An MRI of Rangers’ LHP Neal Cotts’ left lat muscle on Monday revealed a Grade II strain that will keep the reliever from throwing again for another four weeks.
Hampered by injuries since the 2009 season, when he last pitched in a Major League game, Cotts felt some discomfort near the end of his inning of work on Saturday night. The bad news is that the injury will keep him away from throwing for such a considerable stretch; the good news is that the discomfort didn’t come from his hip or his shoulder, the two areas that have given him the most trouble over the past few years.
Cotts underwent Tommy John surgery in 2009, which kept him out for all of 2010. He has also had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip, which subsequently became infected three times. He showed Rangers’ coaches enough through the spring to be one of the last pitchers remaining in the race for a bullpen spot with the big club, but with the injury, that job goes to the highly-impressive 22-year-old Robbie Ross.
