Ryan Vogelsong has struggled all season with injuries and poor performances, posting a 5.82 ERA in 16 starts for the Giants, and yesterday the 35-year-old right-hander pointed to his participation in the World Baseball Classic as a possible explanation.
While noting that breaking his finger swinging at a pitch on May 20 is what derailed his season the most, Vogelsong told Andrew Baggarly of CSNBayArea.com:The WBC … it’s a valid question. I’m just not sure. The only way we’ll have an answer is to have an offseason of rest and come back next year. I plan on coming back strong and having a great year, and then we can blame this on the WBC if you want.
I definitely have some questions whether the WBC hurt me or no. But I doubt myself more for swinging at that pitch, because that’s something I could have controlled. It’s just been hard for me to explain to you what it’s like when you’re rehabbing in the middle of a season. It’s not easy to do.
It’s also worth noting that Vogelsong is 35 years old, which is an age at which pitchers often decline rapidly, and prior to 2011 he’d been a journeyman without much big-league success. So maybe it was the WBC, maybe it was the broken finger, maybe it was aging, and maybe it was some combination of everything.
San Francisco has a $6.5 million team option on Vogelsong for next season and while his performance certainly hasn’t been worth that money this year Baggarly writes that he’s “expected to return.”
