Nats closer Drew Storen is on his way to see the dreaded Dr. James Andrews. Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post tweets that Storen experienced discomfort after a recent simulated outing, and the team fears he may have bone chips in his elbow.
A March MRI revealed no structural damage in Storen's arm, and a little more than a week ago he threw from a mound without incident. In any event, it seems likely that his mid-April timetable is in jeopardy, and the news could obviously be worse: bone chips in the elbow generally require surgery.
In Storen's absence, Brad Lidge has worked as Washington's closer, and Henry Rodriguez might also get a save opp or two. Still, Storen has the highest upside of any Nats reliever, and his being sidelined hurts the team's bullpen depth quite a bit.
Maybe, though, he'll be one of those rare pitchers to emerge from Dr. Andrews's office with news that isn't awful.
