Earlier this year when the Arizona rotation had been devastated by injuries to Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly, before Eduardo Rodriguez had made his team debut, and Jordan Montgomery was fumbling his way around the mound every five days, there was a sincere question how Ryne Nelson fit into the long-term plans. Nelson himself certainly didn’t help answer that question as he struggled his way to an unsightly 5.69 ERA and 1.57 WHIP in his first 13 starts of the season. There was some hope in the underlying secondary statistics as a .346 BABIP and 4.48 FIP demonstrated that there was some poor luck baked into those ugly topline results, but he still was likely ticketed for Reno were it not for the aforementioned injuries and regression elsewhere.
Thursday Tidbit: Nelson’s Ode
