Ted Lilly has no structural damage

Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Ted Lilly has no structural damage to his left shoulder, as revealed by an MRI. He has been on the disabled list twice recently, and there are rumblings that the Dodgers are after a starting pitcher. We’ll see if those are mitigated by the good results of the MRI, as the team was considered to be a darkhorse candidate to sign Roy Oswalt in lieu of Lilly’s injury before the Texas Rangers signed Oswalt.

The Dodgers once tried to acquire Ryan Dempster from the Chicago Cubs before settling on trading for Lilly from the Cubs, and they are in plenty of Dempster rumors as a result of this and Lilly’s injury.

“The MRI went good,” manager Don Mattingly said. “That was good for us. With the medication, they expect him to have a few days off here with that, and basically start moving forward.”

Although Ted Lilly probably won’t need surgery, there is no time table on his return at this point in time. The 36-year-old lefty is coming off of a disappointing 1.3 WAR campaign after four solid seasons before 2011, and he has made eight starts for 48.2 innings this season. Lilly has a 3.85 FIP and is projected to end the year with a 3.80 ERA. Lilly has been worth 0.6 WAR this season and is projected to be worth about 2 WAR.

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