Orioles reliever Brian Duensing heads to disabled list after bullpen chair injury

There are myriad freak ways in which baseball players can suffer injuries or even hurt themselves. Orioles reliever Brian Duensing has found one of these ways, hurting himself while adjusting a chair in the bullpen in Texas.

That’s what Duensing himself told Orioles beat writers on Wednesday afternoon, following Duensing being placed on the disabled list with what the Orioles called left elbow inflammation. The Orioles recalled Ashur Tolliver from Norfolk to take Duensing’s place on the roster.

On the other hand, Duensing also said that he will be having arthroscopic surgery on his elbow on Friday in order to remove cartilage chips from his elbow. He described that problem to O’s reporters as being similar to when he developed chips in his elbow following his 2004 Tommy John surgery.

How cartilage chips are going to shake loose while attempting to adjust a bullpen chair is a question for the ages. I’m sure it’s painful because players tend not to get surgery unless they really need it.

Duensing is expected to miss 6-8 weeks. In the meantime, Tolliver would seem to be the lefty specialist in the bullpen. Some day maybe the Orioles starting rotation will even pitch in such a way that the bullpen can afford to carry a lefty specialist around.