For the second straight year Tigers reliever Joel Zumaya will miss a significant portion of the upcoming season. And for the second straight season, Joel Zumaya did not suffer his injury playing the game he is paid to play, Baseball.
As we all remember Joel Zumaya infamously strained a tendon in his middle finger by playing too much Guitar Hero, limiting him to only 28 appearances and a 4.28 ERA. This year it is the AC joint in his shoulder which was injured while moving personal items during the recent California wildfires. He underwent reconstructive surgery on his AC joint on Wednesday and team officials are predicting him to miss at least the first half of next season.
This is a huge blow for a Tigers which bullpen was already in shambles going into this offseason, now the question is where do they look for help.
If everything goes perfectly for the Tigers (which it won't) Francisco Cordero, Scott Linebrink and Mariano Rivera will all become free agents and they will instantly become the top 3 priorities on the Tigers offseason wish list.
More realistically though, its going to be up to Jason Grilli, Zach Miner, Fernando Rodney and others to really step up their performance in Zumaya's absence. This is beginning to sound all too familiar.
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