Evan Longoria gives Will MIddlebrooks some advice

It seems so long ago that the Red Sox were in the 2008 ALCS, trying to defend their World Series title against their division rival, Tampa Bay. The Rays were riding a wave of emotion that year, essentially rising from the ashes of their horrible past. The heart and soul of this Rays team was rookie sensation, Evan Longoria.

That season, Longoria suffered a wrist injury very similar to the one Will Middlebrooks suffered last season. The difference between the two is that Longoria was able to return after a months while Middlebrooks was benched for the remaining two months of the season. Apparently over this past winter, Middlebrooks reached out via text to the division for some advice on recovering from the injury. Longoria sincerely responded:

"I just told him, for me, it was just letting it heal, letting the bone heal," Longoria said. "It's not one of those things that's going to hinder you after the fact. Bone injuries are much different than muscular injuries. You just let it heal and do a little bit of physical therapy just to regain the range of motion and strength in the area, but it's much easier to come back from than any kind of muscular injury. I told him he's going to be fine."

Middlebrooks had a brief scare a couple weeks ago regarding the same wrist that he injured. Some brief pain when swinging quickly went away and there have been no additional. He has since resumed Spring Training as planned. Longoria can relate to the anxiety that Middlebrooks may have had. Not because of a fear of pain, but of a fear that he would have stop playing:

"My wrist hurt every day," Longoria said. "It's kind of like an arthritic pain for a while. People don't really understand that you're not going back to a desk job. You're trying to use something that was broken to hit a ball coming 95 miles an hour. It's normal to feel pain. It's normal to have that kind of soreness. That just takes some time getting used to and understanding how much of a workload you can put on it. But being where he's at now, you may have a little bit of soreness, but he shouldn't have anything reoccurring."

Anthony Aidonidis
@aidonidis18