This afternoon the Phillies announced that Aaron Harang has been placed on the 15 day disabled list with a bout of plantar faciitis. Conveniently, Chad Billingsley is ready to rejoin the club and has been activated to take Harang's spot in the rotation.
No word from the Phillies on whether the foot inflammation is related to his recent ERA inflammation, though there is this:
Check out @matt_mullin's Tweet:
Harang told us after last night's game that despite losing eight straight starts, he felt fine and wasn't hurt... https://t.co/wWlkMw8Z7j
— Matt Mullin (@matt_mullin) July 2, 2015
As with all single inputs into an interpretive cycle, Harang's statement can cut either against the claim that the foot has caused his poor performance or for it. Given the background norms of competitive athletics, however, I give no credence to Harang's report. It is far more likely that the Phillies asked Harang to pitch through it, if he felt he could, than that the team discovered an injury he didn't even know he had. And the sudden changes in his peripherals during June support, albeit inconclusively, that something was wrong with Harang. His K% dropped 4 points, his BB% increased by 3 (i.e., almost doubled), and his HR/FB% sky-rocketed. All of this could be just a matter of chance and regression from his outlierish performance earlier in the year. But his June has been bad even by Harang's recent career standards. So, I think we have reason to hope that in two weeks Harang will return to the rotation and be better than he was in June. Harang will then have a handful of starts to convince clubs in playoff races that he is healthy and able to shore-up the back-end of their rotations down the stretch. Given that the injury is not to his arm, I doubt the injury will turn-off would be trade-partners. In fact, the time-off might make them more confident that he'll be good for them late in the season.
In the meantime, adding Chad Billingsley to the rotation only makes a) tanking that much easier and b) the bullpen that much more fearful for their ligaments.