Mariners pitcher Taijuan Walker underwent a MRI on Tuesday morning on his ailing right foot. The scan showed "no structural damage" according to manager Scott Servais. Walker will not start on Friday night, but a disabled list stint will likely not be needed.
DETROIT — Mariners pitcher Taijuan Walker will miss his next scheduled start, but the news Tuesday wasn’t all bad.
The hard-throwing right-hander underwent a MRI exam on his ailing right foot in Seattle, and it showed no structural damage, manager Scott Servais said.
“It’s just tendinitis,” Servais said.
Posterior tibial tendinitis was the original diagnosis for Walker when he was pulled from his start June 14 against the Rays because of pain in his right foot. After treatment for four days and a tape job to stabilize the foot, Walker started Sunday in Boston.
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But the pain returned after his first pitch and got progressively worse. He was lifted after five shutout innings. It’s a condition he dealt with earlier in the season, but this has been more persistent and painful.
“He’s still a little tender and a little sore; it looks like inflammation and tendinitis,” Servais said.
Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto said Walker will not start Friday night, but he likely won’t need to go on the disabled list.
If Walker can start Sunday or next Tuesday (the Mariners are off Monday), Servais and Dipoto could schedule a bullpen start Friday. They also could juggle the roster, call up a pitcher for a position player and play shorthanded for two days.
A bullpen day might be tricky considering how much the Mariners’ bullpen has been overused the past month.
“That would be great if we had bullpen available to do it for one day,” Servais said. “But with the way our starting pitching has gone, I think it’s been eight out 10 pitching five innings or less, it’s really hard to create that day. You feel better if you do have multiple, at least back-to-back, deeper outings by your rotation. Then it does afford you the opportunity to do that. I don’t have an issue with bullpen days at all. I’ve seen it work. I don’t want to make a habit of it. In a pinch, it can work.”
Perhaps if the Mariners were to get three consecutive long outings from James Paxton, Hisashi Iwakuma and Adrian Sampson, they could turn to the bullpen for a start. Mike Montgomery and Vidal Nuno have both started and could go three to four innings.
The other option would be to call up a pitcher from Class AAA Tacoma to make a spot start and option a position player like Shawn O’Malley to Tacoma and play shorthanded. That isn’t quite as simple as it sounds. Realistically, the Mariners would prefer to not have to make a move with their 40-man roster for a spot starter, meaning Donn Roach and Joe Wieland might not be viable options. The Mariners could place Charlie Furbush on the 60-day disabled list to make room, but that’s an option they could/shout be saving for other roster moves.
The only two starting pitchers on the Mariners’ 40-man are Cody Martin and the recently acquired Zach Lee. Martin pitched on Monday night for Class AAA Tacoma and threw seven innings. So he probably isn’t going to be called up to pitch on short rest. Lee last pitched on June 16. He could reasonably throw 2-3 innings on Tuesday or Wednesday as his “throw day” and be ready to go on Friday. Lee has made one big league start in his career.
FYI … Here’s the outings from the Mariners’ starting pitchers over the 24-game stretch where the team is 8-16.