Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Bryce Miller, who pitched through elbow discomfort due to a bone spur last season, experienced soreness in his left side during his Cactus League start Thursday and has been diagnosed with inflammation in his left oblique.
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In giving the injury report to the media in Peoria, Mariners general manager Justin Hollander stressed this does not appear to be a major setback.
“We don’t think it’s serious,” Hollander said. “It is something he usually goes through when he first starts to ramp up for camp. He’s probably presenting more on the images than he is symptomatically right now, which is if I have to choose one of those two things, I would choose him feel better.”
Miller felt the soreness in his side in the first inning of his outing, but felt it lessen in the second. The Mariners sent the 27-year-old right-hander for an MRI, which revealed the inflammation. He was given a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection and will be kept from throwing for two days while the shot takes effect and then resume light throwing. After seven days, they will see where they are in terms of pitching.
Having dealt with the soreness before in his early work, Miller wanted to keep pushing, telling the staff if it were the regular season, he would tell them he was fine. Hollander impressed on him this is not the time of year where that would be wise.
“To steal a line from Rob Scheidegger (the Mariners’ vice president of health and performance), we will never know how smart it was to tell Bryce to take a week off,” Hollander said. “Why risk it right now? Because these things can linger and turn into something bigger. So, being safe for now. Knowing the time on the calendar, let’s just make sure we’re being smart.”
Hollander emphasized that the soreness, which has been typical as he builds up for Miller, wasn’t linked to an event.
“This is just, it is lingering longer than it typically has and it got a little tight in the first inning the other day,” Hollander said. “And again, he said he felt better in the second inning, but we did find some inflammation in there and just want to be safe. There wasn’t like a pitch or a movement where he like, it grabbed on him and he feels like, wow, I had to shut it down.”
Hollander also reported that veteran shortstop J.P. Crawford, who has been dealing with a sore shoulder, something he too has experienced before early in camp, is making progress and is scheduled to take live batting practice on the minor league side Saturday. If all goes well, he should DH on Tuesday and return to shortstop sometime in the week of March 8.
The last item on the injury list was unfortunately more significant. Outfield prospect Victor Labrada strained an oblique in the batting cages Friday.
“He’s getting an MRI today, but just based on how he presented, he will miss some time,” Hollander said. “I don’t have an exact time table until we see what the images show, but expectation is he’ll be down for a bit.”
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