Spring, and a young man’s thought turn to …. Chase Utley’s knees.
The Pennant ‘Chase’ just got a little more difficult for your fighting Phillies. They now almost assuredly will start the season without the entire right side of their vaunted infield.
The team announced yesterday that second baseman Chase Utley has left training camp in Clearwater to get treatment on his ailing knees. You read that right. Knees. As in both knees. Utley missed the first 47 games of last season with tendinitis in his right knee. Now the left one is acting up on him as well.
The Utley situation brings up all kinds of questions, not the least of which is, have we seen Utley in pinstripes for the last time?
I remember saying the same thing last year. Of course, Utley eventually rejoined the team, even if he was not the same player he once was.
The more intriguing question here is just how truthful Utley was with the team, and how truthful the team has been with its fans.
Utley did not step on the field one time in a Grapefruit League game this spring. He was limited to a bit of batting practice and taking a few ground balls. Pretty much exactly what he did last year.
Except that last year every one admitted he was hurting and trying to rehab his aching right knee. There was no such talk this year. With all winter to rest his ailing legs, Utley was expected to be a full participant when he reported to Clearwater this year. Didn’t happen.
You have to believe the Phils weren’t fully aware of how bad Utley’s knees were. If they did you would think they would have held on to valuable utility man Wilson Valdez, who filled in for Utley last year.
Instead, Valdez was traded to the Reds.
Meet Freddy Galvis, your likely starter at second base. Of course, Galvis has always been a shortstop, but found himself mired behind Jimmy Rollins.
The Phils now face the prospect of opening the season without their two biggest numbers producers, Utley and first baseman Ryan Howard, who is on the shelf while he rehabs from a ruptured Achilles.
And consider this. Jimmy Rollins has proved the last couple of years that his legs are not exactly what they once were. Anybody believe Placido Polanco is going to go a full season without getting hurt? He seems like he’s been banged up forever.
Hunter Pence will have to come up huge for this team this year, along with their troika of aces on the mound, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels.
But before the season starts, in particular if it does so without Utley, the Phils should come clean with the fans who have sold out every night at Citizens Bank Park for as long as anyone can remember about what they knew – or didn’t know – about Utley’s condition.
The first day of spring has not exactly put a ‘spring’ in Phillies’ fans steps.
Instead they’re Chase-ing answers.
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