Remember that big Manny Ramirez trade last summer? Manny to the Dodgers, Jason Bay to the Red Sox and Andy LaRoche and three prospects to the Pirates.
Fifty-game suspension aside, it worked out pretty well for the Dodgers. And you know Boston is happy with Jason being Jason.
But the Pirates, of course, can’t catch any luck. In addition to a mediocre LaRoche, they received Bryan Morris from the Dodgers, and Brandon Moss and Craig Hansen from the Red Sox.
Moss is, like LaRoche, quite mediocre as a platoon outfielder. Morris can’t throw strikes in Single-A. And Hansen, once thought to potentially be Jonathan Papelbon’s future replacement, was also wild and on the 60-day disabled list.
Through it all, Pirates GM Neal Huntington has remained optimistic.
But now, as it turns out, the news is even worse. According to John Perrotto at Piratesreport.com, Hansen is suffering from a rare condition that affects a group of nerves that send signals from the spine to the shoulder, arm and hand.
Recovery is essentially a crap shoot. It can take months. It can take years. It might not happen at all. All you can do is rest the affected area and hope. As Hansen told Perrotto ...
“The muscles in my right shoulder have atrophied so much that there would be almost no way that, even if the nerve healed tomorrow, I would be able to get my strength back in time to pitch in a game this year,” Hansen said.
Hansen said that he might come back as a left-hander, showing his sense of humor while in a tough situation.
“I’m thinking about getting a left-hander’s glove and coming back as a lefty,” Hansen said. “I could pitch until I’m 45 and get guys out with my high school curveball.”