Since the mid-eighties the cornerstone position of the New York Yankees has been first base. From Donnie Baseball to Jason Giambi, every player that’s held the title of Yankees first baseman has been an important cog in the lineup. The same applies to the switch hitting slugger Mark Teixeira, and his role in the 2014 season. But what’s really going on with Tex? Is his wrist gonna hold up this season? With so much deserved attention focused closely on Derek Jeter’s ankle and retirement, Teixeira’s health has gone under the radar somewhat. I don’t want to say it’s gone totally unnoticed, but it definitely has not been the hot topic it should be.
Rewind to last spring when Teixeira initially hurt his wrist while taking batting practice in preparation for the World Baseball Classic. At the time it was thought that just some extended rest would heal things up. He was originally told there was only a 30% chance of surgery, so Tex landed on the 60 day DL. After coming off the DL on May 31st he only lasted a brief 15 games before re-aggravating it, thus landing him once again on the DL. After a cortisone shot was unsuccessful an MRI showed he wasn’t getting better. So on July 1st he had season ending surgery on a torn tendon sheath in his wrist.
Now after months and months of rehabbing, including some workouts at Bobby Valentines batting facility in Stamford, Connecticut this winter, Teixeira is back in Tampa and progressing towards his return. He’s experienced a little wrist stiffness in late January but he was told by his surgeon Dr. Keith Raskin, it would be a normal part of the recovery process. Before left for camp he talked to reporters at a benefit dinner about his plan to ensure he would be the same player of old. “It’s two steps. The first step is making sure you’re healthy. If I’m not healthy then obviously I won’t be the same player. That’s why my concentration right now is making I’m sure 100 percent healthy. We’ll worry about the swing, we’ll worry about 162 game season after I know I’m healthy.” Since then he’s said on numerous occasions he’s feeling good, but they all seem to say that same thing.
Since he’s been in Tampa the progress has somewhat slow, but it’s all part of the plan that been in place since last July. The main part of the plan is about how much hitting he does this spring. Tex is taking 100 swings a day which is down from his usually 120-140 swings if it was a normal spring training for him. He works out in the cage taking swings for five days then has a scheduled day off. After that day off he gets back to work. Hopefully this plan will work, cause god knows we need his bat this season.
The other aspect of Mark Teixeira we’ve all come to love is his gold glove fielding. While his fielding isn’t much of an issue in terms of his comeback, it’s very important that he’s also the same player while patrolling first base. While we are all waiting for him to make his debut in a spring training game, the word is he’s expected to play his first Grapefruit League game sometime in this week. There have been reports he might see some game action on March 6th or the 7th.
But to sum up the point of this article is what we all should expect out of Teixeira this season. He said himself it could take till June before the wrist soreness is gone. But what if he has a setback later this spring? Or if he’s not ready at all come opening day? Then the biggest question the Yankees could be faced with is if they cant get anything out of Teixeira this year. Tex’s early season struggles have been well documented since he joined the team in 2009. But what if he can’t make it back at all this season, or sees some time on the disabled list? That would mean GM Brian Cashman will have to do some fast creative thinking to fill the void. But remember this is all just speculation and concern for one of the Yankees most important players. His bat and his fielding would be hard to replace in a possible worse case scenario, especially on short notice. So let’s just keep our fingers crossed and hope Tex will be fine this spring, and not a mystery.
