Friday Update
Adam Rubin of the Daily News spoke with Kelvim Escobar who downplayed the shoulder soreness and expects to be ready for opening day.
“It’s more like getting my strength back, getting stronger,” Escobar said.
On being ready for the April 5 opener against the Marlins, Escobar added: “I think so. It’s all going to depend how my arm responds to the exercises and how quickly my shoulder gets its strength back.”
Escobar had pitched in winter ball in Venezuela and felt great. He did meet with the Mets team doctor who told him, “You should be fine.'”
Yesterday, Johan Santana had told Adam Rubin that the claims were not true regarding Escobar’s inability to grip a baseball and that he played catch with him last week.
Update 11:56 am
NBC Sports’ Craig Calcaterra has just added some additional info on the status of Kelvim Escobar, and it’s not good.
It was reported yesterday that Mets’ pitcher Kelvim Escobar is suffering from a sore shoulder and will be limited as spring training gets going down in Port St. Lucie. It may be much more serious than that, however: a source tells me that Escobar isn’t even able to grip a baseball right now, and there are concerns that he’s seriously injured.
I called the Mets just now, and a team spokesman said that they had no comment beyond what’s being reported in the papers today. We’ll obviously update as soon as we hear something further, but right now it seems that someone who knows someone with the Mets will have to do the confirming here, because they aren’t talking about it.
Again the injury news comes out in drips and drabs and in a cloud of mystery… The more things change, the more they stay the same…
Original Post 2/17 11:58 pm
Only yesterday, Mets GM Omar Minaya spoke so highly of the recently acquired Kelvim Escobar who he envisioned as the Mets setup man this season. Then 24 hours later, David Waldstein of the NY Times reports the discouraging news.
While working out in preparation to join the Mets, reliever Kelvim Escobar felt some discomfort in his right shoulder, so the Mets will proceed slowly with him. He will not be up to speed with the rest of the pitchers when he reports to camp on Thursday.
Adam Rubin of the Daily News adds that Escobar experienced the trouble last month while ramping up for spring training and was examined by team doctor David Altchek.
I have one question…
Was Omar Minaya clued in on the fact that his would-be setup man was experiencing trouble with his shoulder and had already been examined by team doctor David Altchek?
It sure doesn’t seem like it does it?
I’m so confused by the continuing lack of communication in this organization when it comes to the medical conditions of their players.
Hopefully, Escobar can recover quickly and fall too far behind his other teammates in spring training.
