Recently, Houston Astros fans were greeted the unwelcome news that the injury plaguing Yordan Alvarez has actually been a broken hand. While it’s nice to finally get some clarity on Alvarez’s status, it once again highlights the Astros’ secretive and questionable handling of player injuries.
This latest dereliction on the part of the Astros front office appears to be the straw that broke the back for several Houston beat writers. There’s already a certain amount of frustration centered around the Astros’ handling of injury updates. Houston famously kept the Kyle Tucker injury situation under wraps for months last season; claiming the former outfielder only had a bone bruise. Eventually, the team revealed that Tucker actually suffered a broken shin.
With Alvarez’s situation now understood, it reveals the Astros’ handling of injuries and the lack of transparency around the team’s reporting may enable the team to mishandle injuries and rush players back too quickly.
The Astros mishandled Yordan Alvarez’s injury, just like they did with Kyle Tucker
Astros GM Dana Brown did his best to do damage control once word got out that Alvarez’s hand was more severe than first reported. Brown claimed that he believed the fracture didn’t occur until after Alvarez tried to play through the injury. While it’s that the fracture wasn’t visible upon the initial scans, Brown has no way to know when it happened. Why not? Because Houston inexplicably didn’t do another scan until last Friday.
The cagey way the Astros deal with injury information makes some sense even though it runs counter to Brown’s typical blunt attitude toward the media. Houston likely believes having ambiguity around the team’s plans and injuries gives them a competitive advantage. While the Atlanta Braves aren’t quite as severe when it comes to injury info, they are famously tight-lipped about everything else and it certainly didn’t hurt them.
The problem is, when you don’t share information and then things come to light, you’re bound to receive little to leeway in the future. If the team’s handling of a given injury or situation can be insinuated to be a mistake, it’s going to be. The Astros deserve all the fallout they are experiencing from these Alvarez’s revelations. If you act like you have something to hide, folks are going to think it is on purpose.
