Mark Teixeira Claims His Wrist Injury Is Worse Than Reported, Could Require Season-Ending Surgery

by Dan Duquette Jr. on Sun, Mar 17, 2013 at 2:57PM

If you ask the Yankeees about the extent of Mark Teixeira‘s wrist injury, they will tell you that he’s expected to miss 8-10 weeks while waiting for it to heal. If you ask Teixeira himself, well, he seems to think it might be a bit longer than that.

Teixeira told reporters at spring training that his injury is not a wrist strain, but that it’s actually partially torn tendon sheath. If that’s the case, the first baseman might need season-ending surgery to repair the damage.

“This is one of those things I can’t come back too early,” he said. “We saw last season when I tried to play too early [with a calf injury] what happened. If I try to play too early from this we could miss the whole season, and we don’t want that.”

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman spoke with the team’s doctor about the injury, and was able to clarify the diagnosis as only a partially torn sheath, but the actual tendon in Teixeira’s wrist is stable.

“If [Teixeira] had a fully torn sheath, it’s automatic surgery, and if he had a partially torn sheath with an unstable tendon, it’s automatic surgery,” Cashman said. “This is a best-case scenario injury, the only one that can heal without surgery.”

The Yankees have been dealing with plenty of injuries this offseason, from Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez to Curtis Granderson and Teixeira. If their first baseman’s injury does turn out to be worse than initially expected, the Bronx Bombers could find themselves in even more trouble as the season goes on.