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SARASOTA, FLA. — So that's it, then. Not even a $10-million silver lining to the cloud created by Scott Rolen's finger injury.
No chance even that the third baseman could break camp as a designated hitter, which would allow the Toronto Blue Jays to begin the process of ensuring Frank Thomas doesn't reach those 376 plate appearances he otherwise will almost surely make by accident, thereby guaranteeing his 2010 option and that $10-million salary.
Keep moving, folks. Nothing to see here.
One week to the day the 2008 season opens at Yankee Stadium and yesterday Rolen was miles and, as it turns out, weeks away from playing in a game again, undergoing surgery to have a screw placed in his fractured right middle finger by Baltimore-based specialist Thomas Graham.
Related Information
- Boston Red Sox
- Cincinnati Reds
- New York Yankees
- Toronto Blue Jays
- Jeremy Accardo
- A.J. Burnett
- David Eckstein
- Troy Glaus
- Casey Janssen
- Shaun Marcum
- John McDonald
- Mike Myers
- John Parrish
- B.J. Ryan
- Marco Scutaro
- Frank Thomas
- Randy Wells
- Brian Wolfe
Rolen suffered a non-displaced fracture of the finger and also lost his nail when he was hit on his bare hand during an infield drill. It will be two weeks until the screw comes out.
"It's tolerance at that point," general manager J.P. Ricciardi said yesterday. "It's definitely two weeks and probably a little longer, but I can't give you an exact date. I don't know how he'll respond to moving his hand and things like that. I don't want to give you a best-case or worst-case scenario because I really can't pinpoint it.
"The fracture isn't really the problem. It's just that when he ripped the nail off, he took off another layer of skin and it exposed the bone."
It really is time for spring training to end. First, it was A.J. Burnett showing up with a torn nail on his right index finger after getting his throwing hand caught in a door. Then it was Casey Janssen tearing his labrum. Then B.J. Ryan developed soreness in his forearm. Now Rolen.
This has been one of those spring trainings that you take on faith with a veteran team: the lack of home runs doesn't mean anything because all these veterans are working on stuff.
Burnett really is intent on becoming more of a pitcher and less of a thrower.
Thomas really can't be as overmatched by even so-so fastballs as he's appeared all spring training.
He looked bad last spring before hitting .250 in April and .193 in May.
Now just two months shy of his 40th birthday, he's looked even worse.
The Blue Jays finally cried uncle yesterday with Ryan. After a bullpen session, Gibbons called him into the office before the team left for Sarasota and said he wouldn't break camp with the team, and Ricciardi now says mid-April is the earliest to expect to see Ryan back in the major leagues.
And that's as it should have been all along, really, since Ryan spent most of spring training in the honeymoon phase of his recovery from Tommy John tendon transplant surgery. The original estimate, remember, was the end of April or first week of May.
Jeremy Accardo will be the closer, and it appears Rule 5 pick Randy Wells, Brian Wolfe and left-handers John Parrish and now Jesse Carlson are bidding for two bullpen spots.
Carlson, a 27-year-old non-roster invitee with a sweeping curveball and changeup whose lower-arm delivery is deceptive and whom bullpen coach Bruce Walton likens to veteran Mike Myers, pitched the first inning of last night's game against the Cincinnati Reds because the Blue Jays want another look at him after watching Parrish implode on Sunday. He was replaced with the scheduled starter, Shaun Marcum, in the second inning.
Ricciardi denied that Rolen's injury was a huge blow to the team.
"No, we have [Marco] Scutaro [who is now the everyday third baseman] and our bench is as deep as it's been," Ricciardi said. "We're better built to handle it now. Things like this happen over the course of the year. It just happens to be the start of the year, so everybody looks at it as the first game of the World Series."
Maybe. But one of the main reasons for acquiring Rolen — other than granting Troy Glaus his wish to get off the Rogers Centre's artificial turf — was to upgrade the defence at third base, since playing David Eckstein over John McDonald at shortstop on an everyday basis was a net defensive loss.
Rolen was going to hit in the middle of the lineup, giving a slow-footed team a little more offensive presence. With Rolen out, and Thomas possibly preparing for another gruesome start, it's going to be hard for Ricciardi to say realistically that his team will leave Florida with the depth to match the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, something he's maintained even as he admitted he didn't have third-place and cleanup hitters as prolific as the two beasts of the American League East.
