Kevin Youkilis To Have Season Ending Surgery On Thumb, Sox Interested In Delgado

With Kevin Youkilis out for the rest of the season, the Red Sox are looking into potential left-handed bats to platoon with Mike Lowell at first. They have scheduled a workout with former Met Carlos Delgado to see if he might fit the bill.

Delgado, a career .280/.383/.546 hitter, hasn’t played in the majors since May 2009, when a hip injury ended his season prematurely. It has taken the 38-year-old first baseman until now to be ready to return, but Delgado could be exactly what the Sox are looking for as far as a two month deal is concerned.

Recently, however, sources near Delgado have deemed the Red Sox to be an unlikely candidate to pick up Delgado due to his medical history, though they left the possibility open.

Thursday's news that Kevin Youkilis will undergo surgery and miss the remainder of the 2010 season is obviously a huge blow to the Red Sox, and their slim chances at making the playoffs (currently just a 15.3% chance of them playing in October, according to coolstandings.com). This simple fact was not lost on David Ortiz, who said "it's a major hit."

"What happened with Youk?" asked the All-Star DH.

When he was told that the first baseman would be undergoing season-ending surgery Friday morning to repair a tear in the adductor muscle of his right thumb, Ortiz just shook his head.

"Man, it's a major hit," Ortiz said. "Things just get worse around here." [...]

"Everbody knows that Youk is a guy that plays the game hard," Ortiz said. "He's just like Pedroia - when you see those guys coming out of the game, something's wrong. I remember the way he looked after he hit that ball, his last at-bat, I knew that something was definitely wrong with Youk. He never does that, he plays through pain. Something that everyone's aware of. Now that I heard the news that he's not going to play again this year, it's going from worse to worse."

Then Dr. Ortiz offered his advice to Youk: "You have to take care of that [thumb] and come back healthy next year."

Kevin Youkilis, on the 15-day disabled list with a torn muscle at the base of his right thumb, will undergo surgery to repair the injury on Friday, and will miss the remainder of the 2010 season. 

The decision for surgery on Youk's thumb, which he injured in the first inning of Monday nights game against Cleveland, came on Thursday after he met with hand specialist Dr. Thomas Graham in Cleveland. 

Expect to see more of Mike Lowell and Victor Martinez at first. Additionally, the Red Sox have have three first basemen in Triple-A: Lars Anderson, Ryan Shealy and Aaron Bates, any one of which could be called up when rosters expand. 

For more reaction visit Over The Monster. 

Kevin Youkilis will visit hand specialist Dr. Thomas Graham Thursday to get a second opinion on the injury that threatens the rest of his season.

After being pulled from Monday’s game against the Indians and placed on the fifteen day disabled list, it was revealed that Youkilis’ injury, aggravated by a swing on an inside pitch, had been bothering him since the Red Sox’ recent West Coast trip.

Unfortunately for the Red Sox, it seems like Youkilis might well be headed for surgery. His injury isn’t the type to simply get better with rest, and continued activity threatens to exacerbate the injury further.

Youkilis expects to have decided on a course of action by the weekend.

Tuesday's bad news gets worse: according to multiple reports from the army of Red Sox beat writers (via Twitter), Kevin Youkilis, who was placed on the disabled list today, has a torn muscle at at the base of his thumb.

It is a tear of the muscle that helps to "contract the thumb," and is apparently a "relatively rare injury."

WEEI Alex Speier adds that doctors "just hadn't seen that."

For now, the Red Sox will let Youkilis rest, hoping that time away from the field will allow the muscle to heal. However, if that doesn't work, then surgery is a possibility, which, while the injury is "certainly fixable," would keep Youk out for the rest of the 2010 season.

Playing through the injury could only make things even worse, with "career implications" mentioned.

Read more at Over The Monster, where the popular opinion among the community there is that this Red Sox season is all but over.

Kevin Youkilis left Monday nights game with a jammed thumb, and while the initial X-ray came back negative, apparently Tuesday's the MRI did not, because the first baseman is headed to the disabled list.

Mike Lowell has been activated and is starting at first base Tuesday night.

Five of the Red Sox' eight position players from its Opening Day lineup will have now seen time on the DL in 2010.

More as it becomes be available. For all things Red Sox, visit Over The Monster.

Kevin Youkilis left Monday nights game with a "jammed thumb," injured on a lineout in the bottom of the first inning.

Fluoroscope X-rays did not show a fracture, but the team will still send him to undergo an MRI on Tuesday, just to be sure.

After the game, Terry Francona said that Youkilis was "pretty sore."

"[H]e's had a bone bruise in that area and when he got jammed, that thing swelled up real quick and got discolored," manager Terry Francona said. "Sometimes, when you get jammed like that it can be as small as a broken blood vessel. It hurts like heck and then goes away."

If Youkilis does need to miss any time, the Sox have three first basemen in Triple-A: Lars Anderson (hitting .247/.338/.411/.749), Ryan Shealy (.239/.358/.485/.843 in Triple-A) and Aaron Bates (.230/.326/.351/.676). And Mike Lowell is still sitting on the disabled list, waiting to be activated.