Sure, Josh Beckett is hurt again — but could his career really be over?
Beckett was not a beacon of optimism this week when asked about his most recent injury, Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times reports.
Beckett has been experiencing numbness in the fingers on his pitching hand. The numbness started when he was coming back from a groin injury and continued to be an issue after he had an MRI on Tuesday.
With the injury mostly a mystery, Beckett can only imagine what’s wrong — and ponder the possibility that this could be it.
“Anytime something like that happens to your arm or you start losing feeling or stuff … you think about it for sure,” Beckett said of whether he’ll ever pitch again. “I don’t really want to think like that right now. I want to think about figuring out a way to deal with this.”
Beckett, 33, was traded to the Dodgers last August in a megadeal that sent him and Red Sox teammates Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto to Los Angeles in exchange for several prospects and first baseman James Loney. Beckett leaving town was welcomed by disconsolate Red Sox fans after a rough end to 2011 and a shaky 2012, when Beckett ran into trouble both performance-wise and with how his off-field life was perceived.
Looking back on his career, though, Beckett will be remembered fondly in Boston. The former Marlins pitcher came to the Red Sox in 2006 and was a key part of their 2007 championship, a year that also included a 20-7 record and 3.27 ERA for the righty.
Beckett never really got going this season in Los Angeles, going 0-5 with a 5.19 ERA before landing on the disabled list with a strained groin. Now, the issue with his fingers is even bringing the fate of his career into question.
“I’m concerned,” Beckett said. “I’ve never dealt with anything like this for this amount of time. We’ll just have to see what happens there.”
The results of the MRI are due back Monday.
