A Handful of Cubs Injury Updates: Almora, Fujikawa, Clevenger, McNeil

nomar injured cubsNot the kind of thing you want to see become a regular feature …

  • Sigh of relief: it sounds like Albert Almora’s leg injury yesterday was not overly serious, and he was removed for precautionary reasons. His manager called it a “little tight hammy,” per the KC Chronicle, which was more of a medical description and not a mere compliment. The injury is more of a “tweaked hamstring” than a “pulled hamstring,” which is great news on two levels (tweak/tight is better than pull, and hamstring is a lot better than knee). Almora is expected to get a day or two off, and the Cubs will see how he feels thereafter. Almora, himself, says he’ll be back in a day or two.
  • The news might not be so good for Kyuji Fujikawa, whom the Cubs put on the disabled list yesterday. The Cubs have officially termed the injury a “muscular forearm strain,” and GM Jed Hoyer said the Cubs are “cautiously optimistic” that the injury is the same forearm strain he suffered earlier in the year. That means, at best, he’s going to miss another month of action. Like, that’s what we have to hope for. At worst, well, we’ve discussed it before: “forearm” injuries are often precursors to elbow injuries. Fujikawa is having an MRI today, and your early tell is whether we hear something today. If we do, it’s going to be good news, that the MRI turned up the same kind of forearm strain as before. If we hear nothing today or tomorrow, it’s likely because the injury is more serious, and the parties are exploring their options.
  • Steve Clevenger, who is on the 60-day DL with an oblique strain, is playing in Extended Spring Training games, so he’s likely to be able to head out on a minor league rehab stint relatively soon. He’s eligible to come off of the 60-day DL on June 13, but it’s not yet clear whether he’ll be able to be activated (in terms of the injury, readiness, and the state of the roster) at that time.
  • I either missed this when it happened, or it simply hasn’t been heavily reported, but Arizona Phil over at TCR mentioned in passing yesterday that Ryan McNeil, the Cubs’ third round pick last year, is out for the rest of the year with an elbow injury. Usually a season-ending elbow injury in May means one thing (torn UCL, Tommy John surgery), but I haven’t yet heard for sure on McNeil. All we know now is that something is wrong with his elbow, and it’s a bummer, because he’d been one of the best performing high school pitchers the Cubs took in last year’s draft.
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    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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