Dallas Keuchel Placed on DL

By Djack

Dallas Keuchel, ace of the Houston Astros pitching staff, will miss his next two starts at the very least, with a pinched nerve in his neck. Now, I don't want to overreact, but I'm not going to downplay this either like the Astros manager did. A pinched nerve is usually caused by repetitive motion in areas such as ligament and tendons that don't allow much access for nerves to move around causing them to "pinch". A pinched nerve is a compressed nerve, meaning he feels a constant pain in his neck, thus the continuous discomfort Keuchel is having. It's not debilitating, although it is painful, exactly why they're trying to nip this in the butt as quickly as possible.

Here's my only true concern, sometimes a pinched nerve in the neck typically leads to symptoms in other places such as the elbow. Something a pitcher definitely doesn't want. This can lead to bigger problems within the elbow that'll force the Astros ace to miss even more time. That shouldn't happen if they took the right precautions, but it's still a possibility.

Keuchel didn't have his best stuff in 2016, however in 2017 it looks like he has returned to his 2015 AL Cy Young form as he is 7-0 with a 1.84 ERA. Safe to say the Astros want him back as soon as possible, which should be after just two missed starts, if there's no major setbacks. Hopefully for Astros fans this doesn't become a bigger issue because it'd suck to lose Keuchel after the incredible start to the season he has had.