Baltimore Orioles’ slugger Chris Davis strains left oblique

This was the last thing the Baltimore Orioles needed.

Slugging first baseman Chris Davis has been off to a slow start this season (.250/.372/.382) coming off a career year in 2013. Now it looks like the team might lose him to an extended stint on the disabled list after he left Friday night’s game with a strained left oblique.

Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun reports the following about the injury:

"Rarely is it ever good news. An oblique strain, depending on its severity, can sideline a player more than a month. It usually is a slam-dunk DL sentence.Orioles first baseman Chris Davis left Friday’s game with a left oblique strain. After the game he said he didn’t believe it was too severe, that he was in some discomfort, but, ‘it doesn’t feel so bad right now that I can’t move or anything like that.'”"

As Connolly notes, that type of optimism is rarely awarded with oblique injuries for baseball players. And as of Saturday morning, it looks like the Orioles already have a corresponding move in motion to place Davis on the DL:

The speedy Weeks is no answer at first base, however, so the Orioles might find themselves in a dilemma. They just designated Steve Pearce for assignment, leaving them with spare parts to fill Davis’s spot. Their stopgap solution is likely Ryan Flaherty, depending on the severity of Davis’s injury.