Paul Maholm Mysteriously Goes On DL

Paul Maholm has been placed on the 15-day Disabled List with a strained shoulder. This will be his first stint on the DL in his career, which is pretty impressive. However, it looks to me like he really doesn't isn't very "disabled" at all.

Maholm made a start Wednesday night against the Cardinals, and despite getting hit around a little bit, looked perfectly healthy. His fastball velocity was down a little bit, but there was no reason to believe that he was injured after the start. Then on Thursday, Maholm played in a Pirates golf event. I don't know about you, but when I play golf, I use both of my shoulders pretty often.

So there are 2 options here. One option is that Paul strained his shoulder while playing golf. The other option is that he's not really hurt, the Pirates are just looking for a cheap way to get him some time off and lessen his workload as the season winds down.

My guess would certainly be the latter. Maholm has thrown a ton of innings this year (162.1 innings in 26 starts), which puts him on pace to throw right around 200 innings in a full season, which would be right up there with his career highs. Also, Maholm has been getting hit around a lot since the all-star break, so there might be some arm fatigue in the mix already. There aren't definite signs of that, but it's certainly a possibility. If the Pirates were still in the division race, I don't think that this DL trip would be happening.

This "injury" could also cost the Pirates a chance to trade Maholm. There have been talks about waiver trades and things with Maholm, which certainly make sense considering the team's current standing and the money they will have to give him this offseason, but those talks are pretty much thrown out the window now as Maholm will be sitting on the shelf for 2 weeks. Saying what I've said about this "injury" already, it looks like the Pirates still had no interest in trading Maholm, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them work a deal out with him this offseason.

The Pirates wanted to get Maholm some rest and it clearly can't hurt him, his last handful of starts have been really discouraging. They'll get to skip a couple starts for Paul and have him finish the season strong before figuring out what to do with him this offseason. Until then, expect Ross Ohlendorf to come up and make some major league starts again. Oh boy.