Carl Crawford Unlikely to be Ready for Opener

Los Angeles Dodgers manager, Don Mattingly, announced that OF Carl Crawford will not likely be ready for Opening Day as he has suffered a setback with his surgically-repaired left elbow. Crawford, as you will remember, was acquired by the Dodgers last August along with Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, Nick Punto and $11 mil in cash from the Red Sox for James Loney, Jerry Sands, Allen Webster, Ivan DeJesus Jr. and Rubby De La Rosa as Boston looked to clean house of all their pricey players.

Crawford was drafted by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the second round, 52nd overall, of the 1999 MLB Draft. He spent the first nine years of his big league career with Tampa Bay before signing a very lucrative seven year, $147 mil deal with the Boston Red Sox after the 2010 season. Although his career with Tampa Bay was superb, his career with Boston was anything but that.

In January 2012, Crawford injured his wrist, which later led to surgery. He began rehabbing his wrist, but then started having discomfort in his elbow and was told he had a sprained ligament. He tried to play through the injury was unsuccessful. Finally on August 23 2012, he underwent Tommy John surgery. Two days later, he was traded to the Dodgers as part of their newly discovered spending splurge under new ownership.

Crawford will likely begin the season on the DL as this injury does not appear to be serious (nerve irritation in his arm), but he is being shut down for a week nonetheless.  He will be a guy to keep on eye on as the Dodger made a huge gamble taking on the rest of his contract (five years remaining) for the now injury prone outfielder.