Yency Almonte ‘Not Progressing’ in Shoulder Rehab

Maybe the answers won’t be internal after all. Yency Almonte has been on the IL for about seven weeks with a right shoulder strain and he’s going to be out for a while longer after feeling discomfort during a recent bullpen. Following a few shaky performances in the early going with the Cubs, the 30-year-old had settled in as a nice option and had a 3.45 ERA with 20 strikeouts and eight walks over 15.2 innings.

“We’re just not progressing,” Counsell told reporters on Monday. “We have to find out whether medically there’s something we have to address or we have to take a different path on the rehab.”

Almonte will seek a second opinion on the shoulder, which makes it sound like a question of whether or not he’ll need surgery to correct whatever’s going on. Even if he’s able to avoid a procedure, it’s reasonable to believe he’ll be out at least a few more weeks. That’s bad news either way for a bullpen that can’t seem to find any stability.

In other news, the recently DFA’d José Cuas was just claimed by the Blue Jays. Interestingly enough, the Royals have also option Nelson Velázquez to Triple-A after he batted .200 with a 78 wRC+ over 230 plate appearances. Even though KC still got the better end of the deal, things aren’t looking great for either side.