Royals Injury Updates: Lorenzo Cain, Greg Holland

The Royals knew that Lorenzo Cain would be out for a little while still after what was initially thought to be a groin strain turned out to be a torn hip flexor.

Now, he’ll resume his minor league rehab assignment and will report to Surprise, Arizona. Unfortunately, he’s still 4 to 8 weeks from returning to action, according to Bob Dutton. Until then, the Royals will continue to look at Jarrod Dyson and mix in Mitch Maier in center field.

To this point, both have filled in well. Maier is batting just .222 but he’s reached base 35% of the time and has played strong defense in center. He’d be just fine as an injury fill in full time in my opinion. The Royals want to see what they have in Jarrod Dyson. Recently, he’s been playing better than his early season cameo when he was sent back down after two games. He has a base hit in all seven games he’s played in this year and he’s seeing more pitches per plate appearance (4.0) than the league average (3.82). Last night, he had two at bats of eight or more pitches at the top of the order.

That will play for this team. If he keeps making contact, his speed will be an asset. If he can work a walk and get some pitch counts up, even better.  If for some reason there’s another setback with Cain or neither of Dyson and Maier can stay in center, Derrick Robinson is still hitting surprisingly well in Omaha, and the Royals may have occasion to call up Wil Myers to Omaha and could use the roster spot.

In pitching news, Greg Holland threw a bullpen session on Wednesday and said he felt fine after 26 pitches. He was placed on the disabled list after a dreadful appearance against the Blue Jays last month where he threw 22 pitches but just 7 strikes.

He was a potential replacement for Joakim Soria coming into the year, and at least figured to be an elite setup man after a breakout 2011, but he hadn’t recreated the same dominance from last season. In one of his seven appearances did he retire the side in order. He’ll start a minor league rehab assignment soon and should be on the mend shortly after that. Until then, the trio of Jonathan Broxton, Aaron Crow and Tim Collins have been effective and Kelvin Herrera has been great in lower leverage situations.

Thanks for visiting Kings of Kauffman. You can stay current on all the Kings of Kauffman content and news by following us on Twitter, Facebook, or by way of our RSS feed.  You can also send your questions to our mailbag at KoKMailbag@gmail.com.