Hitting The Cutoff Man

It's already been a tough Spring Training for injuries.

We've had Alex Gordon and Russell Martin go down with a broken thumb and a pulled groin respectively, issues that will keep them out for at least a few weeks. Cubs set-up man Angel Guzman tore a ligament in his shoulder, and Joe Nathan tore one in his elbow, with both pitchers' seasons likely finished.

It's certainly a shame -- for those players, and for the fantasy players owners who have drafted them (this is why you don't hold your draft this early).

Yet I've been focused more on a guy who's now hurt -- at least not now.

The news out of A's camp is that Eric Chavez is working out at first base. It's an effort to increase the ways Chavez can get playing time this season, as Oakland has a glut of corner infielders, including Kevin Kouzmanoff and Jake Fox, plus Jack Cust penciled in at DH.

It's nice that the A's are trying to make room for a guy who not so long ago was a franchise cornerstone, and good for Chavez for giving the move a shot. But the whole thing makes me kind of sad.

Every season from 2000 through 2003, Chavez played at least 150 games and put up an OPS between .850 and .900. Starting in 2001, he won six straight Gold Glove awards (from 2002-06, his UZR at third was 34.8, suggesting he was well above average at the hot corner).

After the 2003 season, Oakland signed him to a six-year, $66 million extension that kicked in starting in 2005 and will end after this year. There was little reason to argue against the idea. Chavez was a bona fide star who was going into his age 26 season and had very little injury history.

The next three seasons went OK, as Chavez averaged about 140 games per season and won three more Gold Gloves, although his offensive production slowed down in 2005 and 2006.

Simply put, the past three seasons have been increasingly brutal for Chavez, who has had to deal with a wave of serious injuries, including to his back.

2007: 90 games, 101 OPS+, .322 wOBA
2008: 23 games, 85 OPS+, .302 wOBA
2009: 8 games, 3-for-30, 1 extra-base hit

A guy who was worth 23.2 WAR from 2002-06 was worth 0.6 from 2007-09.

Chavez is just 32, but even someone without his injury history likely would be on the downslope of his career by now. It's possible Chavez could finally kick the injury bug and find a second wind, at least for a while, but that type of thing just doesn't happen often.

What's more likely is that we'll see a guy who once fielded the hot corner as smoothly as anyone and was one of the game's brightest young stars hobble around first base every so often and share some at-bats with the likes of Fox, Daric Barton and Adam Rosales.

It's another sad reminder of how quickly and completely injuries can rob someone of their career and us of the chance to enjoy watching them play.

Follow Hitting The Cutoff Man on Twitter at HitTheCutoff