• Not a lot of movement to and from the DL over the weekend, but there was a bunch of injury updates to the spreadsheet.

• Stephen Strasburg is out with a sore back. Let him tell you how he did it.

Strasburg was scheduled to start on Sunday’s eventual 3-2 win over the Brewers, but his back problems flared up during warmups Saturday. He revealed that he popped two ribs out of place during a weight-training mishap last week, causing the back problems. Strasburg acknowledged it was hard to breathe with the ribs out of place. A chiropractor later fixed the issue.

“I was out there running. I don’t know why. It flared back up. I tried to get it adjusted. It was the first rib that caused the tightness,” Strasburg said. “I had it adjusted today [by a chiropractor]. I have to keep my fingers crossed.

WHAT !?!?!? Just a couple of ribs … they just popped out. It seems like he won’t miss much time though.

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• The Rangers rotation is a mess right now. Yu Darvish is already down with some shoulder discomfort. Colby Lewis is now out a couple months with a strained lat muscle.

Rangers pitcher Colby Lewis is expected to miss up to two months with a strained lat muscle in the back of his right shoulder.

The injury showed up during an MRI on Wednesday. The Rangers originally thought Lewis was dealing with soreness in the right triceps area, but the examination showed it was a problem with the lat muscle.

So with two starters on the shelf, the Rangers decided to also put Derek Holland on the DL with an inflamed shoulder he has dealt with for a bit.

The Rangers placed left-hander Derek Holland on the 15-day disabled list with left shoulder inflammation ….

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• J.D. Martinez is expected to be out four to six weeks with a fractured elbow.

The Tigers lost right fielder J.D. Martinez when he suffered a non-displaced fracture of his right elbow hitting a wall while chasing a fly ball in the right-field corner at Kauffman Stadium in the second inning. According to Tigers manager Brad Ausmus, Martinez is expected to be out four to six weeks.

• Jose Bautista is on the DL with a hyperextended toe.

Jose Bautista will travel to Charlotte, N.C., on Monday to undergo further tests on his injured left big toe. After that, the Blue Jays should be able to provide a timetable for his return.

Bautista was placed on the 15-day disabled list Friday afternoon with a hyperextended toe. The Blue Jays seem confident he does not have a fracture, but further examinations are required before that can be known for sure.

The veteran slugger is expected to undergo a stress X-ray and possibly a CT scan to determine the exact nature of his injury. The tests also should be able to tell whether there is any damage to the ligaments in Bautista’s left foot.

It looks like we will find out more information on the injury’s extent tomorrow.

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• Yu Darvish is headed back to the DL with shoulder and neck tightness.

Darvish had made just three starts in his return from Tommy John surgery before beginning to feel the discomfort. He left his most recent start, on Wednesday, after five innings and continued to experience tightness over the weekend in Seattle.
…
“There were no acute findings in either MRI, which is a good thing,” general manager Jon Daniels said. “Nothing structural that was a cause for concern. Yu still has a level of discomfort, so we are going to put him on the DL and give him time to recover.”

I am not surprised to see Darvish back on the DL. It seems like most pitchers coming back from TJS initially struggle to stay healthy.

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• Felix Hernandez got some bad news. He will not be back for four to six weeks.

The team initially hoped that Hernandez, who is 4-4 with a 2.86 ERA in 10 starts, would miss only two starts after being placed on the disabled list June 1. But Hernandez told ESPN’s Marly Rivera on Saturday that while the second MRI showed improvement, the Mariners’ medical director, Dr. Edward Khalfayan, wants him to rest the calf for four to six weeks.

“I have already been [on] the DL about 12 days, so those days are included [in the 4-6 weeks],” Hernandez said, adding that he expects to be throwing again before the team returns from its next road trip on June 24.

This update sucks for Hernandez owners.

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• Jorge Soler is on the DL with a strained hamstring.

Soler sustained the injury running to first base on a third-inning single in Monday’s win over the Phillies. The Cubs don’t know the exact severity of the strain and will find more out as he begins to rehab the injury.

I am amazed at the number of hamstring injuries this month which currently stands at 10. Since 2009, the only months with double-digit totals for hamstring injuries were the colder Aprils and Mays. We still have 21 days to add to the total.

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• Hunter Pence will be out eight weeks with a torn hamstring.

Giants right fielder Hunter Pence is expected to undergo surgery to remove a torn right hamstring tendon, which could sideline one of San Francisco’s top run producers for approximately eight weeks.

The Giants are still consulting physicians about their medical options with Pence, who injured himself while sprinting to first base in Wednesday night’s 5-4, 11-inning loss at Atlanta. Head athletic trainer Dave Groeschner said Friday that until those discussions have ended, the Giants won’t officially declare that Pence will need surgery.

However, Groeschner said, “I think we’re headed in that direction.”

Even the typically upbeat Pence indicated surgery appeared imminent.

I could make a case in shallow leagues with short benches that Pence is now droppable.

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• Felix Hernandez will likely miss a few starts on the DL with a strained calf.

“Right now I’m hopeful that it’s only a couple starts and we can get him back as soon as pos-sible,” Servais said before Wednesday’s game. “I’m trying to keep the glass half full and stay positive. Hopefully he’ll have a little extra left in his tank at the end of the year because he’s getting a little breather now. But it has nothing to do with his arm. It’s all related to the calf.”

Hernandez was examined in Seattle on Wednesday by Mariners physician Ed Khalfayan. If the injury proves to be very minor, Hernandez potentially will miss only two starts, since the DL move is retroactive to Saturday — the day after his most recent start. He will be eligible to return on June 12, which is the final day of the Mariners’ next homestand.

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• Troy Tulowitzki looks to miss the minimum DL time with a strained quadriceps.

The veteran shortstop underwent an MRI on Saturday morning, with the results showing a low-grade strain, and Tulowitzki believes he will be back in the lineup after the mandatory 15-day period.

I am not 100% sure Tulo has an injury, but he could definitely use the break to get himself back together.

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• I am going to recomend a couple must-read articles for the week which look at the differences and “results” of stem cell and platelet rich plasma (PRP) injections. The first one starts with the Angels Garrett Richards and Andrew Heaney choice to use them, but ends up being a great overview of the entire subject.

On May 2, Steve H. Yoon, a physician at the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Southern California, extracted stem cells from Andrew Heaney’s bone marrow and injected them into the damaged ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow. Fourteen days later, Yoon did the same with Garrett Richards.
Now the Angels’ two best, most promising starting pitchers are left to wait, and hope.

If the stem-cell therapy works, Heaney and Richards will be lined up to pitch for a full season in 2017 and may even be able to contribute toward the end of this very summer. If it doesn’t, they will undergo Tommy John surgery that, at this point, is certain to knock them out until the start of 2018.

The second article is a study by the American Journal of Sports Medicine which found “no significant” positive effect for using PRP injections.

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