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After being pulled from Tuesday night’s (Wednesday morning’s in most of our time zones) loss to the Oakland Athletics with a blister on his finger, Jake Odorizzi has been placed on the 10-day injured list:
Jake Odorizzi is going to the 10-day IL with the right middle finger blister. He could still pitch if needed, but the #MNTwins want to get ahead of it and have him fully ready for the second half. Zack Littell is being recalled from Triple-A Rochester.
— Do-Hyoung Park (@dohyoungpark) July 3, 2019
Consequentially, Odorizzi will miss the All-Star Game July 9, a game he was already unlikely to pitch in as he’d been scheduled to start Sunday against the Rangers.
To those who don’t follow baseball closely, if you think Odorizzi and the Twins are wusses for allowing a mere blister to land a pitcher on the IL: pitchers have to grip a ball with precision in order to throw it where they want, and if a pitcher can’t grip the ball correctly, he won’t be able to throw properly. Hence, even in the case of a small blister on the pitching hand, it’s better to take the player out of action to let his finger heal.
To fill the vacant spot on the active roster, Zack Littell, whose name produces more than a Littell number of puns, has once again been summoned from AAA-Rochester. Littell, who had been demoted June 26 to make room for Lewis Thorpe, has over 10.1 major league innings this season given up eight runs - all in soak-up-innings duty in that one trouncing by the Rays. In his other four appearances, Littell has given up just three hits in six innings, striking out seven and picking up a win.
It is not yet known who will start in Odorizzi’s place this Sunday, nor who will fill his spot on the All-Star Game roster.