Jason Motte's UCL Went "Sproing," Out for at Least a Month More, TJ Surgery Possible

According to the words of the Twitterverse, Jason Motte had an MRI this morning. This evening, the club stated that the MRI revealed a "low grade" tear in his UCL. He'll have a month to rest the UCL. If he doesn't show improvement by May 1, he will likely be headed for TJ surgery.

Recovery from such a surgery requires at least a year of time to mend, so Jason Motte would spend more than half of his two-year, $12m contract on the disabled list, maybe as much as three-quarters of it.

While Jason is an excellent reliever, and Monday's bullpen blowup is still fresh in the mind, it's hard to get too upset about the loss of even a very good right-handed reliever. The ability to fill in the bullpen with solid arms from Memphis is one of our stronger areas of depth. Still, this is an unfortunate blow, especially following a frustrating 2012 of subpar bullpen performance.

On a scale from "Blake Hawksworth tweaked his groin" to "Chris Carpenter 2007-08," this probably runs about a "Lance Berkman 2012" on the injurometer.

Thanks for the ever-excellent coverage to MLB.com reporter Jenifer Langosch and St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Derrick Goold.