Washington Nationals' manager Matt Williams talked to reporters before tonight's game against the Miami Marlins about 24-year-old infielder Anthony Rendon being in the nation's capital today to have the "tightness" in his left side examined by Nationals' team doctor, Dr. Wiemi Douoguih.
Rendon, who was rehabbing from an MCL strain suffered back on March 9th at the start of Grapefruit League action, was held out of games last week and scratched from the lineup when he had trouble getting loose.
"'Don't know why it's been a problem,'" Williams told reporters today, including MASN's Chris Johnson.
"'It's just crept up on him. We're being cautious with it to make sure that it doesn't turn into something we don't want it to turn into. The last couple of days, he's taken it easy. He went through the full workout a couple days ago and it was tight. So yesterday we shut him down. He's back here to see the doc today and hopefully resume.'"
After the Nationals' 6-4 win over the Marlins, Williams was asked if there was any update on Rendon's status.
"Anthony was seen by the doctor today," Williams said. "He's got an oblique strain. So we're going to have to slow his progress down a little bit. He's felt it for the last few days, and so we're just going to have to sit him a little bit longer and make sure that it's okay before he resumes activity. But it's just not getting loose for him so there's a little strain in there and we've got to take care of that and knock it out before he gets back at it."
For now, Rendon will remain in D.C. with the team until he's able to resume baseball activities.
"He'll stay here until he feels ready to play," Williams explained. "Unfortunately he's got a little bit of strain there, so we've got to make sure we take care of it."
Asked if they knew the severity of the strain, Williams said they didn't yet.
"We'll get a test on it, we'll look at it."
Rendon just can't seem to get his season started, but as Nats' GM Mike Rizzo assured reporters last week, the knee has not been a problem for the Nationals' 2011 1st Round pick, though the oblique issue is obviously a setback.
So how long will he be shut down?
"Yunel [Escobar] had it in Spring and he was 10 days back to activity or so," Williams said. "So we'll have to see how Anthony reacts, but there's no timetable on it yet until we fully assess it."
• We talked about the update on Rendon, Ian Desmond's blast, Yunel Escobar's big night and Jordan Zimmermann's outing on Nats Nightly after the game: