Zach Britton to Miss 6-8 Weeks with Forearm Strain

By Djack

The Orioles bullpen took a huge blow today, Zach Britton, the most dominant closer in the MLB last year, will be out until July. The Orioles losing their closer for what will be about 3 months total if you include the time he's already missed, could turn out to be costly in late September. They're certainly going to blow some games late that'll potential be costly down the road. It hasn't effected them too much yet, but I'm sure it will over the next 6-8 weeks, though. 

Britton has been one of the most sure things in the 9th inning the past 3 seasons, without him the O's pitching staff becomes very vulnerable. Britton is ruled out with a forearm strain, doesn't sound good for sure, something like that could alter his career. Once pitchers start feeling pain in their throwing arm it's never good thing, especially when the guy is only throwing one inning a night. If Britton eventual needs surgery if he keeps regressing with the injury then I'd start to be really be concerned if I were an Orioles fan.

This is great news for the Yankees who can't seem to create any separation in the AL East between them and Orioles. The Orioles pitching staff has exceeded expectations thus far, although I wouldn't expect that trend to continue. The arms on their roster just aren't that impressive, Dylan Bundy is solid and so is Tillman, other than that they're mediocre at best. The bullpen without Britton is trash, when the Yankees played them we tagged up their bullpen for a ton of runs in the 9-1 comeback game. Hopefully, Orioles will start blowing some late leads and falling off, lord knows they can't keep up this pace all season. I'm sure they're saying about the Yankees, though. Britton being out for 2 months is a big blow, but if he comes back before the all star break, and returns to his star level then it shouldn't be detrimental to the Orioles season.