This probably hasn't been Skip Schumaker's best off-season ever.

First his baseball card comes out, and a rodent gets top billing. And now he's hurt.

Not the rodent. As far as we know, he's doing well, and just waiting for those royalty checks from Topps to start rolling in. But Schumaker suffered an injury while batting in a game last Friday, and Monday's MRI couldn't have been worse news: Schumaker has a tear in his right side.

Okay, so it's not as bad as that sounds. He's got a strained oblique muscle, which is roughly the same injury he suffered in Game 5 of the Cardinals' Division Series last October. That was on the 7th, and Schumaker didn't start another game until Game 5 of the World Series, on the 24th. He did start Games 6 and 7, too. So we might guess that Schumaker, this time, will be ready to play sometime in the first week of the season, and certainly in April.

On the other hand, perhaps it's concerning that he's now suffered the same injury twice in span of something like a dozen games. With Schumaker probably slated for the DL on Opening Day, Daniel Descalso and underrated player Tyler Greene should get most of the playing time at second base.

Source: Jenifer Langosch