Season is officially over for Flores, Kearns, Belliard and Young
It started out as a promising season, but that quickly ended when the Nationals' were ravaged by injuries and most of the opening day starting lineup spent some time on the disabled list.
The injury bug that bit this team, and bit hard, will force Manny Acta to end the season for Austin Kearns, Jesus Flores, Ronnie Belliard and Dmitri Young.
With only 11 games remaining in the 2008 season, the Nationals brass doesn't see any reason to bring back the aforementioned players and risk having them prolong their recovery time.
Kearns, who has missed the last 20 games with a stress fracture in his left foot, has had a rough year, batting a career-low .217 with seven homers and 32 RBI in 86 games, because of the amount of time he spent on the DL.
He missed 38 games earlier in the season because of an injury to his right elbow.
Kearns' main concern is getting healthy and being ready for 2009.
Audio: Austin Kearns discusses being out for the rest of the season
Flores was never placed on the DL after spraining his left ankle in a home-plate collision with Chase Utley of the Phillies on September 2nd, but he still has swelling and has a tough time squatting.
Entering play Wednesday night against the Mets, Flores still leads the team in RBI with 59 and he ranks second in the NL in batting with runners in scoring position with a .370 average.
Flores says he plans to play ball for the Magallanes Navigators of the Venezuelan Winter League this off season.
Belliard left the game on September 4th with a right groin strain and he will miss the remainder of the season. Prior to the injury, he was batting .353 with 10 doubles, two HR, 16 RBI in 40 games since the All-Star break.
Young returned from a rehab assignment on September 9th, but hadn't played and he was optimistic that he would be able to get a few games under his belt before the season ended, but Acta, Senior Vice President and General Manager Jim Bowden decided against that.
Because of injuries and issues with his diabetes, Young only played in 50 games, hitting .280 with four home runs and 10 RBI.
All four men should be healthy when Spring Training begins in 2009 and looking to have better success that what they had this season.
Audio: Manny Acta on all the injuries to the Nats this year
Leave a comment