As the Nationals wrapped up their first series of the 2015 season on Thursday, right-hander Casey Janssen was preparing to board a plane back to Viera, Florida.
Janssen’s first season with the Nationals is still in its infancy, but so far it has not gone according to plan. Janssen began the season on the 15-day disabled list with rotator cuff tendinitis, the latest in a series of right shoulder issues that have plagued him over the past several seasons. He planned to resume throwing at Washington’s minor-league facility Friday and does not believe the injury is serious. But it is frustrating.
“It’s so weird because, not to toot my own horn, but I cross every ’t’ and dot every ’i’ in the offseason,” Janssen said. “Especially coming into a new team, I was as prepared as I’ve ever been with my bullpens, with my throwing, lifting. You want have a good impression. By no means do you want to start the season on the DL. I was in a good place, and for some reason it got me.”
Janssen last appeared in a spring game on March 23. An MRI the following week revealed the tendinitis in his shoulder, something the 33-year-old believes is related to his previous shoulder ailments. He had surgery to repair a torn labrum in 2008, twice went on the disabled list with shoulder issues in 2009 and has dealt with shoulder discomfort in each of the past three spring trainings.
Janssen said he briefly tried to pitch through his most recent discomfort this spring but knew it wasn’t worth the risk and decided to give it rest. The soreness didn’t feel like something he had experienced in the past, but he believes it is “indirectly the same.”
“I truly believe that it’s one of those things that once you get over the hump, it doesn’t bother you again,” Janssen said. “But it’s getting to that point, getting to your top speed and using your arm like it’s been used your whole career. Once you get in that comfort level, I guess.
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“Everyone has discomfort. Everyone has soreness or whatever. It’s not like I’m just waiting to be 100 percent. I understand pitching with soreness, and I understand this was just a little bit different type of soreness that, at that time, my body was telling me, ’You need to take a break.’ This wasn’t something to work through.”
Janssen thinks the warm weather in Florida will help loosen his shoulder and speed up his rehabilitation process. Though he is eligible to come off the disabled list Saturday, he still has a long list of benchmarks to accomplish — including a minor-league rehabilitation assignment — before rejoining the Nationals.
“It’s frustrating,” Janssen said. “The good thing is it’s not something that screams surgery, career-ending, anything like that. It’s just something that needed a little more time.”
• Tom Schad can be reached at tschad@washingtontimes.com.
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