Future Redbirds

As you may remember, Chris Narveson was last seen a week ago, leaving this game after retiring two batters. He was flown into St. Louis to be looked at by Paletta and there was some confusion as to what his injury was. In Matthew Leach’s notes on the official Card’s website, there’s this tidbit about Narveson:

Chris Narveson, sidelined with a shoulder injury, will not have surgery at this time. He will rest for three to four weeks, according to assistant general manager John Mozeliak.

Hmmmm, who does this remind me of? Maybe Carpenter’s elbow where they prescribed a period of rest while being hazy on any real details. Reports I heard on the radio were that it was a shoulder impingement, for whatever that’s worth. What we can hope is that he doesn’t have any serious labrum or, more likely, rotator cuff tear — that would probably be season ending surgery for Narvie. (For a better description of what an impingement may imply visit this comment thread from VeB where it was discussed in the context of Carpenter’s elbow.)

This is all rather discouraging because the chance was there for Narvie to make a play at a rotation spot next year, depending on how Mulder’s return went. At the least, Narvie probably would have been the 6th man for the rotation. He does have an injury history, he’s previously had Tommy John surgery, making this all the tougher to watch as you have to wonder whether he could be headed for an operation if rest doesn’t fix whatever is currently ailing him.