Collateral Damage Daily for May 30

News comes in all shapes and sizes. Rarely does so much go on within a few days of one another like it has recently. Roy Halladay and Jered Weaver were both placed on the DL and could be lost for a significant amount of time, while Matt Kemp was activated as soon as he was eligible.

Adding to the hectic pace was Dustin Pedroia, who suffered a torn adductor muscle in his thumb earlier in the week. This is the same muscle that Kevin Youkilis injured in 2010 and required surgery on, but this injury is in a slightly different area. Instead of the injury being in the tendon as in the case of Youkilis, the injury is more in the muscle tissue itself and this has a better chance of healing on its own. It’s still not guaranteed to be the case, but Pedroia is going to see how he feels over the next day or so to see if a DL move is necessary. It seems to be a borderline case, but my gut feeling says he’s going to end up on the DL for several weeks in order to allow that thing to heal.

Additions

• One of the big pieces of news on Tuesday was Roy Halladay being placed on the DL with a right latissimus dorsi strain. This was something more than the mild shoulder soreness he first felt back during his May 22 start against the Nationals. It bothered him enough that it forced him to leave Sunday’s start after a few innings. It’s not the worst news that he could have gotten, though.
  
  Latissimus strains are difficult on a pitcher because of the great demands that it plays during pitching, particularly as an internal rotator and thus acts as an accelerator. Halladay hasn’t relied on his velocity as much as other players have, but he has been losing velocity at a slightly higher rate than we would expect. Whether this is directly related to his lat strain is unclear. What we know is that he was diagnosed with a grade I to grade II strain of the latissimus dorsi and he will be out an estimated six to eight weeks. Catcher Erik Kratz was brought up to take Halladay’s roster spot.
• It was clear watching Jered Weaver that something was wrong. After making a pitch Monday night, Weaver initially hopped around and tried to walk it off. The pain subsided just a bit—or the endorphins kicked in—but when Weaver threw a warm-up pitch he felt the pain again. His lower back was stabbing between a lumbar musculature strain, spasms, and inflammation near one of the discs. Weaver is eligible to return on June 12, but just watching him try and throw a pitch on Monday night puts that into serious doubt. Garrett Richards was brought up to take Weaver’s place in the interim.
• Justin Turner was the latest casualty in the MASH unit located in Shea Stadium’s infield. Turner was caught in a rundown when he twisted his right ankle at first base and immediately went down in pain. He needed to be helped off the field, but the Mets ruled out any significant ligament or tendon damage. The Mets have lots of problems at the shortstop position with Ruben Tejada and Ronny Cedeno both bothered with injuries. Omar Quintanilla was brought up to replace Turner on the roster.

Subtractions

• Endy Chavez was activated from the disabled list after missing 20 games because of an intercostal strain. Chavez played in three rehab games and managed three hits but wasn’t exactly lighting it up prior to going on the DL. Chavez wasn’t immediately placed into the lineup. Xavier Avery was sent down to Triple-A.
• Steve Clevenger was finally activated from the DL after spending over a month on it because of a strained oblique and sprained cartilage in his rib cage. Clevenger is set to get the majority of the time catching with injuries to Geovany Soto and Welington Castillo. The Cubs will have him ease a little bit back into the catching. Blake Lalli was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Clevenger.