Tyler Austin jacked his foot up after fouling a ball off it. He will be shut down completely for three weeks and likely be out of action for six weeks. It’s quite likely when healthy that Chris Carter will have sucked up all the work that he could have had access to.

Josh Bell (knee surgery) is ready to start hitting off the tea. For my thoughts on Bell see his Player Profile.

Adrian Beltre has a grade one strain of his hamstring. As a result, he might miss the World Baseball Classic. The soon to be 38 year old, in April, should be fine for Opening Day. Beltre has appeared in at least 143 games each of the last five seasons showing that even as he ages that he’s hard to knock out of the lineup. As pointed out by my radio partner Kyle Elfrink, Beltre has been a top-15 vote getter in the AL MVP vote each of the last seven seasons, a pretty remarkable run of success for a player his age.

Yu Darvish says he’s healthy enough to add back in to his repertoire the split-finger fastball. He only threw the pitch five percent of the time before the surgery, but adding another way to attack hitters into his arsenal certainly ain’t no negative (yes, I went to college). Whether or not his elbow can handle the stress of the pitch... that’s another matter.

The true guardian of the homestead.

We thought that the recently acquired Adam Eaton would bat leadoff for the Nationals. Not so fast. Dusty Baker is leaning toward using Trea Turner in the leadoff spot. If that happened it sounds like Jayson Werth could hit second because Baker doesn’t want three lefties in a row in the 2-4 spots in Eaton, Daniel Murphy and Bryce Harper. Let’s not be stupid about this Dusty. I can solve this problem easily. Here’s your top-4: Eaton, Turner, Murphy, Harper. Hit Werth later in the order, let’s say sixth, after Anthony Rendon, and the lefty issue disappears. Come on Dusty, be smart about this, please.

Todd Frazier says that his injured finger is all healed up, and he’s good to go. As I recently noted on Twitter, Frazier is the only man in baseball who has gone 29-80-80-13 each of the last three seasons.

Winston Churchill thought a lot about space and extraterrestrials.

Adrian Gonzalez has tennis elbow and won’t swing a bat for two weeks. (1) I used to deal with tennis elbow as a player. It was painful to throw with, but the injury never impacted my ability to swing the lumber. (2) Tennis elbow is on the outside of the elbow, not the dangerous inside part. Simple rest and anti-inflammatory medication usually clears it up. (3) This is not an issue pertaining to the UCL. AGone has appeared in at least 156 games each of the last 11 years. I don’t think this issue will stop him from getting there again. 

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J.J. Hardy had an MRI and a CT scan on his back. Sounds like Hardy is expecting to miss a couple of weeks, though until the test results are known that’s obviously a bit of a moving target. Hardy posted a .716 OPS last season, just off his .720 career mark, and a three-year high. The last time he hit 10 homers was 2013, and he can only dream of getting on base at a league average rate. He’s no longer a good offensive player.

Yasmani Grandal is set to catch every day for the Dodgers. Kind of obvious, wasn’t it since A.J. Ellis is no longer with the club leaving the likes of Austin Barnes and Bobby Wilson to back up Grandal? A switch hitter, Grandal has a career OPS of .745 against lefties and .784 against righties. Those numbers certainly do not suggest that a platoon is needed.

Should you be fired for having sex on the job?

Jose Reyes is set to hit leadoff three of four times a week while seeing time at the hot corner. Of course, that number could go down if he’s hurt, or it could go up if David Wright (neck) isn’t able to play on a daily basis. Speaking of Wright, he is set to start playing catch this weekend, his first throwing since June. Wright is a total wildcard at the moment, but his presence makes Reyes nothing more than a reserve round option in mixed leagues.

Tyson Ross (thoracic outlet surgery) is on track to start throwing off the mount at some point in mid-March. Ross hopes to return in late May or June, so even if he heads up on the mound in a month there’s still a long way to go before we can expect to see him active in a big-league game.

Zack Wheeler played catch Friday with no issues with his elbow. I could care less.

 

Ray Flowers can be heard Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday, 7 PM EDT, Wednesday 8 PM EDT on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 9 PM EDT PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).