The nuances behind reliever management continue to unfold during this cycle of injury news for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Most recently, and of greatest concern, is the injury to reliever A.J. Puk.

The big lefty went on the Injured List with elbow inflammation on April 19, and yesterday we reported that he was awaiting second and third opinions on his MRI. Manager Torey Lovullo was still not able to relay any concrete updates from the medical team, simply stating that he was still waiting for information from all parties.

Speaking on Arizona Sports 98.7 radio earlier today, Vice President and Assistant General Manager Amiel Sawdaye seemed to indicate there was a chance to avoid the worst case scenario. All Lovullo would indicate is that he's "missing some time."

As the discussion progressed the manager kept talking about his own responsibility and regret for this injury. Puk's workload on the surface did not seem exceptionally large so far this year. Through April 17 he had worked in eight of the team's 19 games and thrown 156 pitches. He only appeared in back-to-back games twice, April 1 and 2, and April 16 and 17.

But Lovullo said several times he "burned" his pitcher. What he meant by that is a situation where a reliever is asked to start warming up, and gets lose and hot, but then doesn't get into the game right away.

"I might have burned him [got him hot] and then got him into a game later after the burn. So, I've got to be better making decisions about when to get guys into games and I pride myself on that," Lovullo said.

The ideal situation Lovullo is talking about requires timing the pitcher's warmup to coincide right when he'll be needed.

"My overall philosophy is you get them up later than sooner. You've got a mound visit, you've got a catcher visit and there's a strategy to it."

"I don't want them to get there, stand on the mound, wonder, 'am I getting in this game?' When they get up, I want it to be like 80% of time that they're getting into a game," Lovullo said.

Lovullo explained there was one time he got Puk up to throw, but then he didn't get into the game. Puk spoke to his manager about that, saying "look, if I'm up and hot, put me in the game."

Sometimes that can result in a high-leverage pitcher or closer being inserted into a lower-leverage situation. The manager may be criticized for doing that. But here again the nuance of the situations that actually happen, while not easy to explain, loom large.

Just that situation arose in Miami. Puk was warming up in the pen, and the game went from 4-1 to 6-1 with two outs in the eighth inning quickly. In that case, and trying to learn from previous experience, Lovullo stuck with him and put him in the game to pitch the eighth.

Puk then pitched the very next day to close it out with the score 6-4, needing 21 pitches to lock down the save. The next morning he woke up with a stiff elbow, and unknown to all on the outside, was not available to pitch Friday afternoon in Chicago.

Ironically, a similar situation took place on Tuesday night against the Rays with Shelby Miller. With Justin Martinez unavailable, Miller was set to close out a 3-1 game. the D-backs scored two runs, and Miller sat down and Juan Morillo came in. It's unknown how hot Miller got or if he was "burned."

Presumably, Lovullo got him down before he reached that point, or he otherwise would have just brought him into the game.

At the end of the day, pitchers get hurt, and no system is perfect. Every player's physiology is different, and no matter how much work is done to refine mechanics or usage patterns, eventually almost every pitcher is going to get injured at some point in their careers.

Puk has already had one Tommy John surgery. The fanbase awaits news to see if he can avoid a second. From all indications, even if he does avoid that fate, he clearly is going to be out a while, most likely beyond the 15-day injured list window that ends on May 4.

In the meantime, Lovullo will have to piece things together, and hope that Justin Martinez can hold up. He has been dealing with issues of his own, claiming shoulder fatigue, and has been unavailable to pitch since April 17. Lovullo said that he expected Martinez to be available Wednesday night, but he said that before Tuesday's game as well.

Jalen Beeks, the lone lefty in the bullpen at the moment, threw his 14th inning Tuesday. That's an unsustainable pace for 99 innings. Lovullo will need to find multiple days off for him this week or risk injuring him as well.