• Injury information is being reported more frequently, but with fewer details. Make sure you check the spreadsheet at the bottom for the latest details as I wasn’t able to write a blurb on every player. If you want more information, click on the “Source with Link” date for the player’s latest article.

• Ryan Braun and David Wright look to be couple headaches for their owners in leagues with Weekly lineups. It has been reported each will not be playing full time and take days off when needed. The playing time in weekly leagues may drive an owner nuts. They may drive owners in daily lineup leagues also nuts, but, at least, those owners can move them out of the lineup if they aren’t playing. They may be bought on the cheap a month or two into the season when their owners are tired of dealing with them.

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• Tomorrow, March 25th, is the date when most players who start the season on the Disabled List get their DL stints backdated to. Being able to backdate the DL days means players can have shorter DL stints when the season starts.

• Andre Ethier will be out two to four months with a fractured leg.

Dodger’s outfielder Andre Ethier has a broken leg and will be sidelined 10-14 weeks. Ethier suffered the injury fouling a pitch off his leg on Friday.

Initial x-rays were negative, but continued pain led to a bone scan on Monday that revealed the right tibia fracture that the club announced Tuesday afternoon. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said the injury is not expected to require surgery.

“Obviously it’s a freakish injury,” Friedman said. “We’ll re-X-ray it in four to five weeks and to the extent it’s healing properly, it might be sooner. If not, it might be longer. The range is not incredibly precise.”

This move solidifies Joc Pederson in the outfield and may bring Carl Crawford and/or Scott Van Slyke off the bench.

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• Brad Boxberger will miss about eight weeks with a core injury (hernia).

News Friday that the nagging discomfort Brad Boxberger felt in his core area resulted in surgery to repair a muscle tear means the bullpen will be without its only experienced closer for at least the first six weeks of the season, and potentially into early June.

Which means to say hello to Alex Colome or Danny Farquhar or Steve Geltz or someone else who hasn’t done it much trying to protect ninth-inning leads for a team expecting to compete in the American League East.

It will be interesting to see who picks up the Saves in Tampa. In shallow leagues, I may stay away from the situation, but in deeper leagues where every Save is huge, I would take a chance on Colome.

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• Lance McCullers will start the season on the DL with a sore shoulder.

“There’s just not going to be enough time to build him up for the role in which we anticipate him doing,” manager A.J. Hinch said Wednesday morning. “I told him that this morning so he’d be assured he’s not trying to hit a deadline of Opening Day trying to impress anybody. We want him back healthy as soon as possible, but it’s not going to be Opening Day.”

McCullers has been sidelined since a March 6 throwing session. He reported soreness the following day, and when it didn’t subside quickly, an MRI was done. That MRI was clean, but McCullers still has some soreness and doesn’t know when he’ll resume throwing.

“We’re kind of taking it day by day,” McCullers said. “I’m feeling a lot better. It’s just up to the training staff and the team. They have my best interests in mind. We have the long-term goals in mind. I’m taking it day by day and going off what they say. It’s just getting all the soreness out.”

I am not surprised McCullers has an arm injury with four major injury factors (throws hard, throws a ton of breaking balls, unestablished starters, previous injury). I like his potential, but I may look to be selling once he comes back healthy.

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• It is an extra-long MASH Report today because I spent last week in Costa Rica. Much of the older injury news I will just give a small mention.

• Jhonny Peralta will be out 10-12 weeks with a torn thumb ligament.

It’s uncertain when Peralta will be able to return to normal baseball activities, but it likely won’t be for at least two months or more.

“I haven’t heard an exact date that I feel comfortable passing around, but that’s been kind of the earmark date, 10-12 weeks,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said Wednesday, prior to the Cardinals’ 7-2 loss to the Mets at Tradition Field. “There’s been some people who said even less, so we’ll wait and hear what the doctor says, when he thinks he can get back into activity and when he could likely be back to play.”

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• Jarrod Dyson is reportedly out for at least six weeks with a strained oblique

Royals outfielder Jarrod Dyson, expected to be the team’s Opening Day right fielder, left Wednesday’s Cactus League opener against the Rangers after two innings because of a strained right oblique.

Strains happen and it will be interesting to see if the Royals pick up a player or promote from within.

The one point of contention I have with injury articles is the estimated time lost. Earlier in the offseason, I created a tool which looks at the average disabled list time for injured players. For hitters with oblique injuries, the average time lost is 36 with a median value of 27 days.

Try to keep this tool in mind when hearing about player injury return times.

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On Tuesday, we had a mini-debate in the comments regarding the early season availability of Justin Turner. The Dodgers third baseman underwent microfracture surgery this winter, a procedure that often includes a winding path back to full time reps.

Early reports had Turner missing part of the regular season. More recently, it’s been said he’ll be “100 percent” by Opening Day. I have my doubts, but it got me thinking about how to value him in a fantasy draft. My thoughts on the subject don’t merit a full post. To make up for it, I’ll offer some opinions about Miguel Sano and Aroldis Chapman too.

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• I am not sure if Anibal Sanchez’s shoulder tendinitis will delay the start of his 2016 season. He is throwing off the mound right now with the possibility of returning in a week.

• Carter Capps chances of closing increased some with A.J. Ramos dealing with a strained calf. I still think Ramos has the inside track to be the closer if he can get back on the mound soon.

• I have been reporting that Tommy John surgery returners should be in the majors in about 14 months. It seems like the Braves are now looking at 16 months.

Instead of aiming to have Simmons back pitching on a rehab stint in about 12 months and back in the big leagues in 13-14 months, as they would have in the past, the Braves are aiming to have him back in the majors in May or June. That would be 15-16 months after his February 2015 surgery.

“I guess technically I’m healthy,” said Simmons, who has thrown a few times off the bullpen mound recently. “But they want to take me a little slower. They’re doing the new protocol that they’re going by, so we’re looking at about 14 months (before beginning a rehab assignment). I guess they just want to test it and see the success rates compared to the past.

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• The MASH report will be going bi-weekly from now until the season’s ends. I will not have any reports the week starting on March 7th as I will be on vacation.

• In last week’s MASH report I reported the first player was placed on the 60-day DL. Some confusion always exists around the 60-day DL, so here are the basics.

1. There is no requirement for a team to put any player on the 60-day DL. A player can be on the 15-day DL all season.
2. The reason for the 60-day DL is to open up a 40 man roster spot. Teams will wait to make this move when they have a need for an extra spot when a non-forty-man-roster rookie is called up to the majors or a free agent is signed. Not before. Five more players were added to the 60-day DL and each move was so the team could pick up an additional player.

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• Joe Mauer stated that since a 2013 concussion his vision has been affected.

Twins first baseman Joe Mauer told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that his vision has been affected by the concussion that ended his 2013 season, especially during day games, as the sun makes it tough for him to pick up the ball. Mauer’s offensive production has declined the past two seasons.

Mauer, who switched to first base in 2014 after sustaining the concussion from a foul tip while catching, is going to try something new this spring, as he’ll wear sunglasses while batting for the first time.
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The statistics seem to back up Mauer’s assertions, as Mauer hit .248/.316/.354 with three homers and 25 RBIs in 61 day games last year, but batted .276/.352/.396 with seven homers and 41 RBIs in 97 night games. He also struck out in 17.4 percent of his plate appearances during the day, but had a strikeout rate of 16.5 percent during night games.

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