Rich Harden Shut Down With Lat Stiffness

Spring training has barely begun, but the Oakland A's have already had to shut down Rich Harden for "a few weeks," according to the San Francisco Chronicle's Susan Slusser.

Harden experienced some lat stiffness and when he couldn't get loose after 10-15 pitches, and the A's made the decision to shelve him until sometime in March.

After being traded by the A's to the Cubs in 2008, Harden returned to Oakland this offseason to try and compete for the club's fifth rotation spot this spring. He spent 2010 with the Rangers, struggling with the strike zone (6.1 walks per nine innings) and with several injuries.

How this affects his chances to compete for that last rotation spot will probably depend on how much time he ends up missing, but it's certainly not the way he wanted things to start.

Harden's only made 10 relief appearances over his career, with two coming last season in Texas. He didn't pitch well enough to make the Rangers' postseason roster, though. Before Thursday's setback, though, he appeared to be in relatively good shape; Slusser also reported that he was up to 40 pitches in his previous sessions, which is a good total for this early in the spring.

Still, Harden hasn't topped 148 innings in any season since 2004 and he's definitely not off to a good start in 2010.