Kerry Wood Done for the Year
By Editorial Staff
Kerry Wood’s 2011 season is officially over, as the reliever has been diagnosed with a torn meniscus in his left knee. Wood, who’s set for surgery following the end of the regular season, will remain with the Cubs for the rest of the year.
Wood described his injury fairly nonchalantly to reporters yesterday, saying that it was as simple as him squatting down and standing up. When he tried to rise from a crouching position, Wood felt the knee pop. A sharp pain accompanied the tear, and Wood said the knee actually burned for some time.
And that was it. Season over.
While he would have certainly liked to finish the year healthy, Wood is just happy that his knee decided to give out when it did. At this point, Wood’s poised to miss a little over a week of meaningless baseball and has the entire offseason to get back to good.
In his first year back with the club that made him the 4th overall pick of the 1995 draft, Wood maintained a 3.35 ERA to go with his 1.29 WHIP. Over his 55 appearances and 51 innings of work, Wood struck out 57 batters.
At 34 years of age, the injury caused some to speculate that Wood could call it quits. While anything’s possible, Wood didn’t sound like someone who was mulling retirement yesterday. He did say that he’s only interested in returning with the Cubs, but Wood also noted that he feels like he has a year or two left in the tank.
The feelings appear mutual, as Cubs manager Mike Quade told reporters that he wants to see Wood back with the club next season. Quade also thinks the right-hander still has something left, and if all goes well with the recovery process, I’d bet we’ll be seeing Wood back in the Windy City next season.
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