Carl Crawford: Opening Day in Jeopardy for Red Sox Outfielder

More bad news was released yesterday regarding Boston Red Sox left fielder Carl Crawford.  Nick Carfado of the Boston Globe reported that the Red Sox are resting Crawford for five to seven games because of inflammation in his surgically repaired left wrist.  Carfado added that Crawford’s status for Opening Day is now ‘in jeopardy’.

It was initially reported in January that Crawford underwent surgery on his left wrist.  At that time, it wasn’t known what impact, if any, the procedure would have on Crawford’s 2012 season.  However, in February Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine told reporters that he expected to be without Crawford for the first few weeks of the regular season.

Despite these comments, the Red Sox continued to hold out hope that Crawford would be able to break camp with the club healthy and ready to go.  The outfielder was making significant progress while rehabbing the wrist and it seemed as if these hopes could be realized.

However, last week it was reported that Crawford had to stop all baseball related activity due to inflammation in his left wrist.  With Carfado’s recent report of five to seven days off, it’s now looking more and more likely that Crawford doesn’t start the regular season with the Red Sox.

Without Crawford, Boston is likely to start the season with an outfield consisting of offseason acquisitions Cody Ross and Ryan Sweeney to go along with 2011 American League MVP runner-up Jacoby Ellsbury.

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