Jason Hammel’s MRI Shows Nothing Serious, Expected to Make Next Start

jason hammel cubsMaybe it was just me, but I’ve been quietly waiting on word of Jason Hammel’s MRI with bated breath for the past 24 hours. He’s been such an important part of the Cubs’ rotation this year, and, given the lack of quality depth right now, losing him for any period of time could be a nightmare.

So, today’s just-revealed reports made me very happy:

Whew. Here’s hoping all proceeds according to plan.

Two things to keep in mind:

(1) While I am not going to say teams will flat-out lie about injuries at this time of year, I do think it’s important for us to keep in mind that there’s a strong incentive for teams not to disclose too much about an injury right now. The Cubs are known to be interested in acquiring a starting pitcher already, and if teams believed that Hammel’s injury were more serious – and, imagine that it was – they’d likely be able to extract a more significant price in trade.

In other words, you have to take the description here with a grain of salt, even if you completely understand why the Cubs might be more protective of their information right now.

All that said, I’m still feeling pretty good about this news because …

(2) As we discussed before, the timing of Hammel’s injury is such that he can miss a couple weeks without actually missing too many starts (just one, by my count). Even if Hammel would have been ready to take his first turn through the rotation after the All-Star break, then, the Cubs could have put Hammel on the DL now so that they could bring up an extra player while simultaneously giving Hammel a little extra rest. If the Cubs aren’t even considering a DL stint right now, then that means they see Hammel as very likely to take that first start after the break – otherwise, they’d DL him and get the benefit of an extra player for 10+ games and all they’d be losing is a single Hammel start.

Obviously we’ll wait for full relief when Hammel is actually on the mound, pitching for many innings pain-free – because, after all, he did get injured – but today’s news is as good as it could get.

written by

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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