Felix Hernandez is headed to the disabled list for the third time in the past two seasons.
But this seems more for strategic purposes than actual injury concern.
The Seattle Mariners placed Hernandez on the 10-day disabled list on Tuesday because of lower back tightness, even though he dealt with the issue in his back entering each of the previous two starts.
What this allows is for the Mariners to skip Hernandez in the rotation before the All-Star break, which begins Monday. His only scheduled start before the break was supposed to be Thursday in the series finale against the Angels.