Washington Nationals Will Take “Serious Look” at Shelving Adam LaRoche

May 7, 2014; Washington, DC, USA; Washington Nationals first baseman Adam LaRoche (25) hits a two-RBI single in the first inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: H.Darr Beiser-USA TODAY Sports

The injuries just keep on coming.

Adam LaRoche might be the next Washington Nationals position player to land on the disabled list, as Josh Land of MASN Sports is reporting that the first baseman had an MRI on his strained quad on Saturday. Should the results come back less than pleasing, LaRoche could find himself on the disabled list.

Manager Matt Williams explained the situation to the media prior to Saturday’s contest against the Oakland Athletics, via Land:

"It grabbed him a little bit last night. Given the situation in the game, we got him out of there. When he gets a base hit, he can kind of monitor himself on his running. But the first two steps playing defense sometimes can be difficult for him because you don’t think about it. You don’t have time to think about it. So it grabbed him a little bit last night."

While Williams also said that he has yet to see the results, he explained that the situation is an interesting one. Every time LaRoche feels better, Williams explained, he tweaks the quad yet again: “Yeah, we’ve considered it [putting him on the DL], but the issue for him is that it’s been a little bit better, and then he’ll tweak it again and then it’s just kind of sore again.”

LaRoche is the team leader in batting average (.319) and OPS (.925). He is tied for the team lead in homers with five (Anthony Rendon) and is second to Rendon in RBI (23).

Should LaRoche need time on the DL to heal, Tyler Moore will likely receive most of the time at first. On the year, Moore is hitting just .200/.273/.433 with two homers and three RBI in 30 at-bats.

He is an obvious downgrade from LaRoche. With this being the case, the best move for Washington is likely to put LaRoche on the DL as a precautionary measure. The last thing anybody wants is for LaRoche to make the injury worse and worse while playing through it.