Despite injury, Yanks’ Fowler has no regrets
NEW YORK — Dustin Fowler remembers adrenaline surging through his veins when he took the field last week for his major league debut. And then before he even stepped into a big-league batter’s box, the 22-yearold crumpled to the field with a season-ending knee injury after crashing into a low wall while chasing a foul ball.
“Just couldn’t believe what was going on,” he said Wednesday, hobbling into a Yankee Stadium news conference on crutches.
An 18th-round draft pick in 2013 from West Laurens High School in Dexter, Ga., the outfielder climbed through the Yankees’ minor league system and earned his first call-up last Thursday because of New York’s mushrooming injuries.
Fowler was on deck when the top of the first ended that night.
“You want a quick inning so you can go ahead and get to your at-bat,” he said.
But Fowler ran at full speed into a wall in the right-field corner at Chicago’s Guaranteed Rate Field while chasing Jose Abreu’s two-out foul. He ruptured the patellar tendon in his right knee when it hit a metal box used for Wi-Fi, and he was carted off for immediate surgery to repair the damage and close an open wound.
He needed a pair of crutches to make his way across the hallway from the Yankees clubhouse to the interview room Wednesday. His injured leg was encased in a device that kept it 180 degrees so the knee would not bend.
Fowler attributed the injury to his style of play. “I’m always a guy that’s going to try and do everything I can to make the play. Got to it too aggressively,” he said. “I don’t really regret anything. I think I would give the same effort if I did it all over again.”
Fowler hit .293 with 13 homers and 43 RBIs at Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this year and was selected to play in the International League All-Star Game. He faces four to six months of rehabilitation, meaning he should be ready for the start of spring training in mid-February.