His career possibly over, the long road from Panama to Cooperstown ending in a heap on the warning track at Kauffman Stadium, Mariano Rivera didn’t feel sorry for himself. He felt bad for the Yankees, who have won 83 postseason games with him as their closer.
“You just let the team down,” the 42-year-old Rivera said late Thursday night, wiping away tears.
How very perfect. How true to the nature of his 18 major league seasons that the consummate professional — the closer without the signature celebration — in his darkest moment would think about Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Curtis Granderson, CC Sabathia and his other teammates, none of whom ever were role players in his eyes.
Rivera’s baseball future depends on how quickly he can return from reconstructive surgery on his right knee, the one that has a torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered while shagging fly balls during batting practice.
Jeter says he thinks Rivera will be back this season, theoretically in time to nail down wins in October. And after meeting with David Altchek, the Mets team physician who repaired his shoulder after the 2008 season, Rivera isn’t ruling that out either.
He provided a surprise Friday, saying he definitely will return to pitch, even if it’s in 2013. So much for spring training hints about this being his last season.
“I’m not going down like this,” Rivera told reporters. “God willing and given the strength, I’m coming back. … (The Yankees) will want the old goat.”
Rivera has been talking about retiring for years. But after what was to be his farewell tour was interrupted by a freak injury, the competitive side of him took control. He wants to go out on top, not being carted off a field in Kansas City.
The meeting with Altchek seemed to ease his initial concerns.
“Dr. Altchek said I could be back in three, four, five months,” Rivera said. “He said, ‘You’re a fast healer.’ I will do my due diligence, my research. … Yeah, it hurts me, I’m sorry that I let my teammates down, but at the same time, I’m positive. This is going to pass.”
Because of the serene way Rivera carried himself, how he was always a team-first guy who was at peace with himself on the mound and with everyone he saw at the ballpark, it was impossible to root against him.
Fans can root against his uniform, but not the guy inside it.
While the cut fastball he threw pitch after pitch after pitch was a weapon for the ages, it was his combination of an even temperament and internal fortitude that made him both the best closer ever and on the short list for greatest Yankee, power hitters not included.
While the ultimate measure of Rivera’s greatness is a 0.70 ERA in 96 postseason appearances (and a 0.99 mark in 24 appearances in six trips to the World Series), he was prepared every time he went onto the mound. He has a record 608 regular-season saves, and his 2.21 career ERA is the lowest for any pitcher with at least 1,000 innings pitched since 1920.
With Michael Pineda sidelined for the season and Freddy Garcia and Phil Hughes ineffective, the Yankees faced major pitching issues before the injury. They never were considered a lock for the playoffs, and their odds get longer without him.
Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild once got the most out of Carlos Marmol, and GM Brian Cashman will discuss what to make of his availability. He and Ryan Dempster or Matt Garza could make an attractive package. Or the Yankees could look to the White Sox and Matt Thornton for needed depth.
But in baseball, such mundane personnel matters are common. Rivera has been a treasure.
Rubbing off: The stunningly good work of a rotation composed of Jake Arrieta, Tommy Hunter, Jason Hammel, Wei-Yin Chen and Brian Matusz has helped the Orioles to a fast start. And don’t overlook the impact catcher Matt Wieters is having.
Wieters, a switch-hitting force the Cubs and Pirates passed over in the 2007 draft, is so good that he might just make his pitchers better by osmosis.
“He continues to impress me,” Arrieta told the Baltimore Sun. “I’ve played with him since 2007, and he gets better and better every year. Every day it seems like. And he’s really, really comfortable now in the big leagues. Not that he shouldn’t be. He’s a tremendous player and very smart and knowledgeable, not only (with) what he does on the field, but his preparation is better than almost anybody I’ve ever seen. The talent that he has combined with his work ethic, his ability is off the charts.”
Getting by without him: Evan Longoria is going to miss as much as two months with a torn hamstring, and that’s not a great thing for the Rays. But it won’t mean the end of their relevance, as the twin strengths of the team are starting pitching and a manager, Joe Maddon, who gets the most out of his players.
This will be the fourth time in the last five seasons Longoria has had an injury that will sideline him for 10-plus games, and the Rays entered Saturday 35-22 in games played with him on the disabled list.
“We’re still a really good team,” general manager Andrew Friedman said. “It’s definitely not ideal, but we do have a ton of talent. That should allow us still to win a lot of games.”
Longoria was off to the expected good start, leading big leaguers in hitting with runners in scoring position (11-for-20, 16 RBIs). His absence comes when the Rays already were struggling to get some run production from the middle infielders, Ben Zobrist and Sean Rodriguez.
The really frustrating part for Longoria is he had changed his offseason training program to go more lean and limber specifically to prevent this type of injury.
“It’s one of those things where I can go home and look in the mirror and know I’ve done everything I can do to be as healthy as I can be,” he told the Tampa Bay Times. “And sometimes it just doesn’t happen.”
Late bloomer: Brad Lincoln isn’t baseball’s best pitcher, but he has become a good reliever. He has a nice sense of perspective, too, proudly proclaiming himself “the guy the Pirates took instead of Tim Lincecum.”
Lincoln was selected with the fourth overall pick in the 2006 draft after a career at the University of Houston, which is not exactly a baseball hotbed. The Pirates thought he had better mechanics and makeup than Lincecum, who went to the Giants with the 10th pick.
At 27, in his third crack in the big leagues, Lincoln is contributing to the Pirates’ bullpen. He has been Clint Hurdle’s long reliever but could wind up pitching later in games.
“Lincoln’s stuff is playing up real big,” Hurdle said.
Beaten and battered: No baseball outpost is more downfallen these days than Target Field in Minneapolis. The beautiful park deserves a good team, but it looks like it is going to be a long time before another contender plays there.
Even with Joe Mauer back, the Twins’ lineup remains an easy target for opposing pitchers. The Angels’ Jerome Williams preceded Jered Weaver’s no-hitter Wednesday against the Twins with a three-hit shutout Tuesday. C.J. Wilson had taken a shutout into the eighth inning the night before.
“They had three good starting pitchers, but nobody is going to feel sorry for us right now,” Twins center fielder Denard Span said. “We have to pick ourselves up. It’s not going to get easier. It’s going to get harder.”
Manager Ron Gardenhire skipped the Twins’ weekend series in Seattle, turning the team over to bench coach Scott Ullger while he was attending his daughter’s graduation from Southwest Minnesota State.
Gardenhire was as down as he has been after Weaver’s no-hitter. He could handle being no-hit, but he didn’t see the Twins playing with the solid fundamentals that marked their run of perennially strong teams.
“We have to do a lot better,” Gardenhire said. “(They were) running all over us. Looked like Little Leaguers out there, and that’s a bunch of bull.”
The last word: “He’s unbelievable, but he’s a perfect example of what I say about outfielders all the time. There are a lot of outfielders with really good arms, but they never throw out anyone because they don’t trust their hands. They take too long to make sure they have the ball. Then it’s too late. This guy really trusts his hands. This guy might be the best.” — Tigers manager Jim Leyland on the Royals’ Jeff Francoeur, who has 74 outfield assists, more than any other big leaguer during his career.
Twitter @ChiTribRogers
