It is by now well-documented that Allen Craig of the Red Sox has experienced a significant decline at the plate, leading to his outright off of the 40-man roster. But as Alex Speier of the Boston Globe explains, the fall-off has been so steep that it actually has historical dimensions. Looking at other players who posted consistently strong batting lines in their age-26 to 28 seasons, Speier shows that no other player has fallen as far as has Craig (62 OPS+) in the following two years. There could, of course, still be some hope of a turnaround given the complicated role that injuries in his struggles and the fact that he is still only 30.
- Rays lefty Drew Smyly appears to be reconsidering the surgical route and could instead attempt to rest and then rehab his ailing left shoulder, ESPN.com reports. It’s not clear what precipitated the changed approach, but manager Kevin Cash says that the current plan may allow Smyly to return later this year. “We’re optimistic,” Cash said. “We’re hearing good things.” While any return to action would, at this point, presumably be rather late in the year — Smyly was just placed on the 60-day DL and would obviously require a lengthy resting and rebuilding process — the realistic possibility of a return could impact the team’s summer trade market plans.
- The Yankees good news on Jacoby Ellsbury, who will not need surgery on his just-injured right knee, as Andrew Marchand of ESPNNewYork.com reports. “It is not anything that requires surgery so we are not holding anything that is doom or gloom,” said manager Joe Girardi. “We just have to see how he responds over the next few days and see what [team doctor Chris] Ahmad says.”
- Meanwhile, the Blue Jays are still set to be without outfielder Michael Saunders for three to five weeks, MLB.com’s Gregor Chisolm reports. Saunders says he suffered a bone bruise in his left knee that arose out of his recent surgery to remove his meniscus. The Jays are still bringing up the rear in the division, of course, and will hope that Saunders can return to action sooner rather than later.
That Saunders trade is looking very, very bad for Anthopolous and co.
Saunders does still have 2+ years to redeem himself.
Who sees MLB pitching first….. Craig or Ellsbury?
Ellsbury and it’s not even close. He’ll be back in 20 or so days, and I doubt Craig will be back before September.
With the information we have now, I’d guess Ellsbury if I were a gambler. Boston has zero reason to call Craig back up until he starts swinging the bat at a decent level again, and who knows how long that will take. Ellsbury is only on the 15-day and there’s been no signal that will change, considering it’s not a surgically demanding issue.
Ells, the sox don’t need craig, if they’re going to play an useless offensive outfielder it might as well be JBJ.
No way… the Jays rushing a guy back from injury?! There’s a first for everything…
Where are you getting this from? The team hoping that he can return sooner rather than later doesn’t absolutely constitute “rushing” him back, imo.
The Blue Jays have been a dumpster fire at diagnosing and rehabilitating injuries the past four years.
Rangers should look into Craig. Might be Allen’s last real hope.
Red Sox are not looking very smart after holding onto Craig when teams were calling this past off season.