Month: March 2023

Yankees pitcher Carlos Rodon will start the 2023 season on the injured list due to a left forearm muscle strain. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Rodon underwent an MRI on Wednesday that revealed a mild strain of the left brachioradialis, a superficial forearm muscle, similar to the injury he suffered last year while with the Giants. Said Cashman: “The finding was something, but not significant or serious Obviously, trying to pitch through stuff is not a good thing, especially this time of year. If this was in-season — pennant race, late in the game — he’s still probably up and running. He had this last May with the Giants, and he didn’t miss any time with it.”

Rodon underwent Tommy John surgery in 2019. Cashman said that Rodon will rest for 7-10 days, and that all imaging showed the left-hander’s ulnar collateral ligament was intact. Said Cashman: “You just have to prevent looking at the calendar and force-feeding it and speeding the process up because you feel the outside pressure of it’s a new organization, fan base, stuff like that. [Rodon] understands that. He’s a pro. But like anything else, it’s the human nature of, ‘I want to get out there and pitch. When I was dealing with him, he’s like, ‘I dealt with this in May, and it didn’t stop me.’ But it’s not May, it’s March, and we don’t want to play this into something different.”

Rodon said: “last year, it [the injury] popped up early in May, the first time I ever felt it in my forearm, the top of my forearm Worked with some people, did some treatments, luckily. I woke up, it was my fifth day getting ready to pitch … and I felt nothing. Arms can be so finicky, so you never know what route it’s going to take. In May I felt fine. I didn’t miss a start. It’s just kind of early to throw through things right now. … Like, if it’s Oct. 5 or it’s the ALDS, I’m taking the ball and going to pitch.” Rodon added that he “hoped it [his recovery] would go fairly quickly … But as you know, some of these things take time. “I’m hoping it goes by quick, but you know how injuries go — you never know what happens down the road.”

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The New York Jets to a trade with the Baltimore Ravens, with NY acquiring safety Chuck Clark from Baltimore in exchange for a seventh-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. ESPN and the NFL Network reported the trade news on Thursday afternoon.

The 27-year-old Clark joined the Ravens as a sixth-round pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, spending the last six seasons in Baltimore. Clark, a former Virginia Tech star, only missed one game with the Ravens and started every game for the team over the last three seasons. He logged a career-high 101 combined tackles, four passes defensed, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery in 17 starts in 2022-23.

Clark signed a three-year, $15.3 million contract extension in 2020. and is set to become an unrestricted free agent next off-season.

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The Jacksonville Jaguars announced on Wednesday they have officially released veteran cornerback Shaquill Griffin. The release of Griffin clears $13,147,059 in salary cap space, however, the Jaguars reportedly made an attempt to trade Griffin before announcing his release Wednesday.

The 28-year-old Griffin  spent his first four seasons in Seattle before joining the Jaguars during the 2021 offseason on a three-year, $40 million contract. A back injury limited Griffin to just five games during the 2022 season, where he struggled and allowed a 125.0 passer rating. After he was placed on injured reserve in October, Griffin was unable to return before the end of the season and was replaced in the lineup by a couple players before Darious Williams took on the role.

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Calvin Ridley was officially reinstated by the NFL on Monday following an indefinite suspension that lasted one year for gambling on NFL games. Now in a letter posted on The Players’ Tribune on Wednesday, the Jaguars wide receiver apologized and opened up about his gambling suspension that caused him to miss the entire 2022 NFL season. Ridley also said that he had been battling depression and anxiety, which led him to betting on games.

Ridley wrote that when he gambled on the game, he was “in a dark moment” and “made a stupid mistake.” He said: “I f—ed up … I’m not here to sugarcoat anything. In 2021, I made the worst mistake of my life by gambling on football.” Ridley said he battled anxiety and was depressed, particularly as he dealt with injuries. Ridley played through 2020 with a broken foot and dealt with bone spurs during his first two seasons in the league with the Falcons.

Ridley said it was because of his love of the game that he wanted to explain his story about what happened when he gambled. He said:“I was just doing it [gambling] to root on my boys, basically. I didn’t have any inside information. I wasn’t even talking to anybody on the team at the time. I was totally off the grid. Whenever people ask, ‘What were you thinking?’ The only answer I can give is, ‘I wasn’t … When you’re depressed, you’re not thinking about anything in the future. You’re just trying to get through the day.” He described his meeting with NFL investigators as “probably the worst day of my life …But honestly, maybe I had to go through all of it. Maybe I had to hit rock bottom so I could get healthy.”

Now that he is reinstated, Ridley is set for his first season with the Jaguars after he was traded from the Falcons to Jacksonville in November. He thanked the Jaguars, and said: “Football saved my life. It’s still my purpose. I still love it, maybe now more than ever.”

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