MLB Injury News and Analysis - Mar. 4

Now that we’re starting to get deeper into spring training and the World Baseball Classic clinic is on hand, I’m going to be providing more insight.  If you want to see exact injury history, check out my injury history tool.

J.D. Drew went back to Boston to get injections for problematic facet joints.  I admit the first thing I thought of after I heard Drew got an injection in his back, was well there goes the beginning of his season. 

Initial reports assumed that it was related to the herniated disc and presented it as such.  Therefore, it didn’t make sense to me to have him fly all the way back to Boston, putting more stress on the back the whole time, receive an injection to calm it down,  and fly back putting more stress on it again. 

Some light was thankfully shed on the situation during his chat with Amelie Benjamin on Boston.com, revealing that the injections were not directly for the disc issue but rather for the facet joints.

Facet Joint Syndrome is a set of symptoms resulting from irritation of the facet joints.  These include:

• Low Back pain
• Pain that increases with twisting or arching the body
• A deep, dull ache that radiates from the spine down the buttocks or the back of the thigh.
• Stiffness or difficulty with certain movements

Definitively diagnosing this requires an injection which Drew received a couple of days ago.  He received injections into the facets of L4, L5, and S1 (near the bottom of the spine) and is taking a few days off to let the medication run its course which is typical. 

Long term treatment of this syndrome involves posture correction, activity modification (such as different conditioning exercises),  physical therapy, and anti-inflammatory medication.

Johan Santana threw a 40+ bullpen session today and by all reports it was quite a good one. He insists that the tendinitis isn’t anything to worry about and I’d hope that the Mets don't force him to throw.  

There is some speculation that there is conflict between Johan and the new Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen.  I’m not ready to say that but there does seem to be some resistance from one to the other.  Johan says he’ll be ready but the Mets are still saying there’s a chance he’ll miss opening day.  I’m still keeping an eye on this and will let you know if I hear anything.

Justin Duchscherer received word that no structural damage was shown on his MRI. His elbow still doesn’t feel right so he’s going to get a second opinion from Dr. Yocum.   I would extremely hesitant to draft Duchscherer because of this. To me it appears that this is a cascade style injury but I do not have enough to prove that yet.

Adam Miller will be shut down for about 10 days due to soreness in his right middle finger. This could prove to cost him his spot in the bullpen to start the year.  He’s not fantasy relevant at this point.

Alex Rodriguez has a cyst in his right hip that was confirmed by MRI.  We found out today that he was dealing with some soreness in the same hip last year.  He’s heading out to Colorado to get a second opinion on it.

Mat Gamel will finally get some at-bats after dealing with his shoulder impingement.  Once the inflammation calms down, he should be fine.