Clay Buchholz At Red Sox Spring Training: Staying Healthy Just 'A Matter Of Communication'
By Matt Dolloff, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Clay Buchholz has pitched more than 173 full innings only once in his nine-year major league career. In 2015, he pitched just 113.1 innings before leaving a July 10 game against the New York Yankees with elbow tightness and, ultimately, missing the rest of the season.
Determined to shed his much-earned "injury-prone" label, Buchholz told WBZ's Jonny Miller that his recent injuries have grown from minor ones into long-term issues, and that he made a mistake in trying to pitch through them without surgery.
"Just a matter of communication," Buchholz said on maintaining his health. "If something does happen ... [it comes down to] communicating with the training staff and to make sure to get that taken care of and knock it out quick, rather than letting it linger.
"Trying to pitch through injuries - especially in Spring Training - I don't think that's the best way to go about it. If you need to take a couple steps back to move forward, then that's what you've got to do."
These words suggest one of two possibilities to explain Buchholz's history of injuries, some of which began with something minor (like elbow tightness) but eventually snowballed into a problem that kept Buccholz shelved for extended periods of time. Either he gets hurt and doesn't tell the training staff about it, or the training staff can't agree with him on what to do when he gets banged up.
Buchholz told MassLive last July after hitting the disabled list for the seventh time in his career that he's been unlucky, estimating that "90 percent of the injuries I've had have been freak things."
Buchholz doesn't seem to believe his injuries are a conditioning or durability issue, and they may not be. But if he believes that the real issue is communication and dealing with injuries quickly, he and the staff need to prove that if and when he gets hurt again.
Matt Dolloff is a writer for CBSBostonSports.com. His opinions do not necessarily reflect that of CBS or 98.5 The Sports Hub. Follow him on Twitter @mattdolloff and email him at mdolloff@985thesportshub.com.
