Both players were injured in Tuesday's loss to the Tigers and placed on the 10-day disabled list a day later.
CLEVELAND — Being without a key starting pitcher and your starting rightfielder for a month is less than ideal for a team fighting to get back to .500 and beyond, but it could have been far worse for the Mariners.
The team released a medical update on Felix Hernandez and Mitch Haniger on Friday afternoon after the injured players underwent MRIs and met with team medical director Dr. Edward Khalfayan in Seattle earlier in the day.
Hernandez was diagnosed with bursitis in his right shoulder and is expected to miss three to four weeks. The longtime Mariners’ ace was pulled after two innings of his start on Tuesday in Detroit with a dead arm. This is the second time in his career that Hernandez has missed time with bursitis. In 2005 while pitching for Class AAA Tacoma, Hernandez was shut down from June 14 to July 10 with bursitis. He would go on to make his MLB debut later that season.
In five starts this season, Hernandez is 2-2 with a 4.73 ERA, giving up 14 runs in 26 2/3 innings pitched with 22 strikeouts and three walks. It’s the second straight season that Hernandez was placed on the disabled list. A year ago, he strained his calf at the end of May and didn’t return till mid-July.
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Haniger was diagnosed with a Grade 2 strain of his right oblique. He’s also expected to miss three to four weeks. He suffered the injury in at-bat on Tuesday night, but had been dealing with some soreness in the oblique in the days leading up to it. Haniger had never suffered an oblique strain in his career.
At the time of the injury, he was the Mariners’ most productive hitter despite being a rookie. Haniger was hitting .338 (27-for-80) with a 1.042 OPS, seven doubles, a triple, four homers, 13 walks and 16 RBI.
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