Nothing good is expected to come of it for the Sox either. With Trot Nixon already sidelined through April and Byung Hyun Kim likely to miss most of the month as well, Garciaparra's surprise setback all but blindsided his teammates on the eve of their breaking camp for the final two exhibition games in Atlanta.
Even if Garciaparra's injury has healed in three weeks, he will need time to refine his baseball skills and prepare for major league competition. He would go on a minor league rehab assignment before he rejoined the Sox.
"It's a shock," Johnny Damon said. "We thought he might play the last couple of [exhibition] games. I guess nobody really knew the severity of [the injury]. This is not a good way to start the season. Losing Nomar, that's huge."
General manager Theo Epstein announced the setback after Garciaparra was examined at City of Palms Park by team physican Bill Morgan and Dr. Mark Slovenkai, a foot and ankle specialist at New England Baptist Hospital. Though the diagnosis remained the same, the prognosis grew unsettlingly worse.
"It will be three weeks without playing in games, for sure," Epstein said. "It's similar to Trot's situation. The whole point of an aggressive rest and rehab routine like this is to knock the injury out. It's a long season. It's a long career. We want to make sure we put this behind us so it doesn't become more chronic."
The Sox will try to compensate for the loss by shifting second baseman Pokey Reese to shortstop (with utilityman Mark Bellhorn replacing Reese at second) and David Ortiz assuming Garciaparra's cleanup role. But there's no replacing a five-time All-Star, two-time batting champion, and .323 career hitter.
"I'm disappointed for us and for him," manager Terry Francona said. "He's such a competitive kid that it's killing him. The hope is that we have a very good team surrounding him and we don't let it affect our wins and losses. He's a very good player, though, and he's right in the middle of our lineup. To say we wouldn't miss him would be lying."
