In the first genuinely impacting news of the spring, Curtis Granderson of the New York Yankees has suffered a forearm fracture and will be out of action for 10 weeks, ensuring the star center fielder won’t be taking any at bats until May. This is a very tough development for New York, although the good news is that this happened in late February instead of late March.
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Granderson, coming off something of disappointing season in 2012, figures prominently in the Yankees’ plans this year, and obviously missing a month of the schedule isn’t going to sit well with the organization or the fans. The incident took place earlier today while facing J.A. Happ of the Toronto Blue Jays; Happ drilled Granderson on the forearm in his first plate appearance of the spring.
This is a tough way to start things out for Granderson and the Yankees, but Brett Gardner is more than capable of filling in at center for the first month of the season. It’s never a good thing when a star-caliber player misses significant time due to a spring training injury, but in this particular instance, it could have been a lot worse.
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