Speaking for the first time since a problematic thumb nixed a trade between the Red Sox and Rangers this weekend, third baseman Mike Lowell clarified his injury to WEEI.com on Monday night, stressing that a lack of communication with his team's medical staff wasn't a problem in the delayed surgery.
During the Winter Meetings in Indianapolis in early December, a trade was reportedly agreed upon in principle that would've sent Lowell to the Rangers -- with the Red Sox paying $9 million of his $12 million salary for 2010 -- in exchange for catching prospect Max Ramirez.
But on Saturday night, news broke that Lowell needed radial collateral ligament surgery that would require 6-8 weeks to recover from, and the Rangers in turn backed out of the deal.
Lowell originally suffered the injury on a foul ball against Indians starter Jeremy Sowers on Oct. 2. The 35-year-old then sat out the final two games of the regular season and taped it up for the postseason, a three-game American League Division Series sweep suffered at the hands of the Angels.
Lowell, while speaking by phone from Orlando, Fla., told WEEI.com, "I was in constant and open communication about my thumb situation from the moment it happened to every week after.
"The day this thing happened, it was X-rayed, and I told them about the pain, which was Oct. 2," he added. "That's why I didn't play the other two games. We taped it up in a way that we thought would help me in the postseason. They thought it might be a strain or a bone bruise. I don't want to lay blame on anybody because in '07, my other thumb got hurt, and they thought it was a strain, as well, and it ended up being that way and everything settled down nice and easy."
Lowell told the Web site he had his right thumb put in a splint in late November, at the suggestion of Red Sox assistant trainer Mike Reinold, who visited him in Miami. Then, on Dec. 7 -- the first day of the Winter Meetings -- he was asked by the Red Sox to take an MRI.
"That's when the thinking was that it might be something more than it was originally thought to be," Lowell said.
"I was in constant communication with the training staff. This did not crop up anywhere. I told them two weeks later, four weeks later, and seven weeks later until I finally got the MRI."
Now that Lowell remains a member of the Red Sox, the question is how he will respond to potentially starting the season -- perhaps in a reduced role -- on a team that wanted him gone. But Lowell told WEEI he has "no problem in them shopping me around," but admitted he "would have preferred to have the surgery in October once the season was officially over" because he doesn't want to "race to Spring Training."
Lowell is expected to have the surgery done shortly after Christmas and should be ready to return by the first or second week of Spring Training.
The possibility of the four-time All-Star being dealt is still open.
On Sunday, Red Sox assistant general manager Ben Cherington talked to Sirius XM's MLB Home Plate about how Lowell's injury at first didn't appear to be all too serious, even saying that "at the end of the playoffs, in our exit physical, he barely made mention of it."
Lowell disputed that.
"It definitely was [brought up in the exit interviews]," Lowell said. "You have to understand the exit interview is the last day, and it was hurting at the time. That's where I defer to the medical staff. If they had told me to get an MRI that day, I would have done it."
He didn't believe the injury would ultimately need surgery, however.
"Surgery? No," Lowell told WEEI. "I was in a lot of pain in '07 for a couple of weeks [because of my left thumb,] and the doctors told me it was going to get better and it did. I always defer to the medical staff. They know better than me, I'm not a doctor. So I did the same thing in this case, but I did mention concern as the weeks went by I wasn't getting better."
Despite being limited to 119 games and losing a lot of his mobility on the field after surgery to his hip last offseason, Lowell still produced at the plate in 2009, batting .290 with 17 homers and 75 RBIs.
Barring any moves, Casey Kotchman was expected to start at first base in 2010, with Kevin Youkilis moving to third. But that was before the Lowell trade to the Rangers was called off. Now, if Lowell does open the season in Boston, it's unclear what kind of role he'll have in his fifth season with the club.
But Lowell feels he'll be better.
"I think I'm going to do much better than last year," Lowell told WEEI.com. "I feel like there were close to 20 games I felt I should have been in the last two months of the season, which would have given me about three more homers and would have put me at 20 [homers] and 90 [RBIs], which is about what I am."
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