NEWSLETTER
Chicago Cubs reliever Angel Guzman is being counted on at the back end of the bullpen, but he’s going to have to get healthy first. Already recovering from double secret knee surgery, Guzman has now been shut down after experiencing discomfort in his throwing shoulder. Grumble.
The Cubs’ medical staff seems optimistic that the shoulder won’t cost Guzman more than a few days, and that should allow the staff’s best reliever of 2009 to open the season on time.
”He’s not seeing a doctor or anything like that,” said general manager Jim Hendry, who called it a precautionary move.
Guzman, whose brother and a friend were killed in a robbery in Venezuela last month, also was rehabbing from minor knee surgery.
”He’s still certainly capable, if this is just a minor setback, of being ready,” Hendry said. ”He’s only got to get ready for relief work. We always felt he probably wouldn’t be in games until the middle of the [exhibition] schedule anyhow.” CHICAGO SUN-TIMES.
I like that they’re thinking it’s only a couple of days, and I like that they’re terming it “precautionary.” I even like that he wasn’t going to be in games until mid-March anyway.
But any time “discomfort” comes up, it feels like a sign of things to come. And for a guy like Guzman, whose career has been filled with more injuries than successes, it doubly feels that way.
