Will Carroll breaks down Wright’s injury in his Under the Knife column on SI.com. Carroll used to write for Baseball-Prospectus, where he was behind their paywall, but now he’s a free range writer over at SI where everyone can read him. He’s one of the few covering injuries in a meaningful way, and definitely a must read for everyone who follows baseball.
This is an interesting timetable by Carroll. Ironically, BP’s Collateral Damage article for today says, in part, the following:
Regardless of the classification or the exact location of the stress fracture, players with pars issues have not had much success in returning quickly, according to our database (albeit in a small sample size). We have records of only five players diagnosed with low back stress fractures, none of them third basemen. Francisco Cordero lost almost all of 2001 to his stress fracture, while Bobby Crosby missed over 50 games with his as a shortstop in 2006. Two minor leaguers in our database missed over 75 games as a result of stress fractures. Justin Morneau missed “only” 29 days, but his stress fracture ended his season, so he likely would have missed at least another week or two had he suffered it earlier in the season.
The Mets must allow sufficient time for Wright’s symptoms to decrease to the point that his play won’t be affected, so he will likely be out for a minimum of four weeks, and probably closer to six, if not more.