Last season Marlin rookie pitching standout Josh Johnson found out the other day that he will be missing the first two months of the season with an irritated ulnar nerve in his elbow. He and the team are thankful that it isn’t more serious and he’ll only be a few months behind.

This is a bad start for new Marlin manager Fredi Gonzalez. You never want to have one of your start pitchers hurt at the beginning of the season, although it’s better than having your pitcher hurt during the playoff race. The Marlins have a good set of young arms that will be able to fill in for the hurt pitcher. Wes Obermueller, Sergio Mitre, and Chris George have the most experience of the group of hopefuls to take his spot, but with different teams. Obermueller has made almost 40 starts from 2003-2005 with the Brewers. Mitre was up and down with the Cubs the same years mostly working in long relief but has made about 20 starts over the years. Finally, George with the Royals has had a 14-20 record with an ERA over 6 from 2001-2004, but has not been on a major league roster the last two seasons.

We’ll see how Johnson handles starting the seaon on the DL and who the Marlins choose as their fifth starter at the beginning of the season.