10:22pm: It was Okajima's left shoulder that raised a red flag for Yankees doctors, tweets David Waldstein of the New York Times.
10:38am: Left-hander Hideki Okajima has failed his physical with the Yankees, reports Waldstein (Twitter link). This means the minor league contract Okajima and the Yankees agreed upon last December is now voided.
Okajima, 36, spent most of last season in the minors after the Red Sox designated him for assignment in May. Okajima struggled the last two years after posting a sterling 2.72 ERA, an 8.3 K/9 rate and a 2.89 K/BB ratio in 198 games for Boston between 2007-09.
That’s strange, maybe he was a member of the esteemed chicken n beer party, but after the season?
Very clever.. Never heard that before
It’s still funny….you must be bitter
Its actually not funny. If he Came up with something creative id laugh. Its hard to be bitter over something that has no affect of my life.
I would defend myself and say that I’m not bitter and the situation was hilarious but the joke’s worn off, but I think I’ve just given up. You win, rest-of-baseball haha
Also, this means that other teams might try to sign him I suppose
failed a physical on the minor league deal. hope my team signs him.
your name is fitting. well done.
Anyone know what’s going on with him? Shoulder issues?
My guess is a sore neck from jerking his head over his right shoulder everytime he threw a pitch
Ah, Mike Fetters syndrome.
Drats! I wanted to hear Jerry Remy say “Oka-jeemer!”
It’s okay, Pedroyer is still there.
Wow I hope everything is OK. That’s actually pretty scary.
Red Sox and failure – what’s the story here?
Carl Crawford should’ve caught that! Rabble Rabble!
lolwut
He should have studied harder…..
Sarcasm seems to be order of the day here, but I think I’ll go with cynicism: Did the Sox hide his injury in the hopes of getting some value out of him before his contract ended or did Okajima and his agent hide it because they were afraid it would kill his value on the market and hoped he could squeeze by on a physical?
I’m tempted to say the latter. But I’m glad that the Yanks caught it…but it goes back to a huge problem for them—finding a second left-handed arm for the bullpen.
Mike Gonzalez just smiled.
I seem to recall Okie having an elbow injury at one point and deciding to go for the “rehab and rest” route instead of opting for surgery..perhaps it’s related to that.
I don’t get it….shouldn’t they have passed Okajima if he was able to raise a red flag using his left shoulder.
Watching a bullpen session doesn’t necessarily demonstrate a pitcher’s total injury potential/history
maybe Cash should have just told him.. “Okie Dokie” ;-)
Edit:
Just a curious question.. How many people here ever saw Oki in the BP play with that paddle exerciser of his?? Everytime saw him at Tampa in the pen flip that thing back and forth with his left wrist, it was like a blur he would move it so fast.. just curious as have never seen anyone ever use anything like that before.. It just looked like a small paddle.
I would not be surprised if he had whiplash as well from that jerking motion he makes with every pitch. A human being is not meant to endure that kind of stuff.
Another victory for the Red Sox Kevorkian medical staff who don’t MRI bruises and let/ask players needing surgery or extended rest to play through injuries despite not being able to do so effectively (Ellsbury, Cameron, Youk, Daisuke, Lackey, maybe Crawford), or wait until before ST before deciding to do surgery (Crawford, Lowell), or mess up the surgery and require the player to redo it (Jenks).
Fortunately, the Red Sox finally dumped the top Doc.
Fortunately the Yankees found out sooner rather then later with Okajima. Which hasn’t been the case all that often for the Yankees with lefty relievers.
A shoulder injury would explain why he became ineffective so suddenly. Then again it could just be age.