Red Sox shortstop Jed Lowrie, whose season was hampered by the need for surgery on his left wrist in April and a difficult recovery process from it, met with Dr. Donald Sheridan — the specialist who performed surgery on him in April — and was told on Friday morning that his wrist should be fine after an offseason to recover and strengthen the area.

“The prognosis is good,” Lowrie wrote in an e-mail. “With rest, strength and conditioning it should be 100 percent.”

Lowrie hit .147 with a .475 OPS in 32 games this season. Sox general manager Theo Epstein said at the conclusion of the season that the team believes in the young infielder’s talent, but until he proves the ability to remain healthy over the course of a big league season, the team will need other options as short. All the same, the Sox still consider the best-case scenario for their shortstop position in 2010 to be Lowrie’s emergence as a healthy and productive big leaguer.

“Lowrie is an important factor for us,” Epstein said on Monday. “This is a young player we really believe in who has been hurt as a big league player. We’ve not seen the type of player he can be yet at the big league level because he’s been playing hurt the entire time. At some point, the player has to get healthy to be able to show what he can do and to be able to help the organization.

“I don’t think we can hand a job to him because he hasn’t proved his health yet at this point. But at the same time, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re sitting here at this time next year, hopefully with champagne and not having one of these post-mortems, but looking back and saying, ‘Wow, he really got healthy and proved himself in winning that job or playing his way into a meaningful role,’ ” Epstein continued. “Now it’s on him. He’s got to get himself healthy and make an impact. We can’t stake our season on the hope that he’ll be healthy. We have to have other options.”

2 Comments for “Lowrie: ‘The Prognosis Is Good’”

1. Gerry Says:
   October 17th, 2009 at 12:06 am

   That is great news. It resolves two issues. First, Lowrie is still in a position to be SS of the future. Second, it means we either pick up Gonzo’s option or renegotiate a 2-3 year deal as SS, and Lowrie’s mentor, in the way Alex Cora helped bring Pedroia along. By no means should the Sox let Gonzo walk. As Lowrie’s playing time increases, he will spell Mike at 3b and Dustin at 2b in addition to SS.

2. Steve Says:
   October 18th, 2009 at 1:00 pm

   With all due respect to Gerry…This doesn’t resolve anything! Just because the Sox organization is still high on Lowrie doesn’t mean much of anything. He’s been hurt & unproductive. If Gonzo is re-signed, I can’t see Lowrie being anything but a backup/utility player. His health & Gonzo’s contract don’t make anything resolved. If Gonzo is picked up at $6 mil or signed for less and Lowrie is healthy, then we may have something. Anyone thought of Stephen Drew, 11 errors this year, with 12 hr’s???

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