During yesterday’s pregame press conference, Terry Collins said that Juan Lagares‘ elbow injury is limiting his ability in the outfield. (Adam Rubin, ESPN NY)
“The elbow injury is something that it, for sure, has kept him from making the throws that he would normally make on a daily basis,” Collins said. “We’ve asked him to be smart about when he really wants to let it loose. It’s got to be a big situation. It’s got to be a situation where he knows he’s got to make a play.”
Collins also implied that the injury could be a torn ligament requiring Tommy John surgery.
“Well, there’s only a couple of things you can do,” Collins continued. “One would be to have Tommy John and the other would be to rest it and just be careful.”
However, Sandy Alderson later clarified these comments and said that Tommy John surgery isn’t a consideration.
“It’s not anything we’re looking at,” Alderson said. “It’s not an issue. He has soreness in the elbow.”
Even though Lagares won’t need surgery, the injury is still very concerning. His cannon arm is part of what makes him such an extraordinary fielder, so he’s not as valuable if he can’t throw out runners like he has in previous seasons.
He has also been playing through a rib injury that has been bothering him for weeks and had slightly diminished his range, but Collins says that it’s finally healed.
“The rib injury is going away. So that’s not a factor,” Collins said. “He’s swinging the bat real well right now.”
While it has been a challenging year for Lagares, he is starting to heat up. He is currently riding a nine game hitting streak, and he is batting over .350 in the month of June.
With this recent hot streak, Lagares has his average up to .280 with three home runs and and a .680 OPS.
Even if it were true, I’m not sure why Terry Collins felt the need to publicly say Lagares might be facing elbow surgery this offseason.
It’s not surprising that Alderson squashed the story 15 minutes later. It serves as a distinct disadvantage when you’re telling the opposition that they can run on Lagares’ elbow.
