Collateral Damage Daily for April 30

There were a lot of injuries this weekend, but only one made headline news in every market. Ryan Zimmerman went on the disabled list and Bryce Harper was brought up, highlighting how injuries can affect teams in the short and long term. Zimmerman’s production will be missed, but the more sinister effect is Harper’s service clock. If they could have waited a little while longer, the Nationals would have had him under control for another year.

Additions

• Ryan Zimmerman has been battling injuries for what seems like an eternity, though he has only been on the disabled list twice before. Zimmerman was diagnosed with inflammation in his right AC joint after diving several times to makes plays over the last homestand. He hasn’t been diagnosed with a mild separated shoulder, although diving onto the shoulder multiple times is a prime example for the mechanism of injury. Regardless, the shoulder is really limiting Zimmerman while hitting, and AC joint injuries can make for a slow, painful recovery, especially once it swells or becomes inflamed. It sets off a vicious cycle that can lead to early arthritis or frayed rotator cuff tendons. Bryce Harper is sure to get a good amount of playing time at least until Zimmerman returns.
• Jesse Crain was placed on the disabled list with a strained left oblique; he’s the first White Sox player to hit the disabled list this season. Crain suffered a right oblique strain in spring training, but his current injury is in a different area. Crain injured himself during a strength and conditioning session a little over a week ago. These two injuries show that something is amiss in his core, whether it be pure muscle weakness or dysfunction in the kinetic chain. Even though he threw a bullpen session over the weekend and reportedly felt well, the White Sox are still going to keep him away from throwing again for at least a few days. Crain was placed on the DL retroactive to April 21. Of course, history shows that oblique strains could take over two months for a pitcher to return, but that’s unlikely for Crain. Dylan Axelrod will take Crain’s roster spot.
• Jeremy Hermida was placed on the disabled list, but there is some haziness in terms of what, exactly, is injured. Some reports say Hermida is suffering from a strained hip flexor, but many others are saying it’s a groin—adductor—strain. This confusion can be expected in some cases when the strained portion of the groin is very close to the body and not more distally onto those tendons you can feel on the inside aspect of your thigh. He doesn’t have a significant history of groin or hip flexor strains, but any time there is pain in the extreme lower abdominal or proximal groin, there has to be some concern for a sports hernia. Outfielder Blake Tekotte was called up to replace Hermida.
• Kyle Weiland was placed on the disabled list with bursitis in his throwing shoulder, something that has been slowly getting worse over the season’s first month. Weiland, like every pitcher, has dealt with shoulder inflammation before, and the hope was that skipping a start would be enough to calm the inflammation. Unfortunately, bursitis in the pitching shoulder almost always take more than a week to heal, so Weiland was placed on the disabled list retroactive to April 22. Jordan Lyles was brought to replace Weiland.
• Rafael Perez was placed on the disabled list with a strained latissimus dorsi muscle after concerns regarding his drop in velocity. He already missed time in spring training because of shoulder inflammation, and his control has also been affected with most of his pitches. Latissimus strains can keep pitchers out for a good amount of time, and the Indians expect Perez to be out between four and six weeks. Nick Hagadone was brought up to take Perez’s roster spot.
• Brad Lidge suffered a strained abdominal wall after his last appearance nine days ago. Similar to other cases, his soreness has been ongoing but has not improved. Lidge has strained his oblique before but reportedlyhas never felt anything like this. What concerns me is that he is also due to see a specialist in Philadelphia, suggesting that he could be dealing with something more serious, like a sports hernia. I haven’t been able to confirm who Lidge will be seeing, but Dr. William Meyers is the surgeon located in Philadelphia who specializes in athletic pubalgia/sports hernia surgeries and performed Ryan Zimmerman’s abdominal muscle surgery last year. In the meantime, Ryan Perry has been called up to take Lidge’s roster spot, but it will be Henry Rodriguez closing out games until Drew Storen comes back from elbow surgery.
• Steven Clevenger strained his right oblique during batting practice before Friday’s game and was placed on the disabled list over the weekend. He’s never suffered an oblique injury before but will likely be out more than the minimum. With Geovany Soto’s back acting up again, the Cubs called up Welington Castillo from Triple-A Iowa and expect him to get plenty of playing time.
• There are just some injuries to pitchers that you couldn’t imagine happening and can’t factor into any sort of prediction analysis. Jeremy Guthrie spraining his right shoulder after his bicycle chain broke, causing him to fall, is one of those injuries. Any injury to a pitcher's arm is concerning for compensation injuries, so Colorado is unlikely to push Guthrie too fast. The good news is that he lightly threw before being placed on the disabled list, so it does not appear to be a severe injury. He is eligible to return on May 8. Guillermo Moscoso was called up to fill Guthrie’s roster spot.
• The Nationals’ injury woes continued over the weekend when Mark DeRosa was placed on the disabled list with a left oblique strain. While DeRosa has missed a lot of time because of injuries, none of it has been due to his oblique. He first felt pain in the area around mid-week, and the pain worsened during outfield drills on Saturday. During batting practice, DeRosa knew he injured something, and subsequent testing revealed the strained oblique. The Nationals brought up Tyler Moore to replace DeRosa, who may end up missing a significant amount of time.

Subtractions

• Tim Hudson was activated from the disabled list on Sunday after fully recovering from surgery on a herniated disc last November. He threw 96 pitches and came away with the win even though he only went five innings. Hudson was happy that he was able to come back from surgery without setbacks, unlike his recovery from Tommy John surgery, but that doesn’t mean he was happy with his pitching performance. To make room for Hudson, the Braves optioned Cory Gearrin to the minors.
• The Red Sox activated Rich Hill from the disabled list on Friday as he completed his rehab from last June’s Tommy John surgery. He was ahead of schedule by a few weeks and hopes to help shore up a Boston bullpen that has been atrocious. Justin Thomas was sent to Pawtucket.
• Bobby Cassevah was activated from the disabled list on Friday and was optioned to the minors. The inflammation in his shoulder settled down enough to make it through the rehab stint, but it doesn’t change the fact that he has a small labral tear in his shoulder. It also doesn’t change the fact the he had over a six ERA in the minors during his rehab assignment. It’s true teams are more concerned with getting people healthy through their rehab, but they also like to see pitchers get hitters out. Cassevah will likely return to the majors once he gets things figured out.
• Calf strains heal fairly predictably, so Andres Torres will be activated today. He essentially the entire first month of the season. Torres will likely head back to center field, but with Kirk Nieuwenhuis—I have to set that up for autocorrect—making highlight plays in the outfield, nothing is guaranteed. Zach Lutz was optioned to the minors.
• Todd Coffey’s knee inflammation settled down fairly quickly, so he was activated from the disabled list and Nathan Eovaldi was optioned to clear a roster spot. If he pitches like he did prior to the disabled list, the Dodgers may wish they could keep him on there even longer.