Orioles Wesley Wright has shoulder pain, could be a DL candidate

In the classic film Jurassic Park, the character Dr. Malcolm, played by Jeff Goldblum, offers a simple theory: "Life finds a way." Dan Duquette may not have anything to do with evolution, yet he is a force in his own right and he too finds a way.

In this case, with the Orioles having a crowded eight-man bullpen even despite the DFA/trade of Ryan Webb, there was going to be an unfortunate squeeze whenever the O's took things back down to a sane, seven-man bullpen.

That's a tough task for a unit where the only guy who can be optioned is Kevin Gausman, and seriously Orioles, don't option him for this garden variety chicanery. However, perhaps things were made easier on Duquette, as manager Buck Showalter disclosed following Friday afternoon's loss that reliever Wesley Wright has been suffering pain in his shoulder in recent days, which he told the O's after today's outing.

Wright pitched the final 1.1 innings of the 12-5 loss to the Blue Jays. He gave up a run on two hits, hardly the worst O's pitcher on the day. MASN's Roch Kubatko noted that Wright's velocity was down as low as the mid-80s. Even for a lefty, that's going to be tough to overcome if he's pitching like that.

The O's have determined that the injury is not to his shoulder but rather the trapezius muscle, which could still cause pain in the shoulder if it's not right. You never want to hear about shoulder pain for a baseball player. I'm not sure how much better trapezius pain is or isn't. This is the trapezius:

(Image retrieved from Wikipedia, used unaltered under CC-SA 3.0 license.)

For now, Wright doesn't appear to be going on the disabled list, though if the O's decide they need a fresh pitcher in the bullpen just in case with Ubaldo Jimenez set to pitch tomorrow, he would seem to be an easy DL candidate. Three O's relievers, including Wright, pitched for more than an inning in Friday's game. Everything affects everything else.

Even if the O's don't want an extra reliever, this injury could land Wright on the DL once David Lough is ready to play. He's reportedly the closest of the O's DL players to coming back and he's eligible to return as soon as Saturday. That would return the Orioles to having a four-man bench.