When Michael Morse suffered his lat injury in Spring Training it was considered by many in the organization as minor, but now just about a month later, it appears that his injury is far more serious than we know. After re-aggravating the injury during his rehab assignment in Hagerstown, the Nationals will be shutting Morse down for the near future in an attempt to let his lat heal slowly.
Rizzo: Morse in "total shutdown mode" for 6 weeks after reaggravated lat tear. No surgical option to repair it.
— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) April 12, 2012
Lat injuries are so tricky to deal with for baseball players because so much of their movement involves torquing the upper body. Morse apparently had very little trouble swinging the bat during his assignment but had a lot of trouble throwing, and that is where he re-injured himself. Without a surgical option the only course of action is to slowly wait for the injury to heal, and make sure it is back to 100% before allowing Morse to participate in any activities that could aggravate it.
Read more news and notes on the Nationals at the Federal Baseball blog.