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Davey Johnson told reporters after Friday night's game with the Chicago Cubs that 33-year-old outfielder Jayson Werth would "more than likely" be headed to the DL as he continues to recover from hamstring strain, a stomach bug and dehydration issues which were believed to be behind his slow healing. The Washington Nationals' manager then admitted that it would likely be 22-year-old outfielder Eury Perez who would be called up to replace Werth on the Nats' roster.
"Yeah, [Perez] would be headed this way," Johnson said, though the move had not been officially announced at that point. "You guys are all over it aren't you," Johnson joked, knowing that the information had already been pieced together by reporters as soon as the Nats hinted Werth was headed for the DL early Friday afternoon.
"Did you get it on Twitter?" Johnson asked.
Werth was officially placed on the 15-Day DL this morning with the right hamstring strain which Nats' GM Mike Rizzo told reporters last night was a "slight" strain. Werth's stay on the DL will be a relatively short one. It was retroactively dated to May 3rd, so he's expected to return on May 18th. While he's gone, Perez will be in the Majors with the Nats for his second stint with the big league club. In 23 games and 108 plate appearances at Triple-A Syracuse before he was called up today, the speedy Nationals' outfield prospect had a .346/.352/.439 line with five doubles, a triple, a home run and seven stolen bases in eight attempts so far this season.
Perez made his MLB debut last September and was 1 for 5 with three stolen bases with the eventual NL East Champs. How much he'll play while he's up in the majors this time is unclear. Bryce Harper missed last night's game after a procedure to clean up an ingrown toenail, and though he was expected to be available for this afternoon's game with the Cubs he told reporters it's still causing him discomfort. With Werth and Harper out of the lineup last night, Tyler Moore, Denard Span and Roger Bernadina played left-to-right around the outfield in the Nationals' 7-3 win.