Lucas Duda Fractures Wrist Moving Furniture

Yes, you read that right. Apparently, outfielder Lucas Duda recently fractured his wrist moving furniture in his apartment in Southern California. MetsBlog was the first to report the news, saying Duda was in NYC yesterday for surgery and is expected to be released from the hospital sometime today. Since it’s only the beginning of November, he is expected to be 100% by the time Spring Training rolls around.

It amazes me how some professional athletes injure themselves. When I read this news, I immediately though of when

Sep 12, 2012; Flushing, NY,USA; New York Mets right fielder Lucas Duda (21) singles to right during the ninth inning against the Washington Nationals at Citi Field. Nationals won 2-0. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-US PRESSWIRE

Sammy Sosa cracked a couple ribs while sneezing a few years back. While you can’t really help how you sneeze, you can certainly help how you move furniture. Whether or not this sounds like a foolish injury, it’s obvious that his wrist was already weak. He probably would’ve fractured it later this winter once he got into his off-season workouts. So, when talking about his readiness to participate in Spring camp, it’s actually better that something like this happened now.

However, this will definitely hurt his trade value during the next couple months as Sandy Alderson tries to acquire a legit outfield bat. Recently, we’ve been hearing rumors about Duda, paired with a starting pitcher (ahem, Jonathon Niese) could be a very real package that could yield a more proven offensive threat. His lackluster 2012 doesn’t exactly give the Mets much leverage with potential trade partners (.239/.329/.389 with 15 HR and 57 RBI), but Alderson could at least point to what he did in 2011 (.292/.370/.482) and play on the part that he has a lot of upside.

Even though this injury looks to be very minor, it certainly adds another issue to address in talks with opposing GMs. He has shown potential to be an offensive threat, but has limited liability in the outfield, and now with the wrist injury, there is a (slight) possibility that it could hinder his development at the plate. As things start to heat up with the GM Meetings tomorrow, we’ll start to find out whether Duda will be actively shopped by the Mets or not. If he is, we’ll also see whether this injury will make life harder for Sandy this winter.