Matt Wieters could miss Orioles Opening Day, shut down with tendinitis

Matt Wieters will be shut down from catching for a week with tendinitis in his elbow, Orioles manager Buck Showalter told reporters before Wednesday afternoon's game against the Twins. This after Wieters has only caught one spring training game without any restrictions, and nobody tried to run against him in that game yesterday.

Showalter also said that the team has spoken to Dr. James Andrews, who performed Wieters' surgery, and was told that this kind of thing is "not unexpected." If that's the case, then the team probably isn't surprised by this little setback. It is a bit of a surprise compared to what's been publicly admitted, with only vague comments about the O's optimism that Wieters would be ready to go for Opening Day.

Though Wieters will not catch again until Sunday, a bare two weeks and a day before Opening Day, Showalter said that Opening Day is not off the table for Wieters. However, he also reiterated something he said earlier in the offseason that has been forgotten since training camp started: If Wieters can't catch on Opening Day, the team will probably not have him on the Opening Day roster.

That suddenly makes the race to be the third catcher behind Wieters an interesting one, at least in the sense that the player will be on the roster for at least a week or two.

It sounds like Wieters will be out of the lineup entirely for the next few days at least. O's reporters were told that Wieters may be the DH on Sunday. Astute observers may note that there's four whole days between now and then. He'll have to wait until then to break out of his 0-for-spring slump.

Is it time to panic? No, of course not.

Just kidding, yes it is! Ahhhhh!