Daniel Palencia injury gets encouraging twist from Craig Counsell

Sunday was a truly awful day for the Chicago Cubs. It wasn't just that the team allowed a come-from-behind victory to a terrible Washington Nationals team. It wasn't just that they lost the series to that same bad club. It was that closer Daniel Palencia had another awful outing (five earned runs no outs recorded) that was punctuated by an early exit due to injury.

Things went from bad to worse when the Cubs announced what Palencia's injury was. Tightness in the posterior right shoulder is never something fans want to hear about a pitcher. Especially one who routinely throws over 100 miles per hour. However, it appears manager Craig Counsell isn't necessarily expecting the worst. Even if Palencia has been put on the IL.

Chicago Cubs hoping Daniel Palencia's injury isn't as severe as it looks

"Danny felt some tightness in the posterior right shoulder," Counsell said immediately after the game. "Docs have looked at him. That's all we have right now. "Probably let him just calm down a little bit and see how we are in a couple of days, a day or so."

That alone seemed more hopeful than most fans probably were right after the incident happened. Most people hear arm injury with a pitcher, and they immediately think season-ender at the very least. Counsell isn't so sure.

The Cubs manager added the pitcher had a similar pain "maybe a couple months ago." That pain lasted just about a day and then corrected itself. Counsell said that since the pain showed up and then went away, Palencia has "been good ever since."

There is a bit of a twist to this twist. One has to wonder if Palencia has, in fact, been "good," or if the earlier tightness might have been emblematic of why the Cubs closer has struggled mightily in his last few outings.

On Monday, the idea that it would be just a day or two was short circuited when Palencia was officially placed on the IL. However, there's still some hope from Counsell at least that it won't be a long stay.

“I don’t think I know the answer to that question right now,” Counsell said.

The current plan detailed by Counsell includes allowing the 25-year-old pitcher to undergo treatment this week in Atlanta to see if his symptoms subside. With a team off-day coming on Thursday, Counsell said Palencia will be reevaluated after the Braves series before determining the next step in his comeback bid.

“We’re going to take these three days to treat him,” the Cubs manager said. “And then I think Friday in Chicago we’ll probably have a better idea of what direction this is going to go.”