San Diego Padres center fielder Cameron Maybin, whose 2013 season was all but wiped out by injuries, suffered a left shoulder injury Sunday while diving for a fly ball during a split-squad exhibition.
Maybin stayed in the game but had trouble fielding a grounder later in the inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Camelback Ranch in Glendale, Ariz.
The severity of the injury was not immediately known, although a club official was not optimistic. Maybin is scheduled to have an MRI exam Monday morning.
Maybin is the second regular the Padres lost to injury this spring. Third baseman Chase Headley has been sidelined since Feb. 21 with a strained calf muscle suffered in run-down drills.
Maybin was limited to only 14 games in the 2013 season due to injuries to his right knee and wrist. He had wrist surgery on Sept. 6.
“I never thought about how the wrist injury might be affecting my play until it started feeling good after the surgery,” Maybin said near the end of last season. “How bad could it have been? Whenever the pain went down, I could play.”
However, after undergoing the operation to repair impinged and inflamed tendons in the wrist, Maybin began looking forward to the 2014 season as a chance to live up to his considerable potential.
“I want to show what I can do when I am healthy,” he said.
After playing only 10 of last season’s first 59 games due to the wrist ailment, Maybin strained the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee only four games after returning to action on June 6.
Although Maybin was 5-for-18 (.278) with a homer, four steals, two walks, four runs and four RBIs in those four games, the PCL injury coupled with recurring wrist pain combined to shut him down. While Maybin was on the disabled list with the PCL strain, the decision was made to have the wrist surgery in hopes of having him 100 percent by Opening Day of 2014.
Maybin homered March 1 in his third spring game, raising hopes among the Padres that the athletically gifted center fielder, who turns 27 on April 6, would again show the promise he displayed with the Padres in 2011 — promise that prompted the Padres to grant him a four-year extension worth at least $26 million.
Maybin hit .264 in 2011 with nine homers, 40 RBIs, 40 steals and 82 runs when not running down balls in the gaps. However, the wrist pain that first appeared late in the 2011 season returned in 2012 when his numbers dipped to .243 with eight homers, 45 RBIs and 26 steals. Then 2013 became a near total loss.
“It felt really good to be back out there,” Maybin said after his spring debut.
Days later, he was back on the injured list.
NOTES, QUOTES
–LHP Cory Luebke returned to the Padres’ spring training facility a week after undergoing his second Tommy John surgery in a span of 21 months. This time, the patellar tendon from just below Luebke’s right knee was used to replace the ulnar collateral ligament because the Palmaris tendon from Luebke’s left forearm was used in his first Tommy John surgery in May 2012. Said Luebke: “When they got in there this time and took the old ligament out, it was just basically rotting away in there. It never really attached, never did anything it was supposed to do.”
–LHP Alex Torres arrived in the Padres’ camp Feb. 26 after clearing up visa problems in his native Venezuela. The reliever was two weeks late. Torres believes his visa delay was result of his late trade from Tampa Bay to the Padres, although recent civil unrest in Venezuela could have contributed to the delay. “I am very excited to be here with my new teammates and new organization,” said Torres. “I wanted to be here 15 days ago. It was all out of my control, but I finally made it.” Torres, 26, said he was throwing bullpen sessions in Venezuela during the visa delay.
–RHP Andrew Cashner, who is on track to be the Padres’ Opening Night starter March 30 against the Dodgers, allowed no runs on one hit in two innings in his spring training debut against Seattle. Due to an error, the Mariners had runners on second and third with no outs in the first. Cashner struck out the next two hitters. “I felt like I was a bit jumpy in the first inning,” said Cashner, who also threw a wild pitch. “My fastball was kind of all over the place. Overall, I felt I had a really good outing.”
–RHP Ian Kennedy said the best thing about his first spring outing was not throwing from behind the protective screen that pitchers use before exhibition games. “I’m a little short for that screen,” said the 6-foot Kennedy. “The bar is right in front of my face.” Twenty of Kennedy’s 26 pitches went for strikes. He worked two scoreless innings, allowing a hit and a walk against two strikeouts. “I thought he looked great,” Padres manager Bud Black said. “Everything looked crisp for a first outing.”
–LF Carlos Quentin was expected to make his spring training debut early in the week of March 3-9. Quentin, 31, was limited to a total of 168 games and 560 at-bats in his first two seasons with the Padres due to recurring right knee problems (three surgeries in a span of 19 months).
–RHP Donn Roach worked two scoreless innings in his spring debut.
Roach, a sinkerballer, is scheduled to open the season with Triple-A El Paso.
QUOTE TO NOTE: “This spring training, my arm feels like it is progressively getting better. The more I throw, the better it feels. Last spring training was just the opposite. I felt good at the beginning and it slowly kept going the opposite direction.” — RHP Josh Johnson, 30, who signed a one-year contract with the Padres as a free agent after missing most of last season with forearm and elbow problems. He had surgery last October to remove bone chips from the elbow.