Nolan Arenado pulled up running out a grounder in the top of the 4th inning against the Braves on Sunday and had to be replaced by Ildemaro Vargas. The Diamondbacks went on to lose 5-3, and now the star third baseman is reportedly set to undergo an MRI on what's being described as a torso injury.
The timing stings because Arenado had just gone off. He homered twice in a 10-3 win the night before, the kind of stretch that had Arizona fans feeling good about the eight-time All-Star heating up down the stretch. Instead, the D-backs are now sweating out imaging results on their $42 million investment.
This is exactly the injury Arizona didn't want to see. The Diamondbacks acquired Arenado from St. Louis back in January, agreeing to eat $31 million of the $42 million left on his deal to pry loose a still-elite defender with 10 Gold Gloves and a career.282/.338/.507 line. He's hitting.241 with 20 home runs and 62 RBIs this season, respectable production but not vintage Arenado, and any extended absence would hurt an Arizona club fighting for playoff positioning.
Left trunk discomfort is a vague enough term that it's spawned its own round of internet jokes, but it's also the kind of injury that can linger. Core and oblique issues have a way of sidelining hitters for weeks rather than days, and torque through the midsection is basically the entire swing. If the MRI comes back showing any kind of strain, this isn't a day-to-day situation.
For now it's a waiting game. Fantasy managers holding Arenado in the stretch run and bettors leaning on Arizona's lineup are both stuck watching the same headline everyone else is: MRI pending, no results yet. The Diamondbacks will have a much clearer picture of what they're dealing with once those results come back.