Having watched the Mets medical staff weave their own brand of magic on behalf of Jose Reyes, Jason Bay and Ryan Church over the last few years, far be for me to suggest Philly’s training staff have been negligent in their TLC of Chase Utley. But with at least one scribe suggesting the 2B might no longer be fit enough to play, you can excuse Bugs & Cranks’ Nathan Aderhold from wondering exactly what’s up when “sixteen days prior to the first game of the season and after doing fuck-all for an entire month (and possibly the entire offseason), Chase Utley and the Phillies decided that maybe it was a good idea to see a guy about his shit.”
How the hell is it then that the Phillies haven’t hired an orthopedist to bug the living shit out of Chase Utley? I don’t mean weekly or monthly check-ups, I’m talking like Josh-Hamilton-accountability-partner annoying. Every day, by his side, making sure he doesn’t do anything that will endanger himself or the team’s investment.
I don’t mean for each and every player, I mean just Chase Utley. The guy who has suffered from chronic (meaning: never-ending) tendonitis in his knees since at least 2010. The guy who is now probably sitting in an ass-less hospital gown waiting for an MRI. The guy who is owed $30 million.
I have no idea how Chase Utley spent his offseason. Perhaps he spent every waking hour of his four and a half months off stretching and strengthening his knees with his own personal orthopedist only to still come up lame. More likely is that he was largely left to his own devices to adhere to a regimen prescribed by the team trainer.