Gurriel is optimistic about his recovery from hand surgery
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – A longtime hitter such as Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel commonly feels a deep soreness in the palm of his bottom hand. That might develop into the searing pain of a fracture of the hamate bone, located below the pinky and outside the wrist.
Swings exacerbate the injury. At 33, Gurriel, an international star in Cuba and Japan, had played 17 seasons of professional baseball. He had taken countless swings.
On Feb. 24, the pain in his left hand reached a new height when he fouled off a high-andinside pitch during batting practice before his first spring game.
“Oh, what happened?” he thought. “I’m feeling pain, but a little. I continue BP.”
In his first at-bat, Gurriel let three consecutive strikes go by without a swing. He might have wanted to get a look at his first competitive pitches since Game 7 of the World Series, but Gurriel is known for attacking early in the count.
“I think, ‘Hey, swing hard,’ ” he explained of his approach the next time up.
In the fourth inning, he had enough strength in the ailing left hand to hit a home run on the only swing he took that made contact this spring — but it hurt.
He did not hit the next day during practice, and the day after that, he mustered one swing off the pitching machine, which fires faster than a batting practice pitcher, before the pain reached a debilitating point. “Stop,” he was told. The Astros flew Gurriel to Houston for surgery to remove the hook of the hamate bone in his left hand. The team expects him to need six weeks until he can return to play.
Gurriel returned to camp Monday. He is able to train his lower body and right arm while his hand heels in a cast.
“It’s better,” Gurriel said Tuesday, referring to his recovery.
He is glad he got the procedure, which many players have experienced and returned to compete without lingering complications.
Gurriel could return in mid-April, when he would be activated from the disabled list and serve a five-game suspension for the insensitive gesture he made during the World Series.
Sitting at his locker Tuesday, Gurriel expressed optimism about his recovery. He made a backhand motion with his left hand, alluding to the feeling of smacking a home run.
“Now,” Gurriel said, nodding and confident, “let’s go.”
Gose’s chance doesn’t work out
He arrived as an unknown risk and departed as a failed experiment.
After plucking lefthander Anthony Gose, an outfielder attempting to convert into a pitcher, from the Rangers with a Rule 5 draft pick in the offseason, the Astros placed him on waivers Monday.
The Astros had hoped Gose could create more competition among lefthanded relievers trying to make the opening-day roster.
Gose declined to talk with reporters except for one time, when he reinforced his reputation for throwing 100 miles per hour and mixing in a “curveball from hell.”
Since 1950, only seven major leaguers already established as position players went on to pitch 10 or more innings in their careers.
“I got the same chance as everything else in this room,” Gose had said of his opportunity to make the Astros.
Although he was raised in California, Gose spoke with a thick Alabama accent.
“Opportunities are runnin’ slim to none in the outfield. I’m not producing offensively. Not gonna get you many oppor- tunities out there,” he said. “I was blessed with a pretty good arm, and it’s about puttin’ to work.”
His natural gifts did not ensure his success. On Saturday against the Nationals, he started with a 98 mph fastball and walked the only three batters he would face. His first outing with the Astros was his last.
As a Rule 5 pick, Gose would have had to stay on the Astros’ 25-man roster for the entire season for them to be guaranteed of keeping him.
Gose can be claimed by another team, or he will return to the Rangers.