck can affect the function of the arm. It affects it even more as a pitcher, throwing 100 times in a couple of hours.
The good news is that he is only scheduled to miss one start. I say “scheduled” because things could get worse or setbacks happen. I don’t like thinking negatively but with the track record we’ve seen this season, it’s not crazy.
While it isn’t an extensive injury, there are plenty of pitchers you can add for the two weeks and squeeze out a couple of good starts.
Rookie Jose Berrios has 15 strikeouts in 15.1 innings. He faces the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday. Jimmy Nelson has two straight quality starts and travels to Chicago to face the Cubs on Sunday. His teammate Matt Garza has four straight quality starts. He faces Toronto on Tuesday.
Until further notice, Keuchel will only miss one start. Relieving the stress around the nerve will allow Keuchel to come back just as strong and dominate his opponents for the rest of the season. If you have Keuchel, be humble. A lot of fantasy owners are trying to patch together their rotation.