Urias Wrist - Update: Had surgery 1/28 for hamate bone fracture, out 6-8 weeks

[Eye Black]

any word on how Urias wrist is

Well he had surgery apparently (Link).

 

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Well, that's not ideal. Hopefully it will solve the issue, though, so it isn't something that lingers and affects him long-term.

[JimH5]

Was this news reported before the fact? I didn't see anything that indicated surgery was required and imminent.

 

Strange that we learn about this from a player's own Instagram account.

[MrTPlush]

Pretty much a given that would be the outcome. The swift action to get it done probably means the recovery time is reasonable. At least it happened now. Next month+ was already garbage time anyway.

[homer]

Looks like 6-8 weeks on the shelf. Hamate bone though so might linger.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

This is a bummer for sure, but it doesn't necessarily mean that Arcia is a roster lock, though. Sogard, Gyorko, Rodriguez and Mathias can all play SS.

[clancyphile]

Looks like 6-8 weeks on the shelf. Hamate bone though so might linger.

 

Per McCalvy, team expects full recovery, no lingering effects.

 

IIRC, didn't Brad Nelson have a fractured hamate?

[ntretts]

I'm going to need some talking off a ledge if this ends up lingering, giving Arcia significant playing time. I can't handle any more Arcia AB's mentally

[long ball]

So he will probably miss all of spring. Maybe goes to extended spring training to ramp up and probably a rehab assignment with a minor league affiliate. Hopefully he will be big league ready by May and the Brewers can get by with the rest of their infield contingent.

[Cool Hand Lucroy]

Eugenio Suarez is in a similar boat, but with shoulder surgery. This is probably good news overall. You figure Urias should be good to go by mid-to-late April at the latest, and you can cover a month with current roster options without too much trouble. Who knows? Maybe we get 2018 postseason Arcia because he feels the pressure? One can hope.

 

The weirdness of the release of this news, though, is annoying. Those weeks between his removal from winter league and his surgery seem like a bigger deal now. Even if it was unavoidable due to bureaucratic reasons, the whole "we'll know more by mid-next week" seems really odd in retrospect. Did they have the evaluation and the surgery the same day?

[ReverendBrewmeister]

Looks like 6-8 weeks on the shelf. Hamate bone though so might linger.

 

Per McCalvy, team expects full recovery, no lingering effects.

 

IIRC, didn't Brad Nelson have a fractured hamate?

Brad Nelson did have that injury back in the day. (Nice to see another Brewerfan veteran remember that name, though wish that Nelson would have turned out to be a star!)

 

But it seems like there may have been some progress in treating hamate fractures in athletes, primarily going the surgical excision route. Looks like that has more success than past treatment. I found an interesting abstract of a medical journal about that:

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6194943/

[trwi7]

This is a bummer for sure, but it doesn't necessarily mean that Arcia is a roster lock, though. Sogard, Gyorko, Rodriguez and Mathias can all play SS.

 

Gyorko is an awful defender at short, I have no idea who Rodriguez and Mathias are so it can be safely assumed that Arcia is the starter.

[JimH5]

Two days ago they had a massive team event with thousands of fans, media members, Stearns and Attanasio addressing questions, tons of players on hand...and nobody talked about this??

 

Did he have this procedure without the team knowing, or did they purposely not mention it when it was something that fans would want to know?

[Eye Black]

Looks like 6-8 weeks on the shelf. Hamate bone though so might linger.

 

Per McCalvy, team expects full recovery, no lingering effects.

 

Well not ideal and obviously both wrists are very important to a baseball player, but I guess it’s maybe slightly better that it is the left wrist for a right handed thrower/batter.

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Two days ago they had a massive team event with thousands of fans, media members, Stearns and Attanasio addressing questions, tons of players on hand...and nobody talked about this??

 

Did he have this procedure without the team knowing, or did they purposely not mention it when it was something that fans would want to know?

 

Stearns was asked about it. He said that Urias was going to be evaluated by a specialist this week, but didn't want to speculate on a course of action until the results of that evaluation were known. Apparently the evaluation said surgery, and they got it done quick.

 

My question is that Urias first reported the discomfort on Jan 6 I believe. I understand if maybe they thought giving it a rest might alleviate the problem, but it is somewhat disappointing that it took this long to diagnose and treat a broken bone.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

They did talk about it, it was reported widely he was flying in to have his wrist examined. He clearly wasn't flown to the US to have his wrist "checked out" though. He was flown in to have surgery performed by the team's doctor of choice. I wouldn't expect them to say more than what they did. And if that's all they decided to say, there's not much to talk about.

[Eye Black]

Interesting article on hamate bone injuries from when Giancarlo Stanton suffered from the same issue...

 

Fish Stripes: Explaining the hamate bone fracture

 

Unfortunately, Stanton’s injury took much longer than expected to recover from. He had surgery in late-June and never returned to action that season (in 2015) because he had some lingering effects on his grip (Miami Marlins' Giancarlo Stanton suffering from hand grip issues).

[sveumrules]

Well not ideal and obviously both wrists are very important to a baseball player, but I guess it’s maybe slightly better that it is the left wrist for a right handed thrower/batter.

 

Better for his throwing, but I believe the left hand generates power for a righty batter, being at the bottom of the grip.

[homer]

Yeah it can linger. You can play but it can still affect you for a while. I don't know if the hand matters (as it pertains to which side of the plate you bat from).

[umphrey]

Matt Olson last year

 

https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/athletics/matt-olson-hasnt-lost-his-power-whatsoever-after-hand-surgery

[OldSchoolSnapper]

"A total of 41 baseball players were identified, all of whom were documented to have a chronic presentation of a nonunion or partial union. The population consisted completely of male athletes, with a median age of 21 years (range, 18-34 years). All patients were competitive athletes, with 12 professional baseball players, 17 collegiate baseball players, and 12 high school baseball players. All patients were treated with hook of hamate excision, with 7 patients undergoing concomitant procedures as indicated. The median time to return to play was 5 weeks (range, 3-7 weeks). The time to return to play was similar between professional, collegiate, and high school athletes. All athletes returned to their preinjury level of activity by 7 weeks postoperatively."

 

Doesn't really sound all that bad. 8 weeks from today, the conservative estimate I've seen, Is March 24. So he should be with the MLB team, if that's the plan, before the end of April.

[ReverendBrewmeister]

Found another short journal article about evaluating baseball players’ performances after hamate injuries and surgeries:

 

https://handsurgerypc.com/dev/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Performance-Outcomes-After-Hook-of-the-Hamate-Fractures-in-Major-League-Baseball-Players.-J-Sport-Rehabil.pdf

 

Definitely one for our stats-interested members to evaluate.

 

Some interesting statements from the article:

 

“We hypothesized that a hook of hamate fracture would lead to a decrease in performance in MLB players. However, our results demonstrated that players returned to their preinjury performance level. MLB players sustaining hook of hamate fractures did not show any decrease in performance when compared with matched-controls. Our findings suggest that MLB players are able to return to their prior performance level, and continue their careers unhindered after sustaining a hook of hamate fracture.

Interestingly, when controlling for all factors included in our multivariate regression model, WAR 2 seasons preinjury and ISO preinjury were predictive of performance after injury with a strong positive correlation. We believe that the players who were more productive preinjury, were more motivated to complete their rehabilitation and return to play at an elite level......

 

Conclusion:

Hook of hamate fractures treated by operative means, in MLB players, did not impact postinjury performance. MLB players were able to return to play after their injury and perform at a similar level as their control-matched peers at 2 years postinjury.”

 

We can hope that Urias can get back to levels in one year, though it looks like the two-year prognosis is very good.

[Eye Black]

Matt Olson last year

 

https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/athletics/matt-olson-hasnt-lost-his-power-whatsoever-after-hand-surgery

Well he ended up winning a Gold Glove, hitting 36 home runs, and receiving MVP votes... so that’s encouraging.

[DHonks]

Nothing new. This was the injury du jour about 15-20 years ago. All the cool kids were breaking it. It’s thought to be caused by traditional knobs, as opposed to the ax-handle bats. injures heal relatively quickly, but frequently takes over a year to regain power

[OldSchoolSnapper]

Don't have to regain your power if you start with none.