J.J. Hoover placed on DL, Rubby De La Rosa recalled

Diamondbacks relief pitcher J.J. Hoover had been experiencing discomfort in his right shoulder long enough to know something wasn’t quite right. After pitching an inning on Thursday in Denver against the Rockies, the Diamondbacks decided to get to the bottom of it.

On Friday, the team placed the right-hander on the 10-day disabled list with shoulder inflammation and promoted right-hander Rubby De La Rosa from Triple-A Reno to take his spot in the bullpen. De La Rosa has been fighting his way back from his own arm problems, recovering from a torn elbow ligament that forced him to miss most of all of last season.

“I’m great. I’m 100 percent ready to go,” De La Rosa said.

De La Rosa, who had been a starting pitcher for most of his career, has worked entirely out of the pen this season. Between stints at Class A Visalia and Reno, he posted a 1.96 ERA over 17 appearances with 25 walks against just four walks. He did not allow a run over his last eight outings for Reno.

He’ll be eased into his relief role here, manager Torey Lovullo said.

“Rubby will be asked to come into the game in some low-leverage situations,” Lovullo said. “We’re going to integrate him slowly the best that we can. Obviously, things change based on the needs of the game, but for right now, we’re going to make sure we don’t ask him to do anything more than he’s ready to do.

“I think there’s a natural tendency to get back to this level that he’s worked so hard to get back to and maybe do too much. And we don’t want that to be the case. We want him to be integrated as simply and as seamlessly as possible.”

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De La Rosa said he’s had no issues at all with his elbow and was fortunate to avoid undergoing surgery. He stuck to his rehab, and that’s what allowed him to have success in Reno.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely,” De La Rosa said. “Everything feels good. My arm, body, mental – everything feels good and normal.”

As for Hoover, he had been trying to tough out his shoulder problem, but it was determined he needs to take a break and give it some rest.

“Something has been nagging and bothering him, and he’s been trying to grind through it and continue to work and pitch and do the things that we’re asking him to do,” Lovullo said, “but we just figured it was the best thing for him at this moment to let him get ahead of things.”

Lovullo couldn’t say if 10 days will be long enough for Hoover to get healthy. There are some concerns it could be an extended stay on the DL.

“It’s hard to say at this time,” Lovullo said. “It’s going to be a little time down to get some strength, rest his shoulder and get some strength back in that area. That’s the most important thing right now.”

In another roster move, the Diamondbacks designated catcher Oscar Hernandez for assignment, meaning they have 10 days to trade him, release him outright or re-sign him to a minor-league deal should he clear waivers.

Delgado gets starting nod

Lovullo said there is absolutely nothing wrong with Taijuan Walker and that the right-hander hasn’t developed any more blister issues on his finger.

Walker, however, is having his scheduled start skipped this weekend and will be replaced by reliever Randall Delgado, who did an admirable job when asked to fill in for Walker in recent weeks.

“We’re going to ask Randall to step in on Sunday and start a game, which is going to enable us to give extra rest to guys,” Lovullo said. “We have to remember how important this group of five, six guys that are our starting pitchers are and how important rest is to them. We’re going to ask them to perform at this level all the way through the end of September, and as an organization, we believe in rest and this will give guys that extra time.”

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Short hops

• Center fielder A.J. Pollock was scratched from his scheduled rehab game Friday with Reno and, instead, went through an aggressive work day on and off the field. The plan now is for him to back off of activity on Saturday and play for Reno on Sunday if all goes well. Pollock is on the disabled list with a groin strain but recently had a setback when he also suffered a tight right quad.
• Catcher Chris Herrmann is dealing with an issue in his right hand that seems to affect him the most when he’s batting. He is scheduled to start Saturday’s game and catch Robbie Ray. “I had a small conversation with him today and he said he feels OK,” Lovullo said Friday. “It’s just from time to time, he’ll take a swing and it gets his attention.”
• Left fielder Yasmany Tomas (right groin) is making improvements and took batting practice with the team on Friday, in addition to doing some base-running progressions and some fielding work. There is no timetable for his return, however.

Reach McManaman at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @azbobbymac and listen to him live every Wednesday night between 7-9 on Fox Sports 910-AM on The Freaks with Kenny and Crash.