Less than a day after it was announced that Seth Maness was being optioned to Memphis (AAA), the St. Louis Cardinals reversed gears and have instead placed the reliever on the disabled list.
“After speaking with him further, it was determined that he needed to be examined by our medical staff”, the team announced via press release. “Subsequently he was seen by Dr. Farley today and it was determined that he is dealing with right elbow inflammation and will be placed on the 15 day disabled list.”
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In his last outing on Thursday, Maness allowed three earned runs on three hits in 0.1 innings pitched. He has allowed 21 hits in his last 12.2 innings on the mound.
MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch, who is in Los Angeles covering the team, shares via Twitter that “before Maness departed Dodger Stadium yesterday, I asked if his arm was healthy. His response: “Yeah, I feel alright.”
By placing Maness on the disabled list rather than being optioned, he stays on the Major League roster but will still be able to work on regaining the form which helped him induce 39 double plays since 2013–tops for a reliever during that stretch in all of baseball. He also appeared in a career high 76 games last season.
“It’s definitely such a long season with appearances and stuff–something I fairly new to so still trying to figure out the right workout and throwing regiment that keeps you in shape and don’t want to burn out too quick,” assessed Maness about his off-season recovery at the team’s Winter Warm-Up.
“I thought I may have a little too hard, too early and maybe fizzled out a little bit but that’s the grind and just learning your body and what it takes to get through the season,” he continued. “There’s a fine line between balancing what it takes to get it done on the field and pushing your body too hard.”
And that balance has been a struggle since Spring Training for Maness, who sought work on the back fields for extra innings to try and regain the feel of his pitches–in particular the sinker, which has helped with so many of those double plays.
