Could Dr. McDreamy Help?

Or Marcus Welby? Hawkeye Pierce? B.J. Hunnicut? To paraphrase the renowned baseball sage Casey Stengel: "Can't anyone here stay healthy?"

Baseball's been inundated by a springtime wave of injuries. We're not even at Memorial Day, nor have any of the teams played 60 games, but key players on almost every team are sidelined -- many for a lot more than the 10-day minimum of the I-L.

Say hello, or more accurately, goodbye, to Luke Voit. The 2020 home run champion got a late start to his season after surgery for a torn meniscus. Finally returning in mid-May, he lasted all of a dozen games before going back on the shelf with a grade-two oblique injury. While the club isn't making an official estimate, Aaron Judge missed 54 games two years ago after a similar injury.

Voit joins Corey Kluber, who left Tuesday's start after just three innings with a shoulder surgery that'll idle him through the end of July; Aaron Hicks, likely gone for the year after surgery for a torn wrist tendon; Zack Britton, who is recovering slowly after having bone chips removed from his left elboow; and Giancarlo Stanton, who has missed the last couple of weeks with a quad strain. In a faint glimmer of good news, Stanton may be healed enough to return this weekend.


New York's other team is faring even worse. In the Mets' case, the backups to the backups are banged up. With Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto sidelined, top bench player Kevin Pillar stepped up until he was hit in the face by a pitch, which left him with facial fractures. Jeff McNeil moved back to the outfield, before being hurt during their series against the Rays. Minor leaguer Johneshwy Fargas offered a ray of hope, before crashing into an outfield wall and injuring his shoulder. Things have gotten so bad, the Amazin's traded for Billy McKinney, whom the Brewers had designated for assignment last week. If they'd played last night, this .209 hitter would have made his Mets debut as the cleanup hitter.

You could make up a helluva all star team from the other players out hurt: Mike Trout, Luis Robert, Eloy Jiminez, Travis d'Arnaud, Didi Gregorius, Franmil Reyes, Zac Gallen... Marcell Ozuna of the Braves joined the list yesterday.

Baseball isn't supposed to be like football, whose season becomes a game of attrition. But so far in 2021, that's been as big a story as all the strikeouts and no-hitters.

(My images of Voit and Pillar are from the games of May 12th and 14th at the Trop in St. Petersburg.)

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