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| YU DARVISH |
RED SOX : OPENING DAY 2014
March 31,2014.
c/o Ben Shapiro
The Republican
Nothing is ever perfect.
When people look back on spring training 2014, the story for the Boston Red Sox might be more about what didn't happen to the defending World Series champs, than what did happen.
What didn't happen this Spring?
A major injury, or even worse, a whole bunch of major injuries.
Sure, Shane Victorino's nagging maladies have been a story, but Victorino and his sore oblique are not even on the disabled list yet.
Meanwhile, some of the Red Sox's competitors are scrambling to find replacements for key players at key positions for significant blocks of time.
Young players, old players, American League guys, National League guys, pitchers, hitters, there's no one defining link that connects all the players injured, except that they're injured.
The Detroit Tigers will start the season as one of the favorites to win the AL Central and advance to the World Series. They're also starting the season without their shortstop, former Red Sox defensive wiz Jose Iglesias. Iglesias will be out until at least the All-Star break with injuries to both of his shins.
Iglesias is the biggest loss in Detroit, but he's not the only one. Second year flamethrower Bruce Rondon was expected to be a key part of deeper and more effective Tigers bullpen. Instead, he will miss the entire season recovering from Tommy John surgery.
The Cleveland Indians were one of baseball's biggest stories last year. They won over 90 games and made the playoffs while Terry Francona won AL Manager of the Year.
This year they'll start the season without starting center fielder Michael Bourne, who is nursing a pulled hamstring.
The New York Yankees don't have any major injures, but a minor injury to center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury is being treated with kid gloves. Ellsbury has missed a number of spring games while nursing a tight calf muscle. As of now, he's expected to be healthy enough to play on opening day.
The Oakland A's are a team that constantly defies the odds. The low-payroll, superstar-less Athletics have won the AL West the last two seasons.
A low payroll and a dedication to moneyball principals aren't the only common threads connecting those successful Oakland squads.
They've also managed to avoid too many major injuries.
Forget about that in 2014. They've already lost their presumed opening day starter Jarrod Parker for the entire season. Parker will be recovering from -- you guessed it -- Tommy john surgery. Fellow starting pitcher A.J. Griffin will also start the season on the disabled list.
Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay Rays are expected to have one of the best pitching staffs in the American League. The starting rotation will have to do without former rookie of the year Jeremy Hellickson until May.
If all of this sounds bad. Then brace yourself, because the Texas Rangers can trump all of their AL peers.
The Rangers spent most of the offseason making a series of major trades and major free agent signings. Give credit to general manager Jon Daniels for identifying his team's strengths and weaknesses. Daniels effectively spent his team's money and traded his team's expendable assets all in an attempt to shore up his team's weak-spots and make a run at reclaiming the American League supremacy his squad had back in 2010 and 2011.
After all the moves, the Rangers have been reduced to playing a game of Whack-a-Mole in an effort to find replacements for their rapidly expanding list of injured players.
When Texas traded veteran second baseman Ian Kinsler to add power hitting Prince Fielder, the loss didn't seem major, not with former top prospect Jurickson Profar seemingly ready to take over as the team's starting second baseman.
Then Profar tore a muscle in is shoulder. Now the team is without much in the way of a viable starting second baseman for the first 10-12 weeks of the season.
Texas let veteran catcher A.J. Pierzynski leave via free agency. Why bother re-signing him when they had the steady glove and solid offense of Geovany Soto ready to assume regular starting catching duties?
Soto will also miss the first 10-12 weeks of the regular season while he recovers from minor knee surgery.
Texas was already prepared to start the season without their second best starting pitcher. Derek Holland had suffered a flukey offseason knee injury and was not expected to be fully healthy until after the All-Star break.
What Texas wasn't prepared for was losing their ace, Yu Darvish.
Darvish missed his final start of spring training while nursing a sore neck. The good news is that an MRI didn't reveal a serious injury. The bad news is that Darvish will miss his opening day start, and will probably start the 2014 season on the disabled list. At least he won't be lonely.
All these fairly major injuries don't take away from key players such as shortstop Elvis Andrus and starting pitcher Matt Harrison, both of whom are nursing minor injuries.
What does all of this mean?
For the Red Sox, it means that even if you're of the opinion that they're a weaker team than they were last year, at least they're fairly healthy.
With added wild card spots, the competition for playoff berths extends well beyond the division a team plays in.
The significant injuries to key players on both Texas and Oakland could cost each team a few early season wins. A few extra losses in April or May could have a major impact on a tight wild card race in September.
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