Seranthony Dominguez placed on injured list; may require Tommy John surgery

The Philadelphia Phillies added an immense amount of talent this past offseason – Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Andrew McCutchen etc. But as the New York Mets have shown for the better part of the latter half of this decade, injuries don’t discriminate and can wreck the aspirations of any team.

Gabe Kapler will still pencil in an extremely talented lineup Friday night that includes Harper, Realmuto, Rhys Hoskins and Jean Segura, among others. But the offense’s catalyst, McCutchen, was lost for the season with a torn ACL earlier this week. And compared to the bullpen, the offense has been the picture of health.

The latest reliever to go down with an injury was Seranthony Dominguez, who suffered an arm injury in Wednesday’s victory over the San Diego Padres that forced him to leave the game in the eighth inning. Hector Neris ultimately came on to record a five-out save, but it appears that the bigger takeaway from that game may be the Dominguez injury.

The Phillies placed Dominguez on the 10-day injured list Friday with a UCL injury. Per John Clark of NBC Sports Philadelphia, that may just be the tip of the iceberg, as the 24-year-old righty will receive a second opinion on his injury, with season-ending Tommy John Surgery on the table.

Dominguez burst onto the scene in 2018, his rookie season, posting a 2.85 FIP and 1.3 fWAR in 53 games. While he hasn’t been able to replicate that success in 2019 – he has a 4.01 ERA and 3.96 FIP in 27 games this season – the feeling was still that he would need to play a major role if the Phillies were going to return to the postseason for the first time since 2011. Instead, it now appears entirely possible that Dominguez won’t pitch again this season.

If Dominguez were to miss the rest of the 2019 season, he would likely join Victor Arano, who had arthroscopic surgery on his pitching elbow last week. David Robertson, Pat Neshek and Tommy Hunter are making just shy of $27 million combined and are all on the injured list currently, with Hunter yet to pitch in 2019. Adam Morgan, who was in the midst of a breakout season, is also on the injured list, along with Edubray Ramos.

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