Oakland A's injury: Jarrod Parker recovery set back after lateral elbow impingement, but should pitch again

Jarrod Parker suffered a "lateral elbow impingement" on his "12th pitch facing hitters for the first time in spring training," the San Francisco Chronicle's John Shea reports Oakland Athletics head trainer Nick Paparesta saying. The issue is nowhere close to as serious as the medial epicondyle fracture Parker suffered while attempting to come back from his second Tommy John surgery last year.

This is not nearly as serious as what happened in Nashville. Parker can move elbow, has range of motion.

— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) March 10, 2016

Parker will get an MRI today, and then the A's will decide his next steps. Sets him back, but medical staff confident he'll pitch again.

— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) March 10, 2016

Thursday morning, Matt Kawahara of the Sacramento Bee tweeted that Oakland Athletics right-handed pitcher Jarrod Parker "came off the mound yelling in pain after throwing a pitch."

Parker was facing #Athletics hitters on back field. He walked off the field immediately and is talking to trainers

— Matt Kawahara (@matthewkawahara) March 10, 2016

So while this is definitely a setback and the initial news was alarming, it's not something that you should consider a career-ender. It's hard to say when Parker will return until the MRI is completed. The conditions he was already returning from complicate matters, but a look at disabled list data from the last six years by Jeff Zimmerman of FanGraphs indicates a wide variety of time missed for pitcher injuries classified as "elbow impingements." There are only five pitcher injuries in this sample:

Parker last appeared in a major league game in Game 3 of the 2013 ALDS. The club was already reportedly leaning towards making Parker a reliever this year.