{"id":19411,"date":"2016-09-09T08:01:54","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T15:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/nationals-say-strasburg-has-a-strained-flexor-mass\/"},"modified":"2016-09-09T08:01:54","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T15:01:54","slug":"nationals-say-strasburg-has-a-strained-flexor-mass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/sports\/nationals-say-strasburg-has-a-strained-flexor-mass\/","title":{"rendered":"Nationals say Strasburg has a strained flexor mass"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON<\/strong> \u2014 Stephen Strasburg has a strained flexor mass in his elbow and the Washington Nationals don\u2019t know when he will pitch again, but the team said it was relieved the right-hander did not re-tear a ligament.<\/p>\n

Manager Dusty Baker and director of athletic training Paul Lessard voiced optimism after an MRI did not reveal ligament damage. Strasburg had Tommy John surgery in August 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally (these injuries) come around very well with treatment and strengthening programs,\u201d Lessard said Thursday. \u201cIt\u2019s not a season-ending injury, but we still need to take time that he\u2019s nice and strong because of his past.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strasburg left his start in the third inning Wednesday night after feeling a pinch in the back of his elbow. He walked off the field with his glove over his mouth, and immediately there was concern.<\/p>\n

Lessard said most of the elbow appeared to be in the same condition as in May, before Strasburg signed a $175 million, seven-year contract that starts next year.<\/p>\n

What Lessard called \u201ca little strain\u201d in Strasburg\u2019s flexor mass on the side of his elbow was about the best news the team could have gotten.<\/p>\n

\u201cExactly the timetable of that we don\u2019t know, but it\u2019s good to hear that it wasn\u2019t what everybody was speculating that it was,\u201d Baker said. \u201cI did a lot of praying last night that it wouldn\u2019t be as serious as everybody was panicking about, because how do you get worried about something that you don\u2019t know what it is? I think it\u2019s human nature to think the worst of all situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strasburg had just come off the disabled list Wednesday with right elbow soreness. The 28-year-old started the season 13-0 with a 2.51 ERA. He allowed 19 earned runs in 11 2\/3 innings in three outings before going on the DL.<\/p>\n

Lessard said this was a new injury and unrelated to the previous problem in the back of Strasburg\u2019s elbow. He added this was an acute injury that could have happened on one pitch, not stress that built up on Strasburg\u2019s elbow.<\/p>\n

Asked about timing, Lessard said: \u201cI\u2019m thinking let\u2019s take care of the swelling and get him to a pain-free range of motion, and then we\u2019ll start a strengthening program. I\u2019m just worried about the next four or five days right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Strasburg was a National League Cy Young Award candidate before going on the DL. The Nationals have a substantial lead in the NL East and could afford to be cautious with Strasburg, but there\u2019s no clear idea what they\u2019d do if he can\u2019t pitch in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

Washington has Max Scherzer and Tanner Roark and then uncertainty, especially with righty Joe Ross, who has been out with a shoulder injury. Other than saying Strasburg\u2019s injury won\u2019t affect the plan with Ross, Baker is in wait-and-see mode.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to do the best for the situation of what we have, and then make a determination on who is to take his place now and possibly later,\u201d Baker said. \u201cOr is it a better option to have Stephen, or do we not count Stephen out? Those are our options.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Stephen Strasburg has a strained flexor mass in his elbow and the Washington Nationals don\u2019t know when he will pitch again, but the team said it was relieved the right-hander did not re-tear a ligament. Manager Dusty Baker and director of athletic training Paul Lessard voiced optimism after an MRI did not reveal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-19411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19411\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19411"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=19411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}