Pedro Strop Leaves with Knee Injury, MRI on Thursday
When Pedro Strop folded his left leg beneath him and slid to make a play in the top of the 8th Wednesday night, everything looked pretty routine. He stood up gingerly and took a few relatively normal looking steps toward the mound before performing a few partial squats.
But the replay showed that he’d gone down somewhat awkwardly he eventually had to be helped off the field.
Pedro Strop leaves game with a leg injury. Maybe knee. #Cubs pic.twitter.com/nHJTg9tXLF
— Aldo Soto (@AldoSoto21) August 11, 2016
Nothing much is known about the severity of the injury, though Joe Madfon confirmed that it’s to the left knee and that an MRI is scheduled for Thursday. At the risk of getting into deeper diagnostic waters than I probably should, this did not have the appearance of an ACL tear. It still leaves open all kinds of possibilities, though.
The emergence of Carl Edwards Jr and the imminent return of Justim Grimm from Iowa will help to mitigate a DL stint for Strop, but it’s really hard to replace a shut-down reliever like that. Maddon also said newly-acquired righty Joe Smith would absorb some of the extra innings in order to keep easing Edwards into those high-leverage situations.
The kid did pretty well Wednesday night, striking out Mike Trout and getting Albert Pujols and Andrelton Simmons to ground out to preserve the Cubs’ lead. It was a great performance, it just didn’t come under the most ideal circumstance. This, my friends, is why you can never have too many arms.
While we’re on the subject of extra arms and guys named Joe, what about Nathan, who cleared waivers and became a free agent on Monday. I have to think the Cubs are exploring their options with Strop likely to miss time and Hector Rondon listed as day-to-day with tricep soreness. Maddon downplayed any serious issues with the latter ailment, but an insurance policy sure would be nice.
There’s not much to do now but wait, so let’s hope the results are more like Jason Heyward’s than Kyle Schwarber’s.