Increasing concern from the Phils about Adam Morgan’s left shoulder led to an MRI last week, and the MRI revealed some troubling results. Morgan has a small tear in the rotator cuff of his left shoulder that will result in Morgan having to receive an injection in the shoulder over the next few days. Luckily, surgery has not been mentioned as of yet, but the news is extremely concerning nonetheless.
Morgan will not throw for the next three weeks, and will more than likely miss another month or more.
Phuture Phillies 
IMO, I would shut him down for the remaining of the season. Have him do the necessary re-hab and then the long-tosses until fall. No need to rush him at this point.
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Really crappy news. He’s done for the year most likely and there is no guarantee that he won’t need surgery regardless. Lets hope it doesnt get to that, but its rare that these injuries heal on their own.
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I wonder if he tried to throw to hard to early in spring training to impress/make the big club. Hope he heals well, and definitely no need to rush.
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Not sure why he would do that because there was no way he was making the Phillies out of camp. Now, if they were short a starter or an injury came up maybe. I can see why Morgan might try and do that to show he’s a competitor, but with Hamels, Halladay, Lee, Kendrick and Lannan there was zero chance Morgan was making the team.
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A lot of times players with zero chance of making the team out of ST delude themselves into thinking that they have a chance. They think if they can impress enough in the ST games that they can make the team.
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I think with some teams that probably actually does happen. With the Phillies, not so much.
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I’ve had two labrum surgeries on my left shoulder (have no clue how I hurt it and I’m righthanded). Before the initial diagnosis my doctor thought it was rotator cuff and even if it would have been a small tear it’s six weeks in a sling and six months rehab. The good news about a rotator cuff is that it’s muscle and tendons. A small tear can heal on its own, just like a hamstring. The labrum is just tissue so that’s not healing on its own. Hopefully Morgan can avoid surgery, but he should be shutdown for the season. No reason to take an unnecessary risk at this point.
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problem I had is it was worse than they thought, when they went in, a lot of times the mri don’t show how bad it is most times. I wish I knew how the hell I did mine too.
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The concern for me is that scar tissue is typically weaker and more prone to reinjury than healthy tissue, so even if it does heal on its own, I would have to assume he’d be more susceptible to future tears.
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Serious question here, how often does the whole “non-surgical option” thing actually work?
Feels like a lot of the times you hear that, the guy has to go under the knife eventually.
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Sounds like they tried this approach with Roy Haliaday last year and guess what he still needed surgery this year. Phillies will never admit it but Roy alluded to it in his press conference. Rehab and strengthening the muscles in the shoulder did not heal the wear and tear no matter how small it was.
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Morgan doesn’t have nearly the same kind of wear and tear that Halladay has though. The first choice is always to avoid surgery if possible. They can always go in and fix it, although doing later obviously pushes back the recovery time. Problem with a shoulder is not everyone comes back from it. Elbow injuries don’t seem to be the same. Shoulders not so much.
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Didn’t Halladay also have a bone spur? Yeah, swing and miss there medical staff.
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That’s exactly what I thought too. If anyone has any insight on how often the non-surgical route works, I’d be really interested to hear it.
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I know with the labrum, my doctor said about 10 percent of the time you can get away with no surgery. That’s because it’s tissue, which is unlikely to heal on its own. With the rotator cuff, since Morgan’s is a small tear I’d think he’d have a decent chance to let it heal without surgery since the RC is muscle and tendons, which should be able to heal on its own as long as it’s not a major tear.
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‘The plan is for Morgan to have either a platelet-rich plasma injection or cortisone injection in the next week. He will not throw for three weeks’…., why not both at a long-interval between each!
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You have to be careful with cortisone shots since they weaken tendons.
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I wouldn’t even think about doing a cortisone shot for a tendon. We all saw what happened to Howard, who got one near his ailing Achilles before it blew out.
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