Josh Johnson's season over?

Josh Johnson is experiencing back pain, which is never good.  The worst part is that it may be due to a shoulder injury, and that ain't good.  Johnson cut short a bullpen session on Tuesday due to feeling at least a twinge in his back.

JJ is flying back to Miami today to see Dr. Kaplan to check out the problem.

Clark Spencer has the story.

Josh Johnson's season is now in jeopardy as the ace of the Marlins' pitching staff will be returning to South Florida on Wednesday to have his back and throwing shoulder examined by Dr. Lee Kaplan.

            At the very least, Johnson will miss his scheduled start on Friday. But there are growing concerns that Johnson might be forced to miss the rest of the season, as he has only five more starts left on his pitching calendar and the Marlins might not want to take the risk on their investment.

If the Marlins lose JJ for the rest of the season, the Marlins rotation will initially be Anibal Sanchez, Chris Volstad, Andrew Miller, Alex Sanabia and Adalberto Mendez.  And Volstad and Sanabia will eventually miss a start sometime in the future, thanks to the brawl Nyjer Morgan started.  Can't remember a player ever winning an appeal, but sometimes the fine is reduced.

We will see what happens with the doctor visit, but if there is any doubt, the Marlins should shut JJ down.  And if they should do this, they will need to make some locker space available since more relief pitching will be needed.

It has been a tough year, and somehow the team will complete the schedule.  In a way, I'm almost reminded of the 2005 season, where at the end of the season, almost every starter ended up hurt.