ALLEN CRAIG — WHITHER YON?
By 2013 Allen Craig had made a pretty good name for himself.
Drafted in the eighth round (256th. overall) by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006 out of Cal-Berkeley, he finished each minor league season from 2007-’09 inclusive with a batting average of over .300 and at least 20 HRs, progressing from high-A level to AAA ball.
He went from the Cards’ #15 prospect at the close of 2006 as ranked by Baseball America, to the organization’s System Player of the Year in 2009 despite making several defensive transitions.
Drafted as a shortstop, he moved to third base, the outfield and then to first base, showcasing his versatility (as well as his distinct inability to move quickly enough to his left at short and at third).
He was added to the club’s 40-man roster that November and made his Major League debut on April 8, 2010.
Through 2013 Craig had a career BA of .306 but it was his production with runners in scoring position (RISP) that was astounding. In 2012 he batted .400 with RISP and the next season he raised that figure to .454, the third-highest average ever in MLB annals. (George Brett — .469 in 1980; Tony Gwynn — .459 in 1997).
He was a World Series Champion in 2011 and a National League All-Star in 2013. He even received 4 MVP votes that season, no small feat.
(Interestingly, Craig has appeared in two World Series and rewrote history in each. In 2011 he tied a record by collecting three game-winning hits and in the 2013 Fall Classic against the Red Sox — to whom he would be traded on July 31, 2014, ironically enough — he became the first player to score a game-winning run on an obstruction call).
Allen Craig was a very good ballplayer and a most valuable guy to have on your team.
And then he was not.
By early May of 2015 Craig’s numbers at the plate as a member of the Red Sox were abysmal: 19 for 146 — .130 BA with 53 strikeouts.
He was 30 years old.
The best hitter in the game with RISP couldn’t get a hit with runners on base or not.
Something had gone tragically awry in his career path and although theories abound as they always do, nobody really knows why, including Craig.
“Lisfranc injury, also known as Lisfranc fracture, is an injury of the foot in which one or more of the metatarsal bones are displaced from the tarsus…Lisfranc injuries are caused when excessive kinetic energy is applied either directly or indirectly to the midfoot…Direct Lisfranc injuries are usually caused by a crush injury…Indirect Lisfranc injuries are caused by a sudden rotational force on a plantar flexed (downward pointing) forefoot…In athletic trauma Lisfranc injuries occur commonly in activities such as windsurfing, kitesurfing, wakeboarding or snowboarding (where appliance bindings pass directly over the metatarsals)…”
Inability to bear weight, mild to moderate swelling of the forefoot or midfoot and bruising of the arch may present. Further, if there is a significant displacement of the tarsometatarsal joint(s), severe loss of function, long-term disability and chronic pain can be expected.
Allen Craig suffered a Lisfranc fracture in his left foot at the end of the 2013 season and reaggravated the injury following the trade to Boston. In fact, it occurred in his first game with the Red Sox on August 1st. when he mildly sprained his left ankle rounding first base.
Rest and recovery rather than surgical repair were prescribed and Craig himself conceded at the time that “it’s [the severity of the reaggravation] not even close to what it was last year…It’s just something I tweaked a little bit unfortunately in that game, and we wanted to take it slow and make sure things are good.”
Wowee, zowee!!!
It’s taken about 2 ½ calendar years and though there is an ever-so-faint flickering glimmer of light at the tunnel’s end, things are still not yet “good.”
In 79 ABs with the Sox in 2115, Craig’s line was .152/.239/.203 (BA/OBP/SLG) with a 26/7 K/BB ratio.
In the two seasons since the start of 2014 (2014–2015) he has hit just .206 with a .571 OPS in 593 professional baseball plate appearances.
Overall Craig has posted a .139/ .236/.197/.433 (BA/OBP/SLG/OPS) line in 65 games and 195 plate appearances with Boston since being traded from the Cardinals with Joe Kelly for John Lackey at the 2014 non-waiver deadline.
(In 2016 Craig played 29 minor league games in the Red Sox system — 7 with Single-A Lowell and 22 with AAA Pawtucket — and in 95 total ABs hit .189).
In Spring Training 2017 Craig has shown flashes of his former self at the plate registering a 1.043 OPS through March 8th.
But he is no longer on the big club’s 40-man roster and is owed $11 million which would leave the Red Sox susceptible to the luxury tax.
He will have to do more to secure even a spare-part Boston slot.
Yet Sox skipper John Farrell pontificated that “…I think he’s shown us all there’s plenty left…” when asked about Craig’s current status. “I think the power [in] which he’s demonstrating, the hard-hit contact might not have been there a couple of springs ago…He’s swinging the bat as good as any time we’ve ever had him in our uniform — and maybe close to what he was in the year in which he drove in so many runs and was an All-Star in the National League. So he’s had a resurgence in his own physical being and it’s playing out at the plate.”
Craig agrees. “…I think this spring I’ve probably been hitting the ball as hard as I’ve ever hit it in the spring. So I’ve just got to keep it going.”
Allen Craig is finally heading in the right direction after years of what may be modestly described as a personal hell.
He is becoming viable again.
If this continues, his career continues — either with the Red Sox or with someone else.
He deserves that.
[Editor’s Note; This piece was written by Mr. Kaplan in March 2017.]
ADDENDUM: Allen Craig retired from baseball on April 12, 2019 and joined the San Diego Padres front office as an advisor to baseball operations.
