Right-hander Rafael Soriano has now undergone three series of tests, including MRIs, since January and no warning flag shows up. If it had, the Braves would not have signed him to a two-year, $9 million contract, of which $6.1 million will be paid to him next season.
Soriano has been placed on the 15-day disabled list three times this season with right elbow tendinitis, inflammation, soreness, whatever the Braves call it at any particular time. It hurts to pitch. Not to throw, to pitch.
Soriano was constantly tossing and throwing a baseball during his first two stints on the disabled list -- unbeknownst to manager Bobby Cox -- when he was supposed to have shut down completely to rest.
He was examined June 13 by Dr. Lewis Yocum, who performed Soriano's 2004 elbow reconstruction surgery. Yocum, comparing films of all the tests, saw nothing conclusive. Neither did Dr. James Andrews, who reviewed the same tests and also examined Soriano on Aug. 7 in Pensacola, Fla.
Andrews, in fact, told the Braves and Soriano that Soriano can pitch if he is able to, which suggests that fear of doing major damage to his elbow has kept Soriano off the mound.
If Soriano still can't pitch without pain, the only solution Andrews sees is surgery: Go in there and take a look. One possible outcome is a nerve transposition procedure, where Andrews would literally move out of the way whatever nerve is pressing from wherever it is pressing.
