If the Red Sox [team stats] fall apart in 2012, fans won’t have one of their favorite targets to blame.
New general manager Ben Cherington dropped a bombshell during his introductory press conference yesterday, disclosing that right-hander John Lackey will undergo Tommy John surgery on his pitching elbow and probably miss the season.
No one ever wants to see a player hurt or cut open, but this could be a win-win for all involved.
The Sox remove one of the beer drinkers from their ranks at a time when they’re trying to alter their clubhouse culture. And even though Lackey was by all accounts an excellent teammate — we’re now learning he pitched hurt all season — something needed to change among the starting five, and this is it.
From Lackey’s perspective, he gets a year away from the slings and arrows, a year to get his life in order — he’s reportedly in the midst of a divorce — and maybe even a year to assess the way he’s conducted himself since signing a five-year, $82.5 million contract.
If he comes back in 2013 as a calmer, less combative person, that’s all to the good. And if he regains the stuff that made him an All-Star and a proven playoff performer, even better.
“Aside from just getting healthy, there could be some benefit,” Cherington acknowledged after his press conference. “You’d have to ask John to get a better answer. He’s been going through a lot. I think he’s closer to resolving some of that stuff than he was a year ago. But maybe it is an opportunity for a fresh start physically and mentally.”
The news really was a gift for Cherington on his first official day on the job. Tackling the wayward rotation projected to be unpleasant, since breaking up the group would have required one of three equally unpalatable options: a) paying someone virtually all of the $45 million remaining on Lackey’s contract to take him; b) trading a young talent like Jon Lester [stats] or Clay Buchholz; or c) getting less than market value for former ace Josh Beckett [stats].
Now the problem is solved. Cherington can’t jettison any of the three remaining starters, because the Sox are too thin at the position to withstand the loss.
Likewise, he won’t be asked about it again either, because there’s been change, now that Lackey’s out of the mix. Everybody wins.
Cherington’s comments yesterday, both before and after his press conference, also shed some much-needed light on what Lackey endured while going 12-12 with a 6.41 ERA last year.
“Let me start by saying that John Lackey pitched through circumstances this year that I don’t think anyone in this room can fully understand,” Cherington said. “And he got beat up a little for it along the way.”
Lackey underwent an MRI in May after experiencing elbow soreness, and according to Cherington it roughly resembled the one he had before signing. Everyone agreed to the conservative approach of rest and rehab, and he returned in June.
But the elbow worsened down the stretch. His last start was one of his gutsiest. Despite altering his delivery, Lackey limited the Yankees to three earned runs in six innings of a 7-4 victory. That start ended up being overshadowed by both the team’s collapse and Lackey’s postgame anti-media rant.
“He made that last start and he pitched well, but he was battling it,” Cherington said. “We felt the best thing to do was to get it checked again.”
Lackey visited Dr. Lewis Yocum in Los Angeles, and Yocum recommended surgery, which will be performed in the coming weeks.
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