Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Zack Greinke's elbow is OK (for now), Dodgers and fans breathe sigh of relief

When Bill Shaikin tweeted about Zack Greinke's elbow yesterday, Dodger fans everywhere held their collective breath. Could the team's biggest free agent signing ever really be hurt already?

Luckily, Greinke's MRI came back relatively clean, save some inflammation. But in a somewhat surprising twist, Greinke needed a platelet-rich plasma injection -- the same injection Chad Billingsley received for his partially torn ulnar collateral ligament.

I'm not saying Greinke has a serious problem with his UCL, but the PRP injection is something worth noting.

He should return to his throwing program in the next couple days and manager Don Mattingly expects Greinke to be ready for his April 2 start.

The Dodgers stated they were being overly cautious with Greinke's elbow, and rightfully so. There's nothing wrong with that for any player, but especially a player who signed a 6-year, $147 million contract this winter.

And something refreshing pointed out by Mike Petriello:
"One positive from this Greinke elbow thing is that he told the team. We've seen far too many guys try to 'gut it out' and make things worse."
If any player is going to be upfront about his health status, it's Greinke.

Here's hoping this isn't a problem going forward, but it also just shows how volatile Major League pitchers are these days.

Maybe it's a good thing the Dodgers haven't yet traded one of their 47 starting pitchers, but more specifically, Chris Capuano, Aaron Harang and Ted Lilly. I'm certain at least one will go before April 1, but it's anyone's guess at this point who that pitcher might be.

Photo credit: EephusBlue, Twitter

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