Springer DL’d with sore elbow
DOWNTOWN — Admitting that he’s been bothered by a sore elbow since the end of spring training and that it has lessened his ability to pitch in recent outings, Cardinals reliever Russ Springer went on the 15-day disabled list Saturday morning with an inflamed nerve in his right elbow.
“Time to let it cool off a little bit,” Springer said moments ago. “It’s not a surgery-type thing. … We’ll let it totally cool off.”
To take Springer’s spot on the roster and his place on the right side of the bullpen the Cardinals recalled Kelvin Jimenez from Triple-A Memphis. Jimenez was the last player cut from spring training before the team finalized its opening-day roster. It’s likely that rookie Kyle McClellan will slide into the seventh-inning role Springer has held for the last season, or that Jimenez and Anthony Reyes will increase their appearances from the bullpen.
Today Reyes and lefty Randy Flores are considered “hot,” manager Tony La Russa said.
Springer faced three batters Friday night and all three reached base, including a solo home run to open the seventh inning by Washington’s Cristian Guzman. That outing, which Springer left with two runners on base, followed Wednesday’s ninth inning when Springer needed 32 pitches to get three outs.
The righthanded reliever had surgery on the elbow several seasons ago to transpose the nerve that is now yelping.
Springer said the weather hasn’t done him any favors, as the nerve first became irritated in Springfield last weekend and only grew more ornery through this week. He rebutted the notion that Wednesday’s long inning tripped the inflammation from irritation to a DL-caliber injury.
The ache in his elbow has caused a loss of strength in his forearm and his hand, and because of a tingling sensation related to the inflammation he doesn’t have a good feel for his pitches.
Springer won’t pick up a baseball for a week. But the expectation is he’ll return when the required 15 days have elapsed.
“I can’t get big-league hitters out, not throwing 86 mph because I can’t feel the ball coming out of my hand,” Springer said. “All I’ve got to do is calm it down.”
More in Sunday’s paper and on STLToday.com.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
“Today Reyes and lefty Randy Flores are considered “hot,” manager Tony La Russa said.”
DG, care to expound? I am not sure I am able to infer your implication
“Hot” is Tony-speak for “available”.
DG - Why wouldn’t a grizzled veteran and supposed ‘good team guy’ tell the doc / trainer that his elbow is a problem and he can’t feel the ball to make pitches BEFORE he gives up three hits (and eventual runs) and almost blows a game. I suppose I could understand a rook doing something like this or trying to fight through one outing in that condition but to have it last through several makes me think a lot less of Mr. Springer.
DG: Prior to hearing of this injury, I was thinking that perhaps the performances of Springer, Franklin, and Johnson could be related to the “over-use” from the result of last year’s weak rotation. I’ve heard that this is a somewhat predictable outcome in the year following heavy bullpen use. Is that what we are seeing?
Go easy on Springer folks - his last appearance was by far his worst of the week - and he is doing the right thing by shutting it down for a time. Sounds like it got worse as the week progressed - it wasn’t the same level of pain all along.
Although the pen as a whole has done the job - it’s been a bit of a patchwork. At lease we know why Springer has been inconsistent. Now, what about Franklin and Reyes (ok, maybe we know about Reyes..)
DG,
Springer’s injury/condition sounds very similar to what Carp went through in 2004 that cost him the playoffs. Am I way off base, or is this a similar type of situation?
Thanks in advance.
Allen,
There’s a good possibility. When you look back at how some of the relievers pitched in September — spec. Franklin and Isringhausen — there was a sense that overuse was getting to them. Springer had strong Sept. numbers, but there has been a connection made between career-high innings/overuse one season bleeding into the next. It appeared that the Cardinals were compensating for that with the “save the bullet” practice this spring. There have been no bullets saved in the first week of the regular season.
Elliott,
Not quite. Carpenter’s nerve issue was in his biceps. And it was not an inflammation, it was a trickier injury to diagnose and treat. (If you recall, Brad Penny was going through the same thing at the time.) Springer has had this issue before — last year in San Diego, for example. It’s an irritation of the nerve that he had moved in his elbow back in 2003.
dg
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The back-to-back strong outtings from Wainwright and Lohse have to have really helped the bullpen. Franklin looked much better today. It will be good to see McClellan and Reyes get back on the horse soon.