(Reuters) – Arizona All-Star pitcher Patrick Corbin has been diagnosed with a damaged ligament in his left elbow and will not make the season-opening trip to Australia, the team said on Sunday.
The ace left-hander had been scheduled to start the Diamondback’s Major League Baseball opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Sydney on March 22.
Corbin, 24, underwent a magnetic resonance imaging scan after leaving his spring training start on Saturday complaining of stiffness in his left forearm. The scan revealed the damage to the ulnar collateral ligament.
Corbin went 14-8 with a 3.41 earned run average in 32 starts in 2013.
The Dodgers will be without starting outfielder Carl Crawford and pitchers Zack Greinke and Dan Haren for the two-game Sydney series.
Crawford’s fiancee is expecting the birth of a son and the outfielder will be on paternity leave, the Dodgers said.
Greinke, Haren and a player to be named are exempt from the Australia games but will able to appear in the Dodgers’ North American opener on March 30 in San Diego.
(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Wilson, North Carolina)