Paul Goldschmidt returning to Phoenix for MRI on elbow

Paul Goldschmidt was out of the Diamondbacks’ line-up yesterday, but nobody paid much attention to that. After all, Torey Lovullo has been strict about making sure everyone on the roster was rested, and our MVP candidate has been no exception to that. But when Goldschmidt was also missing from the line-up this afternoon, for the first of the series against the Dodgers in Los Angeles, that was a surprise. Reporters on site like Steve Gilbert, Nick Piecoro and Jody Jackson all noticed his absence, and it now appears there is indeed a reason.

Any injury to our MVP candidate would certainly not be what we want, as we head into the final four weeks of the season. However, there seems grounds to think that this is mostly Torey Lovullo and the team being cautious. This has apparently been “lingering” in his elbow for some time. According to Gilbert on Twitter, “Goldschmidt asked to play tonight but team wants to take precautions,” and “see exactly what's going on.” He says Goldschmidt felt stiffness in the mornings, but had “minimal discomfort after treatment.” He adds Paul is expected to come back to LA tomorrow, after the MRI., and could conceivably be back in the line-up.

It might explain why Paul looked so uncomfortable in Saturday’s game at Coors Field, going a most un-Goldschmidtlike 0-for-5 with three strikeouts. But no reason to go all running around in flames at this point. We’ll keep an eye on this though, see what happens.