Ironclads closer Julio Vasquez will miss at least the next two weeks after landing on the 15-day injured list with a strained right shoulder, the first significant setback for a bullpen the team spent the offseason rebuilding around him.
Vasquez recorded the final out of Sunday’s 4-3 win over a divisional rival, then immediately signaled to the training staff that he felt tightness in his throwing shoulder. An MRI on Monday revealed what the team described as a moderate strain of the muscles surrounding his right shoulder, and the Ironclads placed him on the 15-day injured list the same afternoon.
“We’re being conservative here on purpose,” General Manager Sandra Tolliver said. “This is a pitcher we fought to keep this winter because we believe in him for the long season, not just April. If that means he misses three weeks instead of two, that’s the trade we’re willing to make.”
Cade steps into the ninth
Manager Ray Delacroix said right-hander Desmond Cade, who signed with the Ironclads over the winter after posting a 2.31 ERA at a rival organization’s Triple-A affiliate, will take over the closer’s role for the duration of Vasquez’s absence. Cade has not blown a save chance through the season’s first three weeks in a setup capacity, and Delacroix said the promotion reflects the trust the staff has built in him early.
This is exactly the kind of moment we talked about all winter when we signed Desmond. You don’t build bullpen depth so you never have to use it. You build it because a night like Sunday is going to happen to some pitcher on your staff, and you need to already trust the next man up.
Ray Delacroix, Manager, Bellwater Ironclads
Cade said he has been preparing for the possibility of closing games since spring training, even while working primarily in a setup role during the team’s clean opening homestand. “Nothing really changes about my process,” he said. “The inning is different, but getting outs is getting outs. I’ve talked to Julio about it plenty this spring. He’s been nothing but supportive.”
Reinforcements from the farm
To fill the open roster spot, the Ironclads called up right-hander Nestor Villalobos from the organization’s Double-A affiliate, where he had posted a 1.87 ERA in relief appearances this season. Delacroix said Villalobos will work primarily in middle relief while the staff sorts out its late-inning options behind Cade.
“He’s earned this chance with how he’s pitched, not because we’re desperate,” Delacroix said of Villalobos. “We wouldn’t have called him up if we didn’t think he could get big-league-caliber hitters out right now.”
The injury arrives just as the Ironclads’ bullpen had begun drawing attention around the league for its clean start, a stretch detailed after the team’s opening homestand when the relief corps did not blow a single save chance. Delacroix said he does not want Vasquez’s absence to unravel that momentum, even if it forces the staff to lean on less experienced arms sooner than planned.
Vasquez, for his part, said the timing is frustrating given how the season had started, both for him personally and for a bullpen he felt had turned a corner after last September’s collapse. “You never want to be the reason the story changes,” he said. “But I’d rather miss two or three weeks now and come back strong than push through something and be a problem in August.”
Tolliver said the team does not anticipate needing to make a corresponding trade or free-agent addition during Vasquez’s absence, citing the early performance of both Cade and the bullpen as a group. She said the front office will reassess Vasquez’s timeline after his 15-day minimum passes, based on how his throwing program progresses.
“We built this bullpen to survive exactly this kind of setback,” Tolliver said. “Nobody wants to see Julio on the injured list. But if there’s a silver lining, it’s that we’re finding out in April, not September, whether the depth we added over the winter is real.”
Vasquez said this is the first significant arm injury of his professional career, and that he spent Monday’s exam more frustrated than worried once the training staff explained the strain was not the kind that typically requires surgery. “My first thought was the worst-case scenario, honestly,” he said. “Once they walked me through the scans and told me it’s a strain and not something structural, I felt a lot better. Now it’s just about being patient, which isn’t usually my strong suit.”
The Ironclads play 11 of their next 15 games against teams currently occupying playoff position in the standings, a stretch Delacroix acknowledged arrives at an inconvenient moment for the bullpen to be shuffling roles. He said the coaching staff has spent extra time this week reviewing matchup data with Cade and Villalobos to prepare both for high-leverage innings against unfamiliar lineups.
“We don’t get to pick when a schedule gets hard,” Delacroix said. “It’s hard right now, and we’re going to be without our closer for at least part of it. That’s the job. You adjust and you trust the guys you’ve got.”