Orioles Closer Zach Britton Expected To Miss 45-60 Days With Injury
BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- Orioles closer Zach Britton will be shut down for the next 45-60 days due to a left forearm injury.
Britton, who received a second opinion on Monday in California with Dr. Neal ElAttrache, is currently at the club's spring facility in Sarasota, Fla., and said a concrete timeframe didn't come up.
"The only hard time that ElAttrache gave me was saying, 'Let's take 10 days or so and not throw,' which would put me at 14 days [of rest]," Britton said in an phone interview with MLB.com. "At that point, if my forearm feels good and I have no symptoms, I can start a throwing program. Anything after that is based on how I feel. There's no hard timetable because it's kind of a unique injury."
Britton, who took a pair of MRIs in Baltimore, had an X-ray come back negative in the area as well. Structurally, his elbow is fine, which is good news. The strain is just the forearm muscle and he also saw a hand specialist in California.
Britton is hoping for a much earlier return than 60 days.
"If I wasn't back by the 45-days [mark], I'd be shocked," Britton said. "It's not a huge strain. There are grades to strains, and it's closer to a weaker strain. A lot of it just depends on how fast I heal."
"Hopefully, if we take these 14 days in total and not throw and then ease into throwing, it gives it a chance to completely heal and be fine," Britton said. "It's kind of like a hamstring injury, they said. If you go too fast, you may reinjure it, which maybe is what I did off the DL. I think we have a really good plan this time."
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