It’s a new experience for Dan Langfield, and it’s a frustrating one.
The Somerset High graduate — a 2012 third-round draft pick of the Cincinnati Reds — has been sidelined with a shoulder injury. He remains at the Reds’ spring training camp outside Phoenix, Ariz., where his baseball life is downright dull. He said the injury has been diagnosed as an “internal impingement” in the pitcher’s right throwing shoulder.
He said he first felt it in January and his agent notified the Reds. Langfield said he easily passed every strength test on his right arm, but the pinching persisted.
“It’s frustrating not being able to be out there and not doing my job,” he said.
Rehabilitation has involved a lot of stretching and a buildup of distance throwing from 45 feet to, he hoped, 90 feet by the end of last week.
“I’ve got a little ways to go. I’m not rushing anything. I want to avoid any surgery at all. ... Running and rehab. That’s about as fun as it gets.”
Langfield has been back throwing for about a month and he’s hoping to be back in action within a month-and-a-half, but, he confessed, “there is no official timetable. We’ll let it run its course.”
Langfield last fall was named by baseballamerica.com as the 10th best prospect in the Pioneer League, the rookie league in which the righthander pitched very well this summer.
Shoulder injuries are obviously the worst kind of hell for a pitcher. Hopefully, rehab carries the day, but it's not encouraging that he's passed every strength test and still can't get past the impingement.
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