Perrotto: Back Injuries Always Cause for Pause (+)
PITTSBURGH – Perhaps there is no reason to think twice about this type of injury.
The Pittsburgh Pirates placed third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes on the 10-day injured list with low back inflammation prior to Wednesday night’s 7-1 win over the San Diego Padres at PNC Park. It seems like a relatively tame ailment and Hayes shouldn’t miss a whole lot of time.
Yet there can’t help but some concern about Hayes’ balky back. Though he never landed on the IL because of it, Hayes admitted at the end of last season that his back bothered him for most of the summer.
The back was not an issue this season, at least publicly, until last weekend when he began feeling discomfort during the Pirates’ series against the Marlins in Miami. The Pirates felt Hayes had made progress following Monday’s off day but instead of returning to the lineup Wednesday as originally hoped, Hayes wound up on the IL.
Pirates manager Derek Shelton did not seem overly concerned when he addressed the media before Wednesday night’s game.
“It had been bothering him and he had been stiff, and it just hadn’t gotten better,” Shelton said. “It got to the point where we had to give it a little bit of a rest. He did some hitting (Tuesday) and it just didn’t respond to it. He will do some treatments probably over the next couple of days and once we get that soreness and stiffness out, then we will start to resume baseball activities.”
Should be no big deal if that’s the case. Perhaps Hayes will only miss 10 days and return to action on July 4 when the Pirates play the Dodgers in Los Angeles.
However, there is one reason for some pause in this whole situation. Back problems can be lingering and sometimes chronic.
The fact that Hayes put in some much time and effort to strengthen his back only to have it start hurting again could be construed as a bad sign.
What makes the injury news even tougher is that Hayes had started to gain some traction following a rough start to the season. Since his batting average fell to .216 on May 30, Hayes has slashed .341/.341/.534 in 22 games. The surge has pushed his season average to .254.
Hayes was expected to be a potentially high-average hitter once he reached the major leagues after posting a .279 mark in 468 career minor-league games. However, Hayes has batted .259 in 330 big-league games.
Hayes is a quiet guy by nature. However, he also has a lot of toughness, both physically and mentally, and I would not be surprised that his back has been a bigger program for Hayes than he has admitted to the media – or even the Pirates’ coaching and training staffs.
At one time, back injuries could significantly alter a player’s career and maybe even end it. Medical advances have made treating bad backs easier and more effective both in rehab or minimally invasive microdiscectomy surgery.
Maybe it’s because my late father battled back problems for the last 25 years, but I always cringe at least a tiny bit whenever I hear someone has a bad back.
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