Colorado Rockies: Nolan Arenado plans to play through shoulder pain

Speaking to members of the media on Tuesday afternoon, Colorado Rockies All-Star third baseman Nolan Arenado said he will attempt to play through soreness in his left shoulder.

After sitting out Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Angels at Coors Field after saying the AC joint in his shoulder was flaring up and an off day for the team on Monday, Arenado has had a couple of extra days to rest his left shoulder. Before the Colorado Rockies start a two-game series in Denver on Tuesday night, Arenado will test his shoulder in the batting cage to see how it is feeling. However, he told media members, including Rox Pile, that his plan is to play against Oakland.

“Today, I’m feeling a lot better than I did before,” Arenado said. “I got the treatment on it so definitely feeling better, which is nice. I’m about to take some swings here and find out if I’m good to go, but the plan is to play so I’m excited about that.”

Arenado enters Tuesday slashing just .261/.311/.461 in 165 at-bats. He has hit just one home run in his previous 15 games and is hitting just .189 with runners in scoring position. However, he refuses to use the shoulder as an excuse.

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Arenado said that he feels the most pain in the shoulder when he is finishing his swing at the plate, likely causing his power numbers to go down. According to Baseball Savant, Arenado is currently in Major League Baseball’s 34th percentile when it comes to exit velocity and 30th percentile when it comes to hard hit balls.

“It doesn’t feel good to reach over this way, I can only do it so far,” Arenado said on Zoom. “Little things like that. Bending over for ground balls, sometimes you feel it, but definitely swinging on pitches up in the zone, that’s where I feel it the most.”

We will be at Coors Field tonight for the opener of the two-game series with Oakland and the Rockies. We will update this story as needed.