NEW YORK — With the Orioles facing a difficult roster decision before Wednesday's game, Steve Pearce went into manager Buck Showalter's office and asked to be placed on the 15-day disabled list with a left oblique strain.
Pearce had been on the team's medical report and began receiving treatment for the oblique about three days ago. But Showalter had prepared to make a tough decision in making space for Wednesday's starting pitcher, Kevin Gausman, before Pearce made the suggestion.
"He said he hasn't gotten any better the last day or two," Showalter said. "He's been on the sheet, but nothing that we thought. But Stevie said, 'I don't want two days from now I need to go on the disabled list and we had to make this move.' That's exactly what happened. We were prepared to go in some other ways."
Pearce said his oblique began bothering him about two weeks ago and while he couldn't pinpoint a certain swing that led to the injury, treatment wasn't making marked improvement.
"I'm not disappointed," Pearce said. "It just needs to get done. It kind of stinks that I'm going on [the DL], but it needs to be taken care of. It's getting to the point that it feels a little more threatening than I'd like. … It just started to slowly escalate and get a little more pain every day. Now it's time for me to take care of it."
Pearce said he will have a precautionary MRI taken, and planned to be re-evaluated in Baltimore on Thursday before rejoining the club in St. Petersburg, Fla., this weekend.
The move is retroactive to Sunday, so Pearce can be activated from the DL on Aug. 3 when the Orioles open a three-city, nine-game West Coast trip to Oakland, Anaheim and Seattle.
"I hope so," Pearce said when asked if he believed he'd be ready to return then. "I hope we've gotten ahead of it. I've been in treatment the last couple days and it's kind of just staying the same, so we'll just go ahead and get an MRI on it."
Pearce, who is hitting .227/.290/.392 with seven homers and 24 RBIs in 58 games, is one of the team's most versatile players defensively. He has made starts at left field, right field, first base, second base and designated hitter. Pearce has had a history of injuries, sometimes a result of his blue-collar work ethic, including injuries to both wrists that forced him to miss 53 games in 2013, but he has never gone on the DL with an oblique injury before.
"It's part of who he is," Showalter said. "He had the sore wrists he had to get injected. It's where he gets his edge. It's why he's able to play second base and play third base and first base and left field and right field, because he's engaged in the competition every day. He's always prepared. And with that, sometimes you pay a price."
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