DETROIT — In most years, little drama surrounds a team on the day of its final workout prior to the start of the regular season. In that sense, the 2012 Red Sox are already an atypical team.

Andrew Bailey will undergo surgery on the torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right thumb on Wednesday, thus leaving the Sox without their anticipated closer for the first half of the season. Given Bailey’s situation, there were alarm bells sounded when news emerged that right-hander Josh Beckett was having his thumb examined both in San Antonio by Dr. Mark Bagg and in Cleveland by Dr. Thomas Graham, the latter being the same doctor who examined Bailey.

However, after manager Bobby Valentine declared Beckett’s thumb “not much of an injury,” Beckett suggested that he was stunned by the concern that the condition — which he considers trivial after dealing with some variation of it for 18 months — generated as much attention as it did.

“Everything’s fine. I really have no idea how this got blown out like this. I was dumbfounded,” said Beckett. “The text messages and the e-mails I was getting from guys, I was like, what’s going on here? I think a lot of it had to do with Andrew Bailey also having injured his thumb. But he injured his thumb on one thing. Mine was something that’s happened over time.”

Beckett said that he “had some issues the last few weeks of spring training,” but said that it’s something he “should just get through for six months.” He received a cortisone injection into the joint during the offseason and another roughly two to three weeks during spring training, and it was the fact that the second injection had limited palliative impact that led him to see Bagg in San Antonio. (It was the team, Beckett said, that wanted him to see Graham.)

“It didn’t respond as well [to the cortisone shot] this time, and I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t some more damage in there,” said Beckett, who said he did not know how to describe the medical condition that he faced. (“There’s a bunch of little bones and stuff in there that had some things going on.) “It’s something I’ve been dealing with for 18 months. It’s been there for 18 months. Like I said, we’re just covering the bases as far after a shot things didn’t go as smooth as they had in the past. We had to make sure there wasn’t some more stuff going on. … I think everything’s good. There was just one concern that it was my ligament, much like Andrew Bailey’s deal, and it wasn’t.”

Beckett acknowledged that he will continue to monitor the condition of his sore thumb during the season. He suggested that, at some point, surgery may be an option, but that it wasn’t being considered right now.

“We’ve got to kind of play it by ear, see how things go,” said Beckett.

Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis jammed his thumb on this swing, forcing him to leave the game after two innings. (John Vu/WEEI.com)

Red Sox first baseman Kevin Youkilis left Monday’s game against the Indians after the second inning due to a jammed right thumb. Youkilis was in obvious pain after his soft lineout to shortstop concluded the bottom of the first inning. The Red Sox training staff visited him on the field, and Youkilis remained in the field for one more inning, but he did not remain in the contest for long.

The Red Sox performed a fluoroscope of the thumb, and the initial diagnosis was that there was no break. However, Youkilis will receive an MRI on Tuesday morning to confirm whether that diagnosis was accurate.

“Youk’s pretty sore,” said manager Terry Francona. “He’s had a bone bruise in that area. When it got jammed, that thing swelled up real quick and got discolored.”

Until the MRI is performed, the Red Sox are uncertain how much time Youkilis will miss. As such, Francona was uncertain whether the Sox would have to make a roster move for a first baseman. The Sox have three first basemen in Triple-A: Lars Anderson (hitting .247/.338/.411/.749), Ryan Shealy (.239/.358/.485/.843 in Triple-A) and Aaron Bates (.230/.326/.351/.676). And, of course, the team also has Mike Lowell on the disabled list.

For now, however, the Sox are undecided on whether reinforcements will be needed.

“We need to see what happens [Tuesday]. Sometimes, when you get jammed like that, it can be as small as a broken blood vessel. It hurts like heck and then it goes away,” said Francona. “We’ll see how he’s doing.”

Youkilis is hitting .307 with a team-leading .411 OBP, a .564 slugging mark, .975 OPS, 19 homers and 62 RBI.

According to a team spokesperson, Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell underwent successful surgery Wednesday on a torn radial collateral ligament in his right thumb in Arizona. Dr. Donald Sheridan, who also performed operations on Sox’ infielders Jed Lowrie and Dustin Pedroia, performed the surgery. According to the Boston Globe, it was discovered there was a 95 percent tear in the ligament. Lowell told WEEI.com on Dec. 21 that he is expected to be able to start throwing six weeks from the time of the surgery, which would be Feb. 10, with the clearance for hitting coming two weeks later.