Clay Hensley underwent an MRI which revealed he a slightly fractured bone in his shoulder.
An MRI exam taken on Monday revealed Marlins reliever Clay Hensley has a hairline fracture to the scapula in his left shoulder.
While the bone will take four to six weeks to heal, Hensley is confident he will be able to rejoin the bullpen on May 22, the day he is eligible to be reinstated off the disabled list.
"I asked [the doctor] if it would be 15 days, and he said, 'Yeah,'" Hensley said of his chances of a speedy return.
The bone won't be completely healed by then, but Hensley feels he will be ready by late May.
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Hensley will begin throwing off flat ground on Wednesday.
"I think I'll be able to pitch with it in two weeks," Hensley said. "It's more of the bone bruising and the trauma around it. It has to subside. Then it is really pain management."
In case you wondering which bone he hairline fractured, here you go: scapula.
Here is the deal, unless the Marlins decide to change up the roster and go with 13 pitchers and 12 position players, that will mean Burke Badenhop will be returned to New Orleans once Hensley is ready for action. The Hopper is the only pitcher the Marlins can send down who doesn't have to clear waivers. Which totally sucks.
And should the Marlins stay with the present makeup of the roster, the absolute last thing that should happen is they bring back Hensley early to see if he can pitch through pain. A healthy Hopper is far superior to a pitch through pain K-lay in the bullpen.
The Marlins start a nine game road-trip on May 24, so I can't see any reason to bring Hensley back before June 3. And even then, it might be wise to give him a full four weeks of recover and have him rejoin the team on June 8. Nothing wrong with getting a string of rehab assignments as he works through the injury.
This is tough, of course I want Hensley at full speed, but I don't want to send the Hopper down. This totally sucks. However, we aren't there yet. Lots of things could change during that amount of time.