Help Needed: Hitters Who Played Through a 2018 Injury

by
October 17, 2018

When I hear or read about a hitter playing through an injury my interest perks up and he becomes an immediate draft target. Standard projections have no idea these players played hurt and the lower production keeps down future estimations. Savvy owners can give these players a small talent bump and reap some nice rewards. My current request to create a detailed list of hitters playing through injuries for 2019 preseason research and to test after next season.

A perfect example from last season was Xander Bogaerts who dealt with the “… challenge of playing through the second half of this season with an injured right hand.” Our preseason Depth Chart projection put his triple slash line at: .287/.350/.439. In a previous study, I found playing through an injury costs a hitter some power but by the next season, the effects are gone. Bogaerts did exactly as expected slashing .288/.360/.522 beating his power projection by 80 points.

Here the hitters who have been documented as playing through an injury during the 2018 season (2017 list).

Played Through an Injury

Name: Injury (article link)

  • Jose Altuve: knee (link)
  • Elvis Andrus: elbow (link)
  • Nolan Arenado: shoulder (link)
  • Brandon Belt: knee (link)
  • Kris Bryant: shoulder (link)
  • Byron Buxton: toe and migraines (link)

    • You Aren't a FanGraphs Member
    It looks like you aren't yet a FanGraphs Member (or aren't logged in). We aren't mad, just disappointed.
    We get it. You want to read this article. But before we let you get back to it, we'd like to point out a few of the good reasons why you should become a Member.
    1. Ad Free viewing! We won't bug you with this ad, or any other.
    2. Unlimited articles! Non-Members only get to read 10 free articles a month. Members never get cut off.
    3. Dark mode and Classic mode!
    4. Custom player page dashboards! Choose the player cards you want, in the order you want them.
    5. One-click data exports! Export our projections and leaderboards for your personal projects.
    6. Remove the photos on the home page! (Honestly, this doesn't sound so great to us, but some people wanted it, and we like to give our Members what they want.)
    7. Even more Steamer projections! We have handedness, percentile, and context neutral projections available for Members only.
    8. Get FanGraphs Walk-Off, a customized year end review! Find out exactly how you used FanGraphs this year, and how that compares to other Members. Don't be a victim of FOMO.
    9. A weekly mailbag column, exclusively for Members.
    10. Help support FanGraphs and our entire staff! Our Members provide us with critical resources to improve the site and deliver new features!
    We hope you'll consider a Membership today, for yourself or as a gift! And we realize this has been an awfully long sales pitch, so we've also removed all the other ads in this article. We didn't want to overdo it.
  • Matt Carpenter: shoulder (link)

  • Matt Chapman: hand (link)
  • Carlos Correa: back (link)
  • Brandon Crawford: knee (link)
  • Rafael Devers: shoulder (link)
  • Brian Dozier: knee (link)
  • Edwin Encarnacion: hand (link)
  • Maikel Franco: wrist (link)
  • Joey Gallo: hamstring (link)
  • Avisail Garcia: knee (link)
  • Cesar Hernandez: foot (link)
  • Kevin Kiermaier: foot (link)
  • Jed Lowrie: leg (link)
  • Jose Martinez: thumb (link)
  • Nomar Mazara: thumb (link)
  • Yadier Molina: shoulder (link)
  • Logan Morrison: hip (link)
  • Shohei Ohtani: elbow (link)
  • Marcell Ozuna: shoulder (link)
  • Salvador Perez: thumb (link)
  • Tommy Pham: groin and finger (link)
  • Buster Posey: hip (link)

  • Eddie Rosario: quad (link)

  • Addison Russell: knuckle (link)
  • Travis Shaw: wrist (link)
  • Kyle Seager: toe (link)
  • Jorge Soler: rib (link)
  • Steven Souza Jr.: pectoral (link)
  • Giancarlo Stanton: hamstring (link)
  • Mike Trout: finger (link)
  • Mark Trumbo: knee (link)

  • Ryan Zimmerman: back (link)

When it comes to hitter injuries, the hitters bounce back to being productive unless the injury becomes chronic (i.e. persisting for a long time or constantly recurring). Some recent examples are Prince Fielder’s neck forcing him out of the game and David Wright’s back keeping him in constant rehab. Like with the hitters who played through injury, I asked my Twitter followers for suggestions and will gladly take more in the comments.

For some hitters, the injury is well documented and the chronic label can be given. For others, the label may not stick. Miguel Cabrera was in this middling state coming into 2018. Was he going to get healthy or head back to the DL? He and his bum back headed to the DL.

For those with persistent issues, they should be acquired at a steep discount and have quite a bit of replacement value baked into his value. Besides those with known issues, I’ve included some hitters who need a clean 2019 to keep from joining the chronic crew.

Chronic Injuries

Well documented

Not 100% sure





 

Jeff, one of the authors of the fantasy baseball guide,The Process, writes for RotoGraphs, The Hardball Times, Rotowire, Baseball America, and BaseballHQ. He has been nominated for two SABR Analytics Research Award for Contemporary Analysis and won it in 2013 in tandem with Bill Petti. He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining the News series. He's won Tout Wars three times, LABR twice, and got his first NFBC Main Event win in 2021. Follow him on Twitter @jeffwzimmerman.

15 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
CC AFCMember since 2016
7 years ago

Gleyber! First when on the DL in July with a hip injury, then missed some games in September with “tightness” in the “groin/hip” area. Sounds likely to be related, even if not connected publicly.

Side note: for the sake of the man’s family, Tulowitzki should be given Injured Person Emeritus status and be allowed to live out his days in peace. Bless you, Troy, and your gloriously kick ass, injury ridden career. As Neil Young said “It’s better to burn out than fade away”

3