According to Peter Abraham at Boston.com a major league source has said that Mike Lowell has failed his physical to finalize the trade to the Texas Rangers.
According to a major league source, the third baseman needs surgery on the radial collateral ligament in his right thumb and the trade to Texas that was agreed upon 11 days ago is off.
His surgery will be after Christmas and recovery will take 6-8 weeks. That would have him ready just in time for spring training. This ends most pursuits the Red Sox were thought to have been looking into. We’ll have to wait and see how his health is in February, but this likely adds some potential to see Jed Lowrie in 2010 with the Red Sox.
Other options include moving Marco Scutaro over and letting Lowrie play SS or using Tug Hulett at either spot. Using Lowrie looks like the best option although he’s been just as likely to be injured as Lowell.
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Great news, IMHO. Why not, as discussed, leave Kotchman at 1b and Youk at 3b, and Lowrie off the bench? When Mike returns, and it could be a slow return to full function for a ball player. I understand the insurance company pays a portion of his wage while he is in treatment. With the potential for re-injuring the thumb (or hip) they will not push aggressively to get him into the lineup.
Point is, the Sox start the season as planned, with or without AGon & without Mike, until he comes off the DL, at which point the offense gets a big boost. I dug out and have been posting everywhere the calming stats for Mike's last 3 years vs. lefties. You probably know it, but I will post it anyways for those who might not: in 390AB, .314/..381/.500/.881, 15/67/53/28-2b with a surprise 44BB/50K. Even if his hip is only 80-90%, he could stlll back Youk at 3b, platoon with Papi vs. lefties, and PH in late innings for JD, Ells, Hermida, Kotchman, Papi. The defense and pitching is better than last year. Mike, with 250-350AB, could be supposed missing big bat. Even without a 40HR guy, this remains a formidable offensive force with alot of diverse weapons.
Gerry,
I agree with you completely and I really like your positive take on this situation. Although would be an expensive player to have platooning and coming off the bench, his salary is likely a sunk cost to begin with. As such, we must make the best of a situation that could be better. I love the idea of a platoon between papi and lowell at dh because the splits for each of them are a bit on the extreme side. Anyway, way to keep the hopes up – there are far too many doom and gloom people that reply to these articles!
As usual, Gerry, i am so glad to see your positive spin on most things. I, too, agree that Lowell staying is great news. call me old-fashioned but i like the idea of having some return of loyalty to someone like him who left money on the table to stay here, not to mention that i believe he has a lot left in the tank. His bat staying in the lineup, even in a diminished capacity, i will take. Hopefully he has more fully recovered from the hip and is aggressively working on picking up some lateral range as well as base–running speed.
the thing that does bother me, though, is this… why does it take a trade physical to uncover something as fundamental as a need for surgery to repair something? Shades of Curt Shilling signing a new contract and later finding out, oops may need surgery! I am sorry but i do find this unacceptable that Mike could go into the offseason and have this thumb needing some surgery. if it is the RS attempting to "hide" this defect and hope it didn't get found out, my respect for the team has dropped ( and to anyone saying , well, that is how you sell an old car – you try to get away with duping the other guy into thinking it is mint) – i still cannot abide by in whatever scenario this unfolded why now Lowell will have yet another drag on his being able to contribute to the team right off the bat. What if he just had the surgery right after the last game – heck even after the WS… that would still put his timetable that much further ahead.
all that said i give a thumbs up to Mikey staying and hopefully being able to squash all those naysayers.