Lowell’s Surgery Successful

Two days before we all ring in the New Year with our friends and family, Mike Lowell had surgery on his torn liagment in his thumb. According to ESPN, the surgery was successful and Lowell is expected to be healed and ready to go when hitters report to Fort Myers in just over 2 months. When doing the surgery, the Boston Globe reported that Dr. Donald Sheridan discovered the ligament 95% torn.

Given Lowell’s recent injuries (thumb and hip problems in 2008 and thumb in 2009), and his increasing age, there are reasons that the Red Sox wary and are still keeping a toe in the Adrian Beltre race. Even though recovery from this most recent surgery should take about 6 weeks, he has yet to prove his hip is fully recovered from his labrum surgery over a year ago. Even if Lowell is 100% healthy, the Sox will take a more cautious approach to his playing time this season, once again forcing Kevin Youkilis to slide back and forth between first and third. Despite Youk’s success at both positions, it is difficult for a player of any caliber to not know what position he will be playing when he shows up to the ballpark on a daily basis.

Only time will tell, but there is no way the Sox would play Lowell more than 120 games in 2010, even in the most ideal of conditions with perfect health on his side. Throught the season, just like this current off-season, the most talked about subject will be who is playing at the corner infield spots on a daily basis. We shall see.