Searching for meaning when meaning doesn't want to be found

Wither goest Jabari Blash?

Remember that crowded Yankee outfield, all backed-up, like Chris Christie after eating linguini and clams? Jacoby Ellsbury stood as fifth violin, with Clint Frazier on Skype from Scranton. Who needed Mason Williams (now in Cincinnati) or Slade Heathcott (of the A's.) With all that outfield depth, nobody feared the juju gods. We might as well worry about the Goo Goo Dolls.

Well... today, poof. Suddenly, we're down to four MLB bona fides and the cast of Riverdale. Moreover, we face baseball's two mystery injuries - concussions and obliques. Who knows what we're up against?

Yesterday, Frazier's instant, homespun water-bottle rehab protocol began to quack, and the symptoms of his concussion returned. He's now back to the Lazy-Chair recliner, cold compresses and Enya tapes. It could be a week; it could be four. Last year, Ellsbury missed two months. Losing two weeks would probably doom Frazier's chance to make the opening day roster. Right now, we should hope he is ready to play in Scranton on April 1. There is no timetable on the head, especially when the player - as in the case of Red Thunder - might be sort of nuts to begin with.

What's amazing here is how vastly different rehab times are in baseball and the NFL. A concussed baseball player faces several weeks on the DL, then a slow road to recovery in the facets of timing. So how is it that pro linebackers return a week or two later, primed to bash in their skulls all over again? Something is rotten in the NFL, and one of these days, a volcano is going to blow.

Then there is the strained oblique. I can't pinpoint my oblique. It's too - oh, how do you say it? - oblique. It's somewhere east-west of my jelly belly, below the island chain of boils that extends from the armpit. I could probably strain it on a twist-off bottle, or attempting to scratch an itch beyond my reach. For athletes like Aaron Hicks and Starlin Castro, a strained oblique is a two-month time-off ticket from the doctor. You can't swing a bat with a barking love handle. Considering that the strained oblique in question belongs to Ellsbury - who heals in geological time frames - the Yankees could open in April with Tyler Wade as adjunct fifth outfielder.

We still have Jake Cave and Billy McKinney, up from Triple A. But considering that the Yankees yesterday signed 34-year-old Adam Lind as backup DH, does anyone really expect a young player to get a shot? Is Ben Francisco still out there? I'm sure Brian Cashman is already scouring the recycling bin for thirty-something outfielders who can still go to their left.

One other element should be noted, though it's touchy. We know Ellsbury is a fragile player; he was nearly run out of Boston for it. We must also consider the possibility that Frazier too is a walking jackhammer of injuries waiting to happen. Last year, he looked like a weight room freak show, ready to tweak a gonad every time he sneezed. So it happened: he tweaked something and missed September. This spring, he ran into a wall and broke his head. 

Both players go all-out, all the time, and we want that in a Yankee. I'm not criticizing their play, and I've been on the Red Thunder bandwagon all winter. But right now, we have four outfielders for five positions, and it isn't even the Ides of March. Wither goest Jabari Blash? Answer: He's with the Angels. Maybe he always was.