That’s it. Shows over. The saga of Jose Bautista‘s wrist injury came to a close today, with the Toronto Blue Jays announcing earlier today that the slugger’s 2012 season has come to an end:
BREAKING:
@joeybats19 will undergo surgery on his left wrist, ending his season.— MLB (@MLB) August 28, 2012
It’s been a back-and-forth month for Bautista, who initially injured his wrist on a swing in a game on July 16th. Initially thought to be a relatively minor issue (compared to say, a broke wrist), the recovery process from inflammation in his wrist didn’t go completely according to plan, either; Bautista wound up suffering a setback early in August that put his season in doubt, but managed to heal up well enough for a minor league rehab stint, before finally returning to the Blue Jays this weekend.
Well, that didn’t go so well, either, as the comeback lasted just over 24 hours. The 31-year old re-injured his wrist after just one AB in his 2nd game since being reinstated from the 15-day DL, and was promptly placed right back – despite Bautista himself suggesting that he was not aware that the injury would be serious enough to put him back there. Turns out, it was, and the 31-year old will now undergo wrist surgery, with the expectations that he’ll be back next spring.
It’s the worst-case scenario for the Blue Jays, but not entirely out of left field. I’ve said before that there simply wasn’t any point in keeping Bautista on the path to return this season after his initial setback, risking season-ending surgery as opposed to the potential gains of him getting reps before the end of a season. I have no way of telling how severe the wrist strain was, of course, but the recovery time that had passed, combined with the setback, did not suggest that the injury was mild; especially for a power-hitter like Bautista, any potential power-sapping problem to his wrist that has even a slight chance of lingering over to next season and onward should be too much to risk, yes?
In any case, Bautista’s wrist was likely not completely right even when he returned, and hopefully the surgery and the off-season will give him plenty of time to recover fully from the injury. There’s a limited window of opportunity for the Blue Jays to compete in the AL East with Bautista in the lineup, with next season being a pivotal one in the sense that the team has declared the rebuilding phase “complete”; a healthy lineup – including a full season’s worth of ABs from their best hitter, will be crucial to any success that the 2012 Blue Jays will have.
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