Matt Garza was just pulled, out of nowhere, from his start against the Cardinals. There wasn’t an obvious injury, but he was pulling on his forearm a bit. He didn’t look too happy to be pulled, and he was pitching quite well.
Your immediate assumptions are (1) injury, or (2) trade. Hopefully if it’s number 1, this is just a precautionary type of thing.
Obviously this is a developing story, so we’ll have more as soon as it comes out.
UPDATE: All the beat writers say it “appears” that the removal was injury related. I’m trying not to panic, because it certainly didn’t look serious.
UPDATE 2: If it is an injury (heaven forbid, and let’s hope it’s just cramps), there’s no real reason to be mad at the Cubs. Unlike the Dempster situation, there was no reasonable excuse for holding Garza back tonight. We’ve no reason to believe a trade was close, and Garza actually could theoretically improve his value slightly. This, if it proves to be an injury, was just really, really, really bad luck.
UPDATE 3: I’m allowing myself a little bit of panic. Even if the removal was merely precautionary, and even if it’s just cramps, if you’re a team considering giving up two or three of your very best prospects for Garza, aren’t you having second thoughts right about now?
UPDATE 4: It’s not a trade, according to sources. Now we just have to hope it’s not a serious injury. Like, we have to hope it’s cramps so light that Garza thinks it’s insane that he was pulled.
UPDATE 5: By the way, the only reason it takes this long to announce the injury is because the front office wants to make sure they describe the circumstances PERFECTLY.
UPDATE 6: He was pulled due to “cramping in the right triceps.” The Cubs took x-rays as a precaution (x-rays?), they were negative, and he’s listed as day-to-day. He’ll soon be re-evaluated. Obviously this will be a HUGE story over the next few days.