Arizona Diamondbacks Willie Bloomquist to start season on disabled list

The Arizona Diamondbacks are just days away from opening their 2013 regular season against the St. Louis Cardinals, but the number of regulars who will be able to play seems to be dwindling by the day.

The team announced Wednesday that infielder Willie Bloomquist, who left Tuesday’s spring training game against the Angels, has a Grade 2 strain of his right oblique and will start the season on the disabled list.

Bloomquist, 35, was hitting .270 this spring.

“Just a swing, I felt it in my follow through on a swing that I fouled back,” Bloomquist told Arizona Sports 620’s Burns and Gambo of what happened. “I’ve unfortunately done that once in my career a long time ago when I was with Seattle so I knew instantly kind of what the feeling was.”

Bloomquist said the first time he suffered this kind of injury he tried to play through it and made things worse, so he knew better this time and his hopeful he won’t be out long.

But, he will start a season on the disabled list for the first time in his career, and after an offseason doing all he could to be ready to go, all he can do is sit back, watch and hope he heals.

The injury comes at an inopportune time for the team, as less than a week ago Arizona traded shortstop John McDonald to Pittsburgh because they had a glut of infielders. With Bloomquist out, the team will likely turn to Cliff Pennington to play shortstop.

“With (center fielder) Adam Eaton going down and we have a couple guys injured here, it’s not a good time,” he said. “It’s never really a good time to get injured, but especially now. The excitement about Opening Day is building up and everyone’s getting pumped and getting ready to go, and this kind of just takes the wind out of my sails.”

Bloomquist will be eligible to return to the team on April 11, but said his injury is the type he has to take “day-by-day.”

“As soon as it’s ready to go, I’ll be ready to go myself.”

Follow @AZSports