Injury Notes: Seager, Price, Red Sox, Scherzer, Mariners

Dodgers star Corey Seager won’t appear in a game for the team at all this week, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (Twitter links via Andy McCullough of the L.A. Times). Roberts said over the weekend that Seager, who finished third in last season’s MVP voting thanks to a .308/.365/.512 batting line and strong glovework at short, is dealing with an “oblique-ish” injury. While there’s still time for Seager to ramp back up for the season, oblique issues have a tendency to linger. Seager hasn’t played since March 3 and now seemingly won’t get into action until the final third of the month. McCullough adds that lefty Scott Kazmir also isn’t likely to pitch in a game this week as he continues to tweak his delivery after leaving his most recent Cactus League outing due to tightness and limited mobility in his hip.

A few more injury issues worth keeping an eye on around the league…

• David Price told Red Sox reporters that he’s not 100 percent certain exactly what the injury he’s facing is, but in fairly strange fashion, noted that he’d have opted for surgery if he were 22 or 23 years old (via Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald). “They said if I was 22 or 23, they’d have told me to go have surgery,” said Price. “…I’ve gone through this. This is something I feel like happens every spring training. It’s those first four to five weeks of spring training that I feel like I go through this every single year, and this year was just a little bit worse.” Pressed on the specifics of the injury Price stated that he’s not sure what precisely set off the alarm bells for doctors but added that his elbow feels good and offered no concern regarding his ulnar collateral ligament. There’s no timeline for his recovery, though Drellich notes that it’s looking likely that Price will be on the DL to open the season.
• Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal provides updates on a pair of mending Red Sox relievers (Twitter links). Setup man Tyler Thornburg, acquired in the trade that sent Travis Shaw to Milwaukee this winter, is slated to throw off a mound on Wednesday. Thornburg hasn’t appeared in a game since March 1 but appears to be nearing a return to action. As for last season’s setup acquisition, Carson Smith (who underwent Tommy John surgery before pitching in the regular season), he threw a 15-to-18 pitch bullpen session today, which marks his first mound work since undergoing his Tommy John procedure.
• Nationals ace Max Scherzer voiced with confidence on Monday that he’ll be ready for Opening Day, per Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post. Scherzer, the reigning NL Cy Young winner, has been slowed by a stress fracture in his right ring finger but said plainly on Monday, “I’m gonna do it,” when asked about being ready for the start of the season. Manager Dusty Baker offered a similar take, stating that Scherzer is “a little bit behind but not as far behind as it looked like he was going to be at the beginning” of camp.
• Mariners setup man Steve Cishek is all but certain to begin the season on the disabled list, per Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune. The 30-year-old side-armer had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left hip last October and is still at least one week, if not two weeks, away from throwing off the mound, according to manager Scott Servais. “I think coming into this camp, it was no secret that we were projecting that he might start the season a little bit late,” said Servais.“We’re still on that schedule.”
• Within that same piece, Dutton notes that the Mariners got better news on right-hander Tony Zych, who is already throwing off a mound and will face hitters in live BP this week. And in a second column, Dutton adds that the Mariners got positive news following an MRI on right-hander Shae Simmons. There’s no ligament damage in Simmons’ elbow, as the hard-thrower is instead dealing with a strained muscle in his forearm. He’ll be out for the next couple of days, but it seems that the former Brave has staved off any form of serious injury.