Spring training is an extremely dangerous time for MLB players. Just when you think you may have heard it all when it comes to bizarre injuries, something new comes along. Miami Marlins first baseman Casey Kotchman provided yet another example of that earlier this week.
Being the courteous veteran that he is, Kotchman grabbed a pop-up machine at Marlins practice to keep it from breaking when it was about to fall over. According to The Palm Beach Post, he sliced the ring and middle fingers on his right hand in the process, leading to four stitches.
“(I was) trying to be a gentleman to the machine and try not to throw it down on the ground,” Kotchman explained. “It sounds like my teammates would have been happy if the drill was over and the machine got broke.
“The wheel was kind of cutting my finger. I guess instead of hitting it over I held onto it and kind of picked it up and it just kept slicing. I didn’t even realize it was bleeding at first. When I walked back to first base, ok it is bleeding.”
Kotchman is referring to teammate Greg Dobbs, who needled him about grabbing the machine.
“Why did you grab it?” Dobbs jokingly asked. “What was going through your brain? Dude, if the machine falls and breaks the drill is over.”
I’m guessing professional baseball teams have more than one pitching machine in case something breaks, we are talking about the Miami Marlins so you never know. Kotchman said the injury is probably the most bizarre he has suffered during his nine-year career.
“That’s got to be one of (them),” he said. “It’s probably not every day that you get your hand caught in the pitching machine on a pop fly.”
In an offseason where we have already seen injuries like this, this, and this, nothing is all that strange to us anymore.
H/T Eye on Baseball
