TAMPA — While YES and ESPN broadcast the Yankees-Red Sox game in Fort Myers on Thursday night, the most Bronx-based star power could be found here at George M. Steinbrenner Field, where Yankees manager Joe Girardi let most of his big names skip the long trip south and stay back, stretch, take batting practice and head elsewhere by 2 o’clock to watch college hoops.
There were Derek Jeter (who wore a Michigan shirt in the clubhouse to support his one-semester alma mater), and Brian McCann, and Carlos Beltran, and Alfonso Soriano, and Brian Roberts. Old pals Jorge Posada and Luis Sojo hung around the batting cage, too.
But where was Jacoby Ellsbury, also scheduled to join this group? When Girardi hustled by for a moment, I asked him.
“He’s not hitting,” the Yankees’ manager responded, then he scurried away.
About three hours later, at JetBlue Park, Girardi told the whole story: Ellsbury, at the urging of team officials, had undergone an MRI exam on his ailing right calf. The MRI came back clean. The Yankees’ new center fielder might resume batting practice on Friday, and Girardi contended he wasn’t concerned about Ellsbury’s availability for Opening Day.
So check this off as a good-news day for the Yankees, yet also underline it as an example of why, on the durability front, Ellsbury is guilty until proven innocent. And why the Yankees startled the baseball industry last December when they spent $153 million over seven years to poach Ellsbury from the Red Sox.
“I think he feels it a little bit,” Girardi said of Ellsbury and his calf. “That’s why we’re just being cautious. We want to make sure he’s healthy.”
“Cautious” became Thursday’s keyword, uttered by both Yankees people and folks in Ellsbury’s inner circle. And let’s be fair: Plenty of players have put together strong seasons after being sidelined by minor conditions during spring training.
Then again, plenty of players aren’t Ellsbury. No baseball player with such a history of injuries has received anything close to what the Yankees gave him. The silver medal probably would go to former Met Jose Reyes, who received $106 million over six years from the Marlins (who dealt him to Toronto after just one season) despite a litany of health issues on his résumé.
The positive spin on Ellsbury always has been that he didn’t suffer from chronic problems, but just experienced bad luck. He played in just 18 games in 2010 after colliding with his Red Sox teammate Adrian Beltre, fracturing ribs. In 2012, he played in 74 games after colliding with Tampa Bay’s Reid Brignac (a 2013 Yankee) and suffering a subluxation of his right shoulder.
Last year, he fouled a ball off his right foot, sustaining a fracture and missing 16 games in September. Then put together an outstanding postseason to help the Red Sox win their second World Series title in his seven years with the club.
Naturally, one can wonder what to make of Ellsbury, like Bruce Willis’ character in the “Die Hard” movies, constantly being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Is past not prologue when it comes to such accident-prone players? Or does Ellsbury’s hard-charging style simply lead to more stints on the disabled list, just as Washington’s fiery Bryce Harper keeps finding trouble when he runs into walls?
It’s worth noting at this point that Ellsbury’s current ailment is an old-fashioned, wear-and-tear injury, and that anything involving his legs adds an extra layer of concern because of his speed. Then we counter by pointing out that we don’t know whether this is a condition that would keep him out of regular-season action.
Ellsbury has plenty of time to prove he can get on the field enough to justify his contract. Yet he arrived with a track record that invites scrutiny, so much so that his absence stood out immediately Thursday. That was no accident.