Reliever Matt Strahm will undergo surgery on his right knee next week, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports, and the southpaw is expected to be recovered in time for spring training. Strahm is looking to fix his right patellar tendon, three years after undergoing a procedure on his left patellar tendon. The right knee issues bothered Strahm throughout the season, Acee said, and led to an injured list stint in September.
Despite the injury, Strahm still had some effective bottom-line stats over 20 2/3 relief innings, posting a 2.61 ERA and 3.75 K/BB rate. With the caveat of a small sample size, the left-hander also posted a career-low (6.5 K/9) strikeout rate, and the lack of missed bats led to some unimpressive ERA predictors (4.93 FIP, 5.01 xFIP, 4.24 SIERA). It’s possible that between these numbers and any uncertainty over his knee situation, the Padres could look to non-tender Strahm, who is projected to earn between $1.6M-$1.9M in his second trip through the arbitration process.
On the other hand, the Padres might prefer to retain a member of their bullpen considering Trevor Rosenthal and Kirby Yates could depart in free agency, and Luis Perdomo will miss 2021 after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
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