Cervelli Going To Be Out Longer Than Six Weeks

It doesn't come as much of a surprise, given how quickly the injury was diagnosed and the fact that he was recently moved to the 60-day DL, but Francisco Cervelli is not going to be back in 6 weeks as originally estimated.

Anthony McCarron is down in Tampa covering the massive Major League DL rehab effort ramping up there this week and he spoke to Cervelli earlier today.  According to Frankie, he's 3 weeks away from starting hand strengthening exercises and 5 away from starting baseball activities again.  It goes without saying that a catcher recovering from a broken throwing hand is going to need more than 1 week of rehab games to get back into full game shape, so expect Cervelli to be out of action until early July.

This news is another blow to a roster already stretched to the point of breaking.  They could be just 23 guys strong tonight with Nunez and D-Rob still nursing smaller dings, 22.5 if you factor in Travis Hafner's lack of a defensive position.  The obvious downside to this is more Chris Stewart in the lineup; the only upside is a longer opportunity to get a look at Austin Romine.