Washington Nationals' Injury Report

In a 162-game season, injuries will undoubtedly play a role on almost every major-league team. The key to a successful season lies in part with avoiding too many significant injuries to key players.

In my following of Major League Baseball this season, along with the Washington Nationals, I have noticed an abnormal amount of injuries.

Here is the injury report for the Nationals this season:

1B Nick Johnson: Out for season (only played in 38 games this year), making $5.5 million this year.

Closer Chad Cordero: Out for season (only pitched in six games this year), making $6.2 million this year.

3B Ryan Zimmerman: Out since May 26, making $465,000 this year.

1B Aaron Boone: Out since July 7, making $1 million this year.

OF Elijah Dukes: Out from beginning of season until May 9, and has been out since July 6, making $392,500 this year.

Starting Pitcher Shawn Hill: Out from March 20 to April 18 and has been out since June 25, making $402,000 this year.

OF Lastings Milledge: Out since June 29, making $402,500 this year.

C Paul Lo Duca: Out April 18 to May 2 and May 9 to June 17, making $5 million this year.

1B Dmitri Young: Out from April 8 to May 15 and out since July 19, making $5 million this year.

OF Austin Kearns: Out from May 22 to July 3, making $5 million this year.

OF Wily Mo Pena: Out March 20 to April 13 and out since July 18, making $2 million this year.

2B/3B Ronnie Belliard: Out May 20 through June 10, making $1.6 million this year.

Relief Pitcher Ryan Wagner: Out since March 20, making $450,000 this year.

C Johnny Estrada: Out from March 26 to April 9 and from May 9 to July 18, making $1.25 million this year.

Starting Pitcher Odalis Perez: Out from June 14 to June 26, making $850,000 this year.

This is a very long list, and these are all players who played, or would have played, significant roles on the Nationals this year.

The only position-player starters from the beginning of the season that have avoided the DL are the middle infielders: SS Cristian Guzman and 2B Felipe Lopez. However, Lopez has lost his starting spot at multiple times throughout the year.

The Nationals payroll this season is $43.3 million. Calculated from this list of players, $35.5 million of those players have spent some time on the disabled list.

That is, financially 82 percent, of the team.

The Nationals currently have just over 50 percent, financially, of their team on the DL.

This is not normal, and from what I remember, this does not seem to be much different from last year, either. Nick Johnson missed almost the entire season last year as well, and Cristian Guzman missed the whole second half.

For a team that has been a bottom dweller for all of recent memory, it makes it extremely difficult to rebuild when all of your players are injured.

The list of players the Nationals have used in left field this season is longer than most team’s available infielders: Rob Mackowiak, Wily Mo Pena, Elijah Dukes, Willie Harris, Paul Lo Duca, Ryan Langerhans, and Kory Casto.

I am not one to think the injury bug in DC is coincidence, and I have two possible explanations.

The first is that the Nationals’ medical staff and trainers are totally incompetent.

And the second, more viable explanation, is that players have no interest in coming off the disabled list.

Who can blame them? Who wants to play for a team that has been outscored by more than 100 runs this season?

The Washington Nationals have a lot of issues to address. But first and foremost, they need to get, and keep, their players healthy.

Even the players that have been healthy have no risk of being demoted because there are no available replacements. For most of the first half of the season, both Willie Harris and Wily Mo Pena struggled to hit .200. Aside from Guzman, the rest of the averages haven’t been much higher, either.