Well, this isn’t what O’s fans want to hear to start off the week.
Right fielder Nick Markakis, who has been out with a sore neck, is scheduled to undergo an MRI on Monday.
Markakis told Roch Kubatko of MASN that the procedure is simply a precaution:
“I think it’s probably more of a precaution thing to see what’s going on in there and identify exactly what it is that’s bothering me,” said Markakis, who hasn’t played since March 1 because of tightness and spasms in his neck.
Markakis originally stated that he would play if it were the regular season, but his condition worsened.
“That day I was feeling good,” he said. “I woke up the next morning pretty locked up or tight or whatever you want to call it. But I’m better today than I was yesterday, so it’s going in the right direction. Doc said they don’t think it’s anything too serious and that’s what we’re hoping for, but we just want to identify what it is.”
You can tell that Markakis isn’t real concerned.
“No, just from going off what the doc says and how I feel. I think it’s just some muscle tightness, but we’ll definitely find out tomorrow,” he said.
“I can’t pinpoint exactly what it was because I didn’t feel anything. I thought about what it could be. Maybe dehydration and working out and straining a muscle, or even sleeping on it or something along those lines, but I don’t know. We’ll see tomorrow, though.”
Precaution or no, it’s quite disconcerting to O’s fans, who saw their Gold Glove outfielder reduced to a spectator during the most crucial time of the season in 2012. Markakis did not play at all last year after taking a pitch off the thumb from the New York Yankees’ C.C. Sabathia on September 8.
“Nick the Stick” has been anything but injury-prone during his tenure in Baltimore. 2012 was the first year since coming to the majors in 2006 that Markakis played fewer than 147 games. He played in 160 or more games the previous three seasons before getting drilled by Sabathia last fall.
With that in mind, O’s fans shouldn’t be too worried, but hearing news of a clear MRI later this afternoon will go a long way to easing the fears of Birdland faithful. We’re already uneasy about two of the team’s other potential leadoff candidates, Nolan Reimold and Brian Roberts, neither of whom have played more than 100 games since 2009.
