Nationals promote Erick Fedde to majors, Stephen Strasburg to disabled list

UPDATE (12:15 AM): Fedde is coming up because Strasburg is being placed on the 10-day disabled list, manager Dusty Baker told reporters. Baker noted that Strasburg will only miss one start.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
ORIGINAL: After Stephen Strasburg was forced out of Sunday’s contest with a nerve impingement that has since been alleviated, the Washington Nationals are calling up prospect Erick Fedde, according to Joel Sherman of the New York Post.

Strasburg left Sunday afternoon’s game after two innings with an injury that put his status for his next scheduled start in question. Despite reports of the injury clearing up, it appears that Fedde will likely start in his place against Colorado.

Fedde, 24, is the Nats’ third ranked prospect, and was ranked as high as no. 75 in all of baseball last season according to MLB Pipeline. He is currently the club’s highest rated pitching prospect.

However, he has struggled a bit in Triple-A in the rotation and in the bullpen going 1-1 with a 5.57 ERA in 10 outings, including four starts. Granted, he does have a small sample size of just 21 innings and maintains a respectable WHIP of 1.38, and his 4.23 FIP suggests his ERA is slightly inflated.

As for Strasburg, Nationals manager Dusty Baker told reporters he would take a “big-picture approach” to the injury, suggesting they may send him to the DL so he can recover now and be ready for the postseason push. Stasburg did play catch on Wednesday, but his status going forward is unclear. Strasburg is having a great year for Washington and made his third career All-Star appearance.

The Nationals were recently reported to being interested in Yu Darvish of the Rangers. For now, they will count on their young right-hander Fedde to make a start, presumably on Saturday.