What’s Wrong with Travis d’Arnaud?
David Wright has strained ligaments in his shoulder that may or may not require surgery. That’s the big injury news coming out of Metsville. Or is it?
We already knew Wright was done for the year, and now we know he might need surgery. Will it have any effect on Wright’s 2015 campaign? The year the Mets finally are postseason contenders? Who knows? Probably not, if I had to guess.
More quietly, it was announced that Travis d’Arnaud would also be “observed” by a doctor. Why? That’s not been disclosed. The public explanation is that he’s “banged up.” Another unidentified spokesperson mentioned that d’Arnaud had flu symptoms. And there’s speculation that the Mets don’t want to “tip off” the Astros on d’Arnaud’s injury. What? Does that make any sense at all?
The theory is that if the Astros know d’Arnaud is hurting, they’ll run all day on him. Well, maybe so, but won’t they be able to figure that out on their own? And MLB teams don’t prepare quite like NFL teams — it’s not like Houston will be practicing a custom running game all week to expose d’Arnaud’s issue (whatever it is). It’s pretty simple in baseball — you see the catcher can’t throw you out, so you run. Ask Mike Piazza how that works.
Here’s my conspiracy theory: d’Arnaud may have a serious arm injury — one that will require, say, Tommy John surgery. Or worse. Never mind the Astros finding out and leveraging the information in the last three games of a meaningless season — the Mets wouldn’t want ANYONE in MLB to know d’Arnaud is damaged goods, because then he’s untradeable (and teams would have that info as leverage in trade talks regarding catchers going to the Mets). Further, they don’t want fans to know, either, because that could affect season ticket sales.
Maybe I’m reading too much into this. Maybe d’Arnaud is indeed, simply “banged up” or not feeling well due to a stomach bug. But when you combine his poor throwing in the second half with this new non-information and secrecy … and knowing the Mets’ past history in publicly dealing with bad injury news … well, it makes one wonder.
What do you think? Are the Mets hiding something big regarding d’Arnaud’s health? If there IS really bad news about d’Arnaud — such as something that could keep him out for a bulk of, if not the entire, 2015 season — how might it affect the Mets’ offseason planning? How do you think not having d’Arnaud would affect the Mets’ hopes in 2015?
Post your thoughts in the comments.
All teams disappoint fans when they don’t play well. But the good teams – the good organizations – respect the fans; their Mehts don’t seem to do that.
At least Charlie O. Finley was creative.
It appears the SVP of ticket sales lost her edge since giving birth. As result, the Mets had to continue playing Wright and TD’A despite injuries to increase ticket sales and to pay the mortgage. You can blame her for the Met’s injury problems.
Joe, is it at all normal for this (elbow bone chips) to happen to a non-pitcher? Does it indicate something amiss with Travis’s conditioning and/or mechanics?
Of course the Mets let him play through it in a lost season. That’s the way the link from player to trainer to manager to doctor to management has always worked here, and I don’t have any new thoughts about who’s most at fault.
The guy I’m worried about is Wright. “Stretched out” ligaments that you can actually see on an MRI — that means tears. And ligament tears don’t just heal back exactly the way they were. The ligament will forever be more “stretchy”. It is possible that by strengthening the muscles in the area, Wright can render this stretchiness a non-issue, but I have no idea what a hitter’s front shoulder requires for a good swing.
Yes, it’s an indication that d’Arnaud’s mechanics are amiss / dangerous. Almost all catchers at every level throw with a dangerous form that puts almost all of the stress of the throw on the elbow. The inane instruction to “throw from the ear” is the main cause. By purposely removing shoulder rotation from the throw, all velocity has to be done by the elbow. Most likely, d’Arnaud spent considerable time working on his throwing, and may have also done long-tossing to “strengthen” his arm (that’s what they call it, “strengthening”; I call it “destroying”). The more one throws with bad mechanics — regardless of position — the faster the route to the operating table.
I’m not sure about D-Wright’s injury. I don’t know enough about the injury, nor about how the shoulder works, nor about the kinetics of a baseball swing to know what he needs to do.