Colorado Rockies: An injury update on Nolan Arenado

Before Saturday evening’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado spoke to the media, including our own Kevin Henry and Jake Shapiro, about his shoulder injury that Bud Black and the Rockies removed him from Friday’s game for.

While the Rockies won 5-4 against the Dodgers to even up their four game series at one game a piece, Rockies fans were a bit concerned with the team removing their star third baseman Nolan Arenado from the game in the fifth inning after he “tweaked” his shoulder on a very unconventional 3-5-3 double play.

He spoke to our own Jake Shapiro yesterday (as we reported in this article from earlier today) and Arenado said that he thought that he could return tomorrow (meaning Saturday).

However, he will not be in the starting lineup for Bud Black and the Rockies on Saturday.

Ryan McMahon will start in his place at third base and bat seventh.

More from Rox Pile

• A Colorado Rockies Thanksgiving
• Colorado Rockies: What if Todd Helton had played football instead?
• Colorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon out for the season
• Colorado Rockies: Injuries shift look of roster ahead of Dodgers series
• Colorado Rockies: Has Sean Bouchard earned a second look in 2023?

Arenado spoke to the media on his condition just a few moments ago and when asked about how he felt today compared to yesterday, the Rockies third baseman said that it was “a little sore, like yesterday” and that they will give it “one more day.” He added that it was not more sore than yesterday but it is “about the same” as Friday.

He did, however, say that he would be available off the bench in a pinch-hitting role and he’ll be “ready to go,” but he said that his shoulder injury is “affecting my throwing, for sure. I can’t go out there if it’s gonna affect my throwing.” He also added that it “doesn’t hurt doing anything just besides throwing the baseball, like extending my throw on the baseball.”

Rockies manager Bud Black spoke to the media after Arenado and he said that Arenado was looked at by the training staff and he largely said that same as Arenado.

"“[The trainers] all seem to think that this is something minor [and] that he’ll be available tonight to hit. [We] [p]robably won’t put him in the field [but] hopefully, this resolves itself quickly where he can get back on the diamond as an infielder. We’ll see about tomorrow but I suspect that this isn’t anything that is going to last too long. I think it’s going to be manageable.”"

While Arenado’s injury doesn’t sound like that it has gotten any worse than yesterday, it seems like he and the Rockies will determine when he will play on a day by day basis.

The silver lining here is that it doesn’t sound like it will be an injury that will sideline him for an extended period of time with a couple of days being the longest that he will be out.

It should also be noted that after tomorrow, the Rockies will head to Houston to face the Astros and they will have the designated hitter. When Bud Black spoke to the media, he said that if Arenado still cannot play defensively then, he will DH “if need be.”

As Bud Black said in his presser as well, they are hoping that Walker Buehler because “it’s not his day off” but as Thomas Harding of MLB.com said, the Rockies are hoping he will have “an off day” (enter cheesy music from Bueller’s Day Off).

Stay tuned for more coverage from Coors Field, both on here and on Twitter (@RoxPileFS and @Shapalicious).