I was supposed to see Bubba Chandler pitch last night, but rain got in the way. Instead, we get the gift of two lifetime suspensions being lifted. Since both men are dead now, I supposed that they met the terms, though the technical agreement was for a permanent suspension. I’ve heard Rose supporters for years saying yes, that’s what he agreed to, but he always felt he would be forgiven. I’m not as sure about that; Rose got away with almost everything in his life up to that point and his ability to hit a baseball let him. He turned his post-suspension life into a victim act that came with a credit card machine. I’ll let others judge, but I do know that he had friends inside the game who were loyal.
For years, I’ve said that I had no problem with Pete Rose in the Hall of Fame, but that it should only be posthumously. That position hasn’t changed and I think we may just see that happen. The next run for this is 2027/28 and I have some faith in a committee that last time out included luminaries like Rick Hummel and Claire Smith, but I hope this move makes the Baseball Gods take a long look at the other men being kept out. I don’t think they deserve the same penalty and I don’t think they deserve the same fate. We’ll see how that changes, but for now, let’s get to the injuries:
OSWALDO CABRERA, IF NYY (fractured leg)
It wasn’t the slide, but the return that hurt Oswaldo Cabrera. Watching him lay on the ground, hugged by Tim Lentych, waiting for the ambulance coming from center, told you everything you needed to know about how serious the injury was. As he tried to stop and cut, the ankle buckled, or perhaps collapsed. Even the video at MLB.com cuts out the mechanism; it’s admittedly hard to watch. At the time, I thought it was dislocated. The brace they put on could go for dislocation or for fracture, so there’s no tell there. The video isn’t clear either and the Yankees didn’t have immediate updates on exactly what happened.
The question now is what kind of soft tissue damage is there. Broken bones heal on a very predictable pattern. The same isn’t as true for ligaments and tendons, so how much damage the doctors had to clean up and stitch together is going to determine his return time. If it is just the bone, it’s six to eight weeks, as with every other fracture we’ll talk about.
If there’s any part of this that interests me, it’s that Aaron Boone said afterwards that Cabrera asked, while both Yankees and Mariners medical staff attended to him “Judgy, did I score?” First, Judgy? We need better nicknames in the modern era. Second, why did he not know? He very clearly got the plate and was laying on it nearly the whole time. This one feels a bit too Gipper for me, though I can’t decide if Boone was trying to pad Aaron Judge’s leadership or a Yankee mythos that’s been lacking lately. It did show something that the Yankee captain never hesitated in being the one to go out and speak to his teammate.
The Yankees haven’t given more detail, with most reports focusing on the fracture. The quick reaction usually means the bone is exposed or that it is so out of shape to be immediately recognized as threatening. I think it was the latter here and the quick thinking of the medical staffs make it likely Cabrera will play again. We just don’t know when.
MIKE TROUT, OF LAA (bruised knee)
Mike Trout isn’t going to run yet, but he is going to run on an Alter G. Points to the Angels for being specific, points off for few knowing what an Alter G actually does. Readers here know more. It’s a treadmill that uses air pressure to take pressure off joints as someone begins running. It’s not actually anti-gravity, but the result is the same. Here’s a video:
You can go a lot deeper down this rabbit hole if you wish. For Trout, it’s a half step, almost literally. He’s not going to be running and putting full weight on that knee, but he’ll be running. There’s been some debate (and mixed studies) on how much value it has on early activity on this type of device, as opposed to doing less and getting more out of something akin to Blood Flow Restriction. Let’s ignore that again and just note that Trout is ‘running’, but not running. Air quotes here in full effect.
Yeah, I love YouTube.
It is progress for Trout and the Angels here, but there’s also the fact that something like this seems to simply take longer with Trout. He does most things well, but healing quickly isn’t one of them. There’s no way to fix this, so he’ll have to learn how to manage it both in the short term and the long, if there is one.
Lots below, including some interesting stuff about some new treatments for back injuries, a top prospect with a big problem, and notes on a bunch of players getting closer to returns. Subscribe now?