Injury Report: Diamond Hogs banged up as fall season ends

FAYETTEVILLE — By the time Arkansas wrapped up its fall baseball season, several key players were banged up and unable to practice.

So many position players were out with injuries that the Razorbacks actually canceled their annual intrasquad Fall World Series because they didn’t have enough healthy players to fill out two teams.

However, the season-opening series against Eastern Illinois, which begins Feb. 14, is still about two and a half months away, so head coach Dave Van Horn isn’t too concerned.

“If you have injuries, obviously you want them in the fall and have a chance to heal up,” Van Horn said Friday. “I think we’re well on our way to being ready to roll come February.”

A couple of projected starters did not play in Arkansas’ exhibition loss to Oklahoma in September and four missed the loss at Oklahoma State last month.

That gave several freshmen an opportunity to get more at bats, but the Razorbacks went just 20 for 99 (.202) with 35 strikeouts and managed only five runs across 28 innings.

“It gave some young guys an opportunity to play against outside competition,” Van Horn said, “and honestly the young guys didn’t do real well if you look at the numbers.”

The good news, though, is that it sounds like most of them should be ready to go for the season. Here’s an update on five of them…

Casey Martin (hand)

Shortstop Casey Martin, a projected first-round pick in next summer’s MLB Draft, suffered a broken hand in late September that caused him to miss the rest of fall ball.

He had surgery to remove his hamate bone - the little bone at the bottom of the hand - shortly thereafter. It’s a relatively common surgery for hitters that usually comes with 5-6 weeks of recovery.

“We haven’t figured out what it’s good for in there,” Van Horn said about the hamate bone. “We’ve actually even talked about telling our freshmen hitters to get that thing taken our before they get here because this is something that happens all the time. … Once you get it taken out, usually you’re fine.”

Former Razorbacks Andrew Benintendi and Jared Gates each had the same procedure, but had it in December and January, respectively. That led to Benintendi having a slow start to his freshman year and Gates missing the first part of his junior season.

Martin, though, should be ready to go for the season because he had his surgery earlier than those two players. In fact, he swung the bat in some drills Thursday, the first time he was cleared to do so.

“I won’t say he’s 100 percent, I’ll say 80 percent,” Van Horn said. “The ball was jumping off his bat. It looked good.”

Caleb Bolden (elbow)

The only pitcher in this group, Bolden is still working his way back from Tommy John surgery that forced him to miss all of last season.