• Well, I am back from my vacation and ready to dive into some injury news. I may be brief on some players as some news on them is almost two weeks old. Make sure to check the spreadsheet for the latest information. Today, I will be heavy on belated news and on Thursday, I will run some my PAIN and HURT reports since not as many players expect to get hurt over the All-Star break.

• Steven Matz will be out for over a month with a torn lat muscle. He will not throw at all for three weeks and then will need to build up his strength.

Matz will miss his scheduled start Sunday against the D-backs and refrain from throwing for three weeks.

It may take him another 3 weeks to get back up to speed. Don’t be surprised if it is late August or early September when he finally rejoins the Mets.

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• Heads up, I am off for a long vacation in the Rockies with limited to no internet access, so no MASH Reports next week.

Today is “Activate Your Injured Pitcher from the DL” Day.

• The big name coming off the DL will be Jose Fernandez. Players coming back from Tommy John surgeries usually struggles with command when they return. At the Hardball Times, I reported the following:

The first season back from Tommy John is by far the worst for the pitcher, with all major stats headed in the wrong direction. By the second year, most stats have stabilized, except strikeouts. It’s not surprising to see strikeouts decline, since velocity is also declining.

Besides a drop in production, Fernandez will likely have his innings limited.

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• Dustin Pedroia was just placed on the DL with a strained hamstring. Currently, there is no news on a possible return date.

• Freddie Freeman was eventually forced to the DL because of his bruised wrist. He could be out for as long as two months.

While the Braves and Freeman were comforted that Monday’s MRI exam showed no structural damage, there is uncertainty regarding how long he will be sidelined with the bone bruise. The veteran first baseman would be eligible for activation July 3. But as of Tuesday, it would be optimistic to assume he could return on that date.

“We’ve had a couple of those [bone bruises] and it takes a while,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said.

The Braves filled Freeman’s roster spot by recalling Joey Terdoslavich, who was sidelined for nearly two months after he suffered a bone bruise when he landed awkwardly on his left wrist during a March 21 Grapefruit League game.

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• Freddie Freeman will have an MRI today to see what exactly is wrong with his wrist which has cost him to miss four straight games.

“[My wrist] is not worse, it’s just not getting better,” Freeman said. “I really don’t have an answer until I can maybe get an X-ray or an MRI. I just want to know what is wrong.”

Freeman is expected to undergo an MRI on Monday, before the Braves travel to Washington, D.C., for a three-game series against the Nationals that begins on Tuesday.

• Jered Weaver is on the DL in with an inflamed hip.

Weaver allowed four earned runs over 5 2/3 innings in a loss to the A’s on Saturday, but he said the hip injury did not have any effect on his performance. He has given up 19 runs in his last four starts, all losses.

Well, at least we will know he will continue to suck once he comes back since the injury wasn’t causing the loss in production.

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• Jose Fernandez is scheduled to join the Marlins rotation on July 2nd.

Fernandez is scheduled to make two more rehab starts, on June 22 with Jupiter and on June 27 with Double-A Jacksonville.

After that, the 22-year-old will return to Miami’s rotation on July 2.

• Corey Dickerson is back on the DL with his plantar faciitis.

As for now, his immediate future remains cloudy. Dickerson said he’ll be back in a walking boot, but that surgery still isn’t being considered. Weiss, however, said he has “no idea” when Dickerson will return.

“It did feel better after awhile, but after I played a couple games in Miami, it just didn’t recover as well.” Dickerson said. “It’s kind of that back-and-forth. It feels good one day and hurts the next. It won’t get better until it has time to rest.

“When you have tears or whatnot in your plantar fasciitis, you have to let it scar-tissue over and let it heal. But I just didn’t really have enough time to do that.”

This injury just never seems to clear up. If I owned him in a keeper league and an in the hunt for first, I may look to move him to a non-contending team for a more reliable player.

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• Aaron Sanchez is on the DL with a lat strain, but he may miss just the minimum 15-days.

• Ryan Zimmerman will be out until his plantar fasciitis quits bothering him.

“It’s pretty typical plantar fasciitis,” manager Matt Williams said before Thursday night’s game against the Brewers. “It’s not getting any better. Over the last three or four games, it’s just real-ly bothering him.”

Williams said the key for Zimmerman now is to stay off the injured foot.

“Right now, it’s total rest,” Williams said. “So he’ll get off of it for a few days and not push it too hard. Let it calm down. Hopefully in 15 [days], he’s ready to go. Generally, when it’s gone, it’s gone.”

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• Andrew Miller is on the DL with an elbow strain.

“He told us after the game [Tuesday] night. I guess he’s been experiencing it for a little bit and he told us last night, so we had an MRI this morning, we got the results later today,” Gir-ardi said. “He won’t throw the ball for 10 days to two weeks, and then you go from there.”

Girardi emphasized that the ligament itself is healthy, which he and Miller both found en-couraging. It’s the muscle that has a small strain in it.

Sounds like no Tommy John surgery, but I expect him to be out at least a month as he rests and then gets back into shape.

• Matt Holliday is headed to the DL with a quad strain.

“We got the MRI results, and it looks like it’s a Grade 2 strain,” manager Mike Matheny said before the second game of the three-game set with the Rockies. “We’ll take those 15 days and reevaluate.”
….

“With Matt Adams, his was higher up the leg and you’ll also recall that it was torn completely,” said General Manager John Mozeliak, overseeing the Draft in St. Louis. “[Holliday’s] is not a complete tear at all. It’s much milder than that. It’s really something that can heal [without surgery].”

Sounds like 15 days rest and then the team will look to see how he has progressed. Finally he will begin rehab. I think his owners should expect him to miss at least a month.

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• It seems like Justin Verlander will finally return to pitching in the majors this week.

• Don’t be surprised if Jake Odorizzi goes on the DL in the next day or two with a strained oblique.

The Rays won’t know the full extent of starter Jake Odorizzi’s oblique injury until he sees their doctors Monday back in St. Petersburg.

But seeing him walk off the mound during Friday’s game, and knowing how cautious they tend to be with pitchers, is enough to say that Odorizzi is likely headed to the disabled list, the latest blow to an already depleted staff.

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• Josh Hamilton is back on the DL, this time with a strained hamstring. I figured he would make it a couple weeks before needing to go back on the DL.

• Additionally, Ryan Braun is ailing again, but it is not serious. He will not go on the DL, but it looks like he will need to see the doctor every few months to get his thumb nerve refrozen.

Brewers right fielder Ryan Braun left the team Wednesday to travel to California to undergo a second cryotherapy procedure on his troublesome right thumb.

Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell downplayed the significance of this latest development, saying the procedure was pre-planned and referring to it as “maintenance.” But it was the first public indication of any kind that Braun’s first such procedure in October, during which a specialist injected a needle into the base of Braun’s thumb to freeze an inflamed nerve there, had “worn off” and needed to be repeated.

Dr. Vernon Williams, the same specialist who performed Braun’s first cryotherapy, did this one as well at his clinic in Anaheim. While there is no track record for a baseball player with this issue (technically, a thumb neuroma), Williams has told the Brewers that the procedure can be repeated safely as long as is it not done more frequently than every three to four months, perhaps throughout the remainder of Braun’s playing career if symptoms persist.

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• Quite a few players are coming off the DL today including Jonathan Lucroy and Brett Oberholtzer.

• Stephen Strasburg is on the DL with neck tightness and/or back issues.

A day after pitching one-plus innings against the Reds, Nationals right-hander Stephen Strasburg was placed on the disabled list because of what the team termed “neck tightness.” Nationals manager Matt Williams cited “back issues.”

“We have to get to the bottom of what’s going on,” Williams said. It’s perplexing. It’s not anything you can point to. We have to get this thing worked out so he can be back in 15 days.”

Seems a little fishy to me. I would not be surprised to see him throwing right away and working a through a few things after his struggles so far this year.

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