Surgery to repair the small tear in Scott Olsen’s left labrum, performed by team doctor Wiemi Douoguih today at the Washington Hospital Center, went as well as the Washington Nationals could have hoped. Acting general manager Mike Rizzo said the operation revealed no additional problems, and Olsen should be able to begin a throwing program in six to eight weeks.
Olsen won’t pitch again this seaosn, but there’s no reason to expect he won’t be ready for the start of spring training next year.
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The Nationals are going to have a decision to make on the left-hander after the season, though. He’s making $2.8 million this season and is due to enter his second year of arbitration. Under MLB’s collective bargaining agreement, the least Olsen could make is $2.24 million, or a 20 percent cut from this year’s salary. The Nationals have a lot of young pitchers making less than that (and could add Stephen Strasburg to that mix eventually), so it will be interesting to see if they decide to non-tender Olsen or take a multimillion gamble on him being ready to go.
“We’ve got a long way before we have to make those decisions,” Rizzo said.
Here are the lineups for tonight’s game:
Cardinals:
Schumaker 2B
Rasmus CF
DeRosa 1B
Ludwick RF
Ankiel LF
Molina C
Thurston 3B
Ryan SS
Wainwright P
Nationals:
Morgan CF
Guzman SS
Zimmerman 3B
Dunn LF
Johnson 1B
Willingham RF
Gonzalez 2B
Bard C
Balester P
