A plethora of injury updates on Morse, Werth, Storen, Lidge, DeRosa

I've got a ton of injury updates to pass along today, so I'll jump right into it. According to manager Davey Johnson, left fielder Michael Morse threw from about 50-60 feet without any problem today, and Morse said he plans to take some dry swings tomorrow, meaning he won't actually make contact with a ball. If Morse keeps progressing in his rehab from a strained left lat, the plan is for him to go on a rehab assignment and then rejoin the Nationals when they open interleague play on June 8 against the Red Sox. Morse could serve as the designated hitter in Boston, which would allow him some additional time before he needs to return to the outfield. Prior to his most recent setback early in April, Morse only felt the lat injury when throwing. "Hopefully that injury would be healed and he's throwing well enough in the next three weeks to hit and then being able to play," Johnson said. Johnson had some good news on Jayson Werth, who had surgery last Monday to repair a broken left wrist. According to the doctor who operated on Werth at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., because Werth had the surgery so quickly after suffering the broken wrist, he might be able to cut three weeks off his recovery time. That timetable was originally estimated at around 12 weeks. "You get in there, fix it before a lot of other stuff starts going on in there, it can cut a lot of time off recovery time," Johnson said. "And so I'm glad about that." Drew Storen (right elbow surgery) threw off flat ground today and felt great, according to Johnson. Storen said he expects to be sore tomorrow but is making progress in his rehab and still expects to return around the All-Star break. Storen's fellow reliever, Brad Lidge, has started playing catch and jogging after having surgery to repair a hernia back on May 1. He said he hopes to return to the Nats in the second or third week of June. "I don't know the exact protocol, but I know that I've got to go through the stages of building up after having about two weeks off," Lidge said. "Obviously, any time you have surgery you've got to make sure everything is OK on the other side, but so far so good. Hopefully there won't be any setbacks and today was a real good first day of the throwing program." Infielder Mark DeRosa, who is on the DL with a left oblique injury, is eligible to come off the disabled list today, but will likely need at least another week or so before he's able to return, Johnson said.