The White Sox bullpen problem just got a bit worse as both Matt Thornton and J.J. Putz are going on the DL.
Matt Thornton has apparently been having some issues with his left arm. He hasn’t pitched since August 17th, when he gave up the game winning homer to Jim Thome when they faced the Twins. He had some fluid drained from the arm when he reported soreness. He had an MRI on his arm and it revealed no structural damage so it looks as if it just needs some time to heal, the reason why he will be headed to the DL.
Putz hadn’t pitched for a while but something was definitely wrong when he blew two saves in two straight days. It was determined that he has inflammation in his right patella tendon and that has been affecting his ability to pitch. He tried to avoid the DL and attempted to pitch in Tuesday night’s game but left after just three pitches, all of them being balls.
Both of them going to the DL is going to hurt the bullpen. With Erick Threets coming off of the DL shortly, he is a likely candidate to take one of the two spots opened up. The other position is yet to be determined but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone like Randy Williams, Carlos Torres, or Lucas Harrell came up to fill a spot. There is also the possibility of claiming a pitcher off of waivers but with all the Manny Ramirez rumors that’s highly unlikely.
Since Thornton and Putz won’t be coming back before the roster expansions, this bullpen is going to look different for a while. Let’s just hope until they get back that it can hold itself together and keep the White Sox in playoff contention.
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Original Story:
http://www.whitesoxrant.com/2010/08/m...
