Manny Machado Nearly Two Months Ahead Of Schedule In Rehab From Injury
By Randy Holt
Mandatory Credit: Joy R. Absalon-USA TODAY Sports
The injury that Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado suffered toward the end of the 2013 season was one of the more painful ones to watch. Here you have one of the best and brightest young stars in the game, who goes down with a non-contact knee injury and has to be stretchered off. In that type of situation, regardless of where your loyalties lie, you fear the worst.
Yet, here is Manny Machado, seemingly almost ready to go well before the 2014 season is even slated to begin. Reports coming out of Baltimore are that Machado is six to eight weeks ahead of schedule in rehabbing that knee. Word is that he’s already been cleared for baseball activities, with a final observation of that surgically repaired left knee set to take place at the end of the month. The fact that he tore his patellar tendon, and not an ACL, certainly helped to expedite the rehab process.
While initially there were questions about whether or not Machado would be able to return to the lineup before the 2014 season got underway, those are now a distant memory. After injurying the knee on September 23rd of last year, he’ll be ready to roll and that’s good news for fans all throughout baseball, whether an O’s fan or not.
It hasn’t taken long for Machado to become one of the game’s most exciting players. He’s an absolute defensive wiz, taking over as one of the premier defensive players in all of baseball. He won a Gold Glove in 2014 and was an All Star, while garnering some attention as an MVP candidate as well. Not bad for a kid who was on his way to completing just his first full season at the big league level.
The 21-year-old slashed .283/.314/.432/.746 in his first full season in the bigs, providing some pop as well with 14 home runs and 71 knocked in.