Diamondbacks center fielder A.J. Pollock departed last night’s game following an ugly-looking arm injury suffered on a diving attempt at a catch. The preliminary diagnosis is a sprain of his left thumb, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports.
While that sounds promising at first glance, it’s probably worth waiting to breathe a sigh of relief. Pollock still must undergo further examination, including a trip to a hand specialist today. And as Piecoro notes, the fact that this is initially being termed a sprain indicates the major concern may be with ligaments — potentially making this a fairly serious injury that could require a significant absence.
At this point, we just don’t know and the team likely does not either. As manager Torey Lovullo said late last night when asked about the possibility of losing the star center fielder, “I don’t even want to get there until we know what’s going on tomorrow.”
It has already been a rough go of late for the D-Backs, who have now dropped six straight games. Despite the skid, the Snakes are still pacing the NL West. But their ability to stay there will be affected greatly by Pollock’s ultimate absence.
To this point, Pollock has clearly been the Diamondbacks’ best player. He has played an excellent center field, run the bases well, and delivered an outstanding .293/.349/.620 output at the plate — with 11 homers and nine steals — to this point of the season. There’s no realistic hope of replacing that kind of productivity.
The injury is certainly also concerning from Pollock’s perspective. As I wrote recently, his big output had put him on track to secure a major payday in free agency. But health has long been the major concern with the 30-year-old. While this latest injury was the result of hard play rather than any evident susceptibility, it adds to a list of other past ailments and — if it turns out to be serious — will also reduce Pollock’s ability to show he’s in top form over a full season.
Sprained thumb? LMFAO. Maybe it’s time to start docking salaries for injuries. What’s next, a split toenail?
Yes, because a hand performs baseball functions so well without the use of its thumb. Tell us more about your medical expertise.
you need to know about handsprings and ligaments, give mr. Mike trout I’ll be more than happy to Enlighten you at how a hand injury affects your play.
Dude a sprain is typically a torn ligament.
Eric Thames has been on the DL since April 27 with the same injury that Trout had. It’s not uncommon when a guy dives for a ball and the glove hand get stuck just as it appeared happened to Pollock. If the UCL in the thumb is torn it will require surgery and he’ll be out from 6-8 weeks.
the thumb is a very important digit as a baseball player. Imagine swinging a bat or closing a glove without a thumb. mr pollock would in theory be playing without a thumb for a while, and if he did tough it out and try playing, i can’t imagine it healing any time soon…..you know, with all those balls to catch and bats to swing.
I’m not sure why everyone is trying to reason with either a troll or a moron.
I think your brain is sprained.
Wow, you are not a smart individual
You’re a medical Dr who plays the part of a troll on here?? Seriously, leave the trolling to the children of Facebook and the baseball talk to the adults
You’ve clearly never attempted to play baseball at any meaningful level.
No reason he should have been diving for that ball last night. Top of the 9th, team was already down by 3 and missing the ball allowed an inside the park homerun when he should have been trying to keep the ball in front of him. I can’t knock a guy for playing hard but playing smart is just as important and a game that was pretty much already lost, in early May, is not the time for taking such a risk. I know you can’t ask people not to play 100% but this injury should never have happened.
A 3 run deficit means the game is over? There are countless games a year in which a team scores 3+ runs in a inning.
And if you’re up against the Braves pen…9 runs is attainable.
it was the brewers pen, which is pretty good, but details like that aren’t important to everyone
It doesn’t seem like reading comprehension is important to everyone either. It was a joke, and the man never mentioned that specific game.
But jokes are supposed to be funny and kinda make sense. You could insert any one of like 15 ballclubs for braves and itd still be a non sequitur in a conversation about a dbacks brewer game. But fine, i can meet you halfway. After all, who’s house? Runs house.
if you ever played baseball you know how wrong you were for ever suggesting there’s no reason to be diving for that ball. what an asinine comment. it’s asinine if they were up 10, there is only one way to play and it’s never half-assed. maybe he should not have been in the game…..
Man i guess you guys love seeing aj pollock on the dl every season, i didnt know, my apologies i guess we should all root for the best players to hurt themselves every year. Personally id rather have him helping my team for the next 2 months, but ur right, hurting himself is better
And when you are down by three you make the safer play that allows fewer runs to score. Diving let in 2 when it could be just one run getting in.
If its tied or 1 run you dive otherwise u keep the ball in front of u. Look at it this way, it was one out at the end of a game they were losing. Now instead of having him around, you are going the next 2 months without him. Say thats roughly 50 games. Multiplied by 27 outs per game that is 1350 outs to get. And you’re going to tell me that trying to get that 1 out is worth 1350 outs without him in center field?
Down 3 with 2 outs in the inning you gotta dive for that ball to try to end the inning. If he pulls up and plays that on a hop and Aguilar follows with a hit then everyone is whining that he didn’t give max effort. It sucks that he got injured, but he played it the way he should.
Hey I totally get the flip side to my opinion,when this started I did say i can’t fault the guy for playing hard and giving 100%. My whole point is that its a long season and when you’re the best player so far this year on your team you have to be playing smart about keeping yourself in as many games as possible. I would much rather be complaining about him not diving than complaining about him missing at least a month of games.
I wonder if the diamondbacks move on from AJ pollock at seasons end, with him being a free agent and all. they might not have enough financially to retain him
He’ll be expensive, and when he’s on the field he’s arguably worth it. But nobody knows better than AZ the length of time he’s been on the DL the past 3 seasons, and that’s a major factor. CLE is in the same position with Michael Brantley who is an all star when healthy, and that’s not often enough to justify a hefty extension.
If you guys want we have Broxton in the minors if you want to make a deal
The guy is always injured. Such a unfortunate waste of talent
The man is ALWAYS injured. A team would be foolish to pay him a lot of money.