On Sunday in his weekly baseball notes, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe wrote that Boston Red Sox right fielder J.D. Drew was still battling some hamstring issues.
He had some lingering hamstring issues this offseason and may be slowed up a tad to start spring training. The Sox have Ryan Kalish ready to go as Drew’s eventual replacement in right field, as this is the last season of Drew’s five-year, $72 million contract. He gave indications last spring that this could be his last year in baseball but backed off that when he felt healthy during the season. He still appears to have something left in the tank at age 35, going into his 14th season.
On Monday night, Rob Bradford of WEEI.com caught up with Drew via the phone and confirmed what Cafardo reported. Here’s what Drew had to say about his lingering hamstring issues.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a major issue when I get to camp, but there are going to be some questions from me when I get there to make sure that thing is good,” Drew explained. “I’m kind of in the process now of doing some light running to see where I’m at. It feels better than it did, but that being said, baseball speed is a lot different workout speed.”
“I’ve had the whole offseason trying to figure out what direction we have to go to heal it up. It seems to feel a little bit better with exercise and things like that. We’ll see where it ends up when I get down to camp,” Drew said. “But that thing really bugged the heck out of me for the whole second half of the season. It was extremely painful. It wasn’t like it was blown out or anything, but it wouldn’t allow me to extend it out to run like I wanted to. I dealt with it. Day games were really brutal on it because getting out of bed and trying to get warmed up for a one o’clock game was really tough. I was able to manage most of the night games.
“I’m hoping it will be a non-issue, but that being said it is aggravating because it is one of those things that has lingered. It’s just in a spot that doesn’t get a lot of blood flow. It’s not the belly of the hamstring, but just the attachment point. It gets irritated and when it does it’s extremely painful when trying to run down fly balls and running down the line. That being said, it is a lot stronger than it was during the season, so hopefully that will help overcome some of the issue when I get into camp and we can ease into things are good and go from there.”
Let’s hope Drew is right when he says the hamstring won’t be a major issue. But as everyone who’s had a hamstring issue at some point in their life, they just don’t go away. So it is concerning that it’s still bothering him with the spring training right around the corner.
Photo credit: AP Photo
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