Penny Heads to the 15-day DL, Stults Called up From Minors

Brad Penny’s MRI is back, and the verdict is “inflammation of the bursa sac and mild tendinitis in his right shoulder”. The Dodgers quickly placed Penny on the 15-day DL (retroactive to last Saturday) and tapped LHP Eric Stults from AAA Las Vegas. Penny was slated to start against the Indians next Friday, so Stults will likely pick up that spot on the pitching roster.

What do we know about Stults? For starters, he’s 5-6 with a 3.59 ERA through 14 starts for Las Vegas this season. He’s also made 7 starts for the Dodgers over the past two seasons, so he’s comfortable with playing a fill-in role for the team and has experience in the Majors. However, he got shelled early and often in 2007, delivering a 5.82 ERA and 1.73 WHIP over 38.2 innings with the Dodgers in 2007.

I wouldn’t hold out any hope that Stults will add anything special to the game on Friday, but given Penny’s latest performance he probably can’t do much worse.