MLB Injury Report 2015: Rays Pitcher Alex Cobb Out, NY Yankees CF Jacoby Ellsbury Doubtful for Season Opener
Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Alex Cobb will not start for his team in their opening game, while New York Yankees center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury was listed doubtful for the 2015 MLB season opener.
Cobb, who was named starter for the season opener against the Baltimore Orioles on April 6, will not be fit to start after sustaining tendinitis in his right forearm, the team confirmed on Wednesday.
Rays president of baseball operations Matt Silverman said that Cobb had an MRI after throwing three perfect innings in their 5-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, which confirmed the injury.
Silverman said that Cobb will not throw pitches in the coming week as part of his rehabilitation and will likely be out of the rotation until late April, depending on how his forearm reacts to treatment in the coming weeks.
Cobb, who has high hopes for the upcoming season especially after the team confirmed that he will start in the season opener, expressed disappointment over the development, but said that he is also thankful he did not sustain any serious damage in his forearm.
"It's never easy to know you're going to have to take a step back and kind of delay your process in getting ready for the season," Cobb told reports in a news conference. "But you know, I just kind of look at it from the outside in and realize that this whole situation could be a lot worse. There's a lot more difficult situations that could have come."
With Cobb out for the season opener, Silverman said that the team is not yet ready to name their Opening Day starter, but most analysts are convinced that Chris Archer will get the nod.
Meanwhile, Ellsbury might also be ruled out of the season opener as the Yankees announced the center fielder sustained an oblique injury, which will force him stay away from baseball activities for at least a week.
Ellsbury did not play against the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday with the team, saying that he is struggling with mild quad strain, but an MRI revealed that the injury is more serious than they thought. While Ellsbury could miss up to six weeks of action, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said they are not too concerned and will not rush Ellsbury's return.
"I'm not too concerned about it because it's really mild, but this is the time that we can protect him a little bit. We don't have to rush him back," Girardi said via ESPN New York. "We'll give him six or seven days and then see where he's at. There'll be plenty of time."
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