Joe Nathan, a surprisingly 35 years old Joe Nathan at that, has a "significant" tear in his ulnar nerve on his right throwing elbow. In the words of Whitey Guccione, "Not good man...not good." The injury is usually treated with the dreaded Tommy John surgery, and as anyone on this list will tell you (minus the dead guys), it's a very long and painfully slow recovery of 12-18 months. Understandably, at 35 years old Nathan is seeking a second opinion from Doctor James Andrews, and will try to pitch again in two weeks. If he can deal with the pain, he says he'll pitch through it for the entire season. If he can't take the pain, he'll have the surgery. Here's to going out on a limb and thinking that it's a pretty safe bet the Twins wish they didn't sign Nathan to that contract two seasons ago that guarantees him $11.25 million for this season and next.What I find interesting is the general consensus among White Sox Nation and the White Sox themselves, that Nathan's injury equals a significant increase in the Sox's chances at winning the American League Central this year. I am not one of those voices who share that opinion.
First of all, I've learned this the hard way too many times to never count out the Twins in the division race. Five Central Division titles over the last ten years kind of speaks for itself. Secondly, while Nathan maybe a key component for them, and is one of their outstanding star players, the Twins have always had replacements come in and get the job done whenever they lose a great player. It's a benefit of having arguably the best farm system in Major League Baseball over the last decade.Thirdly, the closer position historically is one of the easiest to replace. There have been 32 different pitchers (some multiple times) that have saved 40 or more games in a season since 1983, so it's not that hard to find a guy to get 3 outs at the end of a ball game.
While every little bit helps, Nathan's injury doesn't provide answers to the questions the White Sox had going into this season. That's only going to come from the White Sox themselves, and not their competition's Disabled List.
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