Henderson Alvarez's shoulder shows no damage by MRI

Henderson Alvarez received the results of his MRI on Tuesday, and Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald reports that there is no structural damage on that ailing right shoulder.

MRI on Henderson Alvarez shows no structural damage; Morse returning to Miami to see a hand specialist #marlins

— clarkspencer (@clarkspencer) May 26, 2015

This is good news for the Miami Marlins, who were obviously concerned enough about Alvarez to re-examine his shoulder and once again place him on the disabled list after he struggled in his first start back from the DL. Alvarez had a nice first three innings before running into trouble in his last start versus the Baltimore Orioles. He ended up giving up six runs in five innings with four walks versus two strikeouts.

The performance was concerning, but it appears Alvarez's shoulder does not at least require surgery. The major concern for the Marlins would have been if Alvarez had some sort of rotator cuff tear that would limit his range of motion and ability to throw comfortably. Any rotator cuff tear would have required a lengthier stay on the DL and possible surgery depending on the severity of the problem, so Alvarez avoided the knife at this time.

However, one might suspect that Alvarez may remain on the DL for a lengthier period of time, at least compared to the injuries to Mat Latos and Jarred Cosart which have thinned out Miami's pitching corps. This is the third time Alvarez's shoulder has caused problems for him during his two years and change in Miami. Alvarez first missed half of the 2013 season with a shoulder issue that was labeled as "inflammation." Last year, he spent one DL stint with shoulder inflammation as well. This is now essentially an extended month-long DL stint with the same sort of injury once again. He has met multiple complications in rehabbing this type of injury in the past.

You have to figure the Marlins will be extra careful with Alvarez during this time around. They may offer to keep him out longer to assure that the inflammation has decreased. You have to also figure they will be applying the usual injury treatments to try and reduce the discomfort, including steroid injections into the joint. The question is whether this injury will continue to limit Alvarez going forward. So far, it has been a borderline case, so Miami needs to avoid rushing Alvarez back onto the field like they did last time.