Chien-Ming Wang didn’t end up pitching for the Nationals after signing a one-year, $2 million deal that included various incentives, but he’s finally recovered enough from shoulder surgery to take the mound in an instructional league game today.
Wang faced four batters and Ben Goessling of MASNSports.com reports that his fastball was clocked at 85-87 miles per hour, which actually isn’t bad for a guy who hasn’t started a big-league game since July of 2009. Prior to going under the knife Wang averaged 91-92 mph with his fastball.
Because his one-year deal didn’t include a team option for next season Wang will soon be a free agent and Goessling reports that the Nationals “are waiting to see how he progresses through the fall” before deciding whether or not to pursue bringing him back in 2011.
Dodgers place pitcher Noah Syndergaard on injured list with no timetable for return
Katie Stratman/USA TODAY Sports
CINCINNATI — The Los Angeles Dodgers placed pitcher Noah Syndergaard on the 15-day injured list Thursday with a blister on the index finger of his right throwing hand.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said the timetable for Syndergaard’s return is unknown despite the 15-day designation.
“The physical, the mental, the emotional part, as he’s talked about, has taken a toll on him,” Roberts said. “So, the ability to get him away from this. He left today to go back to Los Angeles to kind of get back to normalcy.”
Syndergaard allowed six runs and seven hits in three innings against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night, raising his ERA to 7.16.
Syndergaard (1-4) has surrendered at least five runs in three straight starts.
Syndergaard has been trying to return to the player he was before Tommy John surgery sidelined him for the better part of the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
Roberts said Syndergaard will need at least “a few weeks” to both heal and get away from baseball and “reset.”
“I think searching and not being comfortable with where he was at in the moment is certainly evident in performance,” Roberts said. “So hopefully this time away will provide more clarity on who he is right now as a pitcher.
“Trying to perform when you’re searching at this level is extremely difficult. I applaud him from not running from it, but it’s still very difficult. Hopefully it can be a tale of two stories, two halves when he does come back.”