Nathan's elbow tight

Joe Nathan threw 20 pitches and had to leave his spring training debut with tightness in his right elbow. Nathan needed offseason surgery to clean out bone spurs in that same elbow, so this is potentially significant news.

"[There was] some tightness, achiness. We didn't want to push through anything," Nathan said of his elbow. "I think it's more being careful than anything right now. [We are] taking things slow because we still have a lot of time."

Nathan had recorded just one out in the contest when he was removed from the game. He struck out the first batter he faced and then issued two walks. Nathan appeared upset with the final pitch he threw, which resulted in a walk to J.D. Drew.

Fantasy Impact: Nathan is consistently one of the top closers in baseball, but now that he's approaching the latter years of his career and has an injury concern, confidence in him may begin to falter. He's capable of posting some of the best closer numbers in baseball if he's right. Right now, he's not and needs monitoring.