Look, we know weird injuries are an important part of baseball culture. It wouldn’t be spring training without hangnails, pitching machine incidents, or sliced fingers. But is it just me or does this year already seem worse than ever? Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Josh Beckett is the latest victim.
Beckett could miss his scheduled start on Friday as he continues to recover from a sprained thumb. A thumb injury is nothing unusual for a pitcher, but the way it happened is what makes Beckett’s injury such a classic spring training debacle. Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times reported that Beckett caught his thumb in a set of doors leading to the clubhouse a little over a week ago.
“I come back from thoracic outlet syndrome and this is what I’m dealing with,” Beckett said.
The 34-year-old righthander had a bullpen session on Tuesday but said he is still having trouble gripping the ball. Beckett made just eight starts last season for the Dodgers because of injuries, compiling an 0-5 record and a 5.19 ERA. He hopes to be ready when the team comes back home after playing in Australia.
As we know, Beckett is not the only pitcher to have bad luck with clumsiness this offseason. Jake Peavy lost a battle with a fishing knife, Francisco Rodriguez hurt his foot by stepping on a cactus, and Hisashi Iwakuma injured his finger by catching it on a pitching net. Like I’ve said before, these guys really could use a plastic bubble.
H/T Hardball Talk
