The Cardinals announced on Sunday that Jose Oquendo could miss the entire 2016 season as he recovers from knee surgery.
Per ESPN:
“(Doctors) are just concerned that he gets out there and does what he needs to do for this job, that it would certainly lead toward a replacement, which no one likes the idea of, right?” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. “So, he’s just got to take time.”
They also report that Bill Maloney will be the new 3B coach and Bill Mueller will be the new 1B coach.
A double Bill!
Mueller and bench coach David Bell (along with help from Yadier Molina and Mike Matheny) will be in charge of defensive player positioning.
Obviously, we wish The Secret Weapon a swift and complete recovery.
Two things, though…
1. He won’t be with the team, he’ll be rehabbing in Florida.
Anyone else feel like something is off here? Obviously, I don’t have all the details. But missing an entire season rehabbing a knee to avoid surgery seems to be on the ‘very cautious’ side of estimates for players.
For coaches, though?
Now I get how you wouldn’t want him out in the field trying to dodge foul balls, but after a month or two he’s not going to be well enough to contribute anything to this team from the dugout or instruction sessions?
I have to be missing something.
2. We need to get to some real games; people are starting to lose it.
I generally enjoy Scott Wuerz of BND.com and his work on the Cardinals. But his post today on this Oquendo situation is evidence that we need to skip this week and get right to the games.
Oquendo in many ways is the George Kissell of the modern Cardinals, taking talented players and maximizing their potential.
I’d love a little more meat on the bone here. Coach Kissell was with the Cardinals for 69 (!) years. Oquendo is a highly regarded coach, but I’m not sure he’s on the same level quite yet. Getting there… but not yet.
I hate to see this team without Peralta’s bat. But it may be a tougher blow to lose a valuable leader like Oquendo.
Nope.
There’s a reason that Peralta is getting paid 12.5M dollars in 2016 and Oquendo is (probably) not.
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