Back injury to keep Pence out rest of season. Will he be back with Rangers next season?
The feel-good story of the first half of the MLB season still feels good, even though Hunter Pence’s back feels lousy and, officially as of Tuesday, he won’t play again this season.
The Arlington native announced that his back issues only worsened over the weekend as he tried to ramp up activity in an effort to play during the final Texas Rangers homestand of the season.
There was some chatter about Pence just taking one last at-bat, swinging just with his arms, but that’s not how Pence plays the game.
His intentions are to play next season assuming his back heals and he finds a team willing to give him a contract for what would be his 14th season. He turns 37 in April.
He even has a team in mind
“I want to play if my back allows and a team wants me,” Pence said before the Rangers played the Boston Red Sox. “I would love to play for this team. We’ll see if they have a spot for me. You’ll have to ask JD about that.”
It just so happens that JD, general manager Jon Daniels, was asked about that last week at Oakland. It was too early to make a clear-cut decision, with the postseason roster breakdown and planning still not finalized, but Pence won’t be ruled out.
He fits the need for a right-handed bench bat. With the Rangers likely to play Joey Gallo more as a corner outfielder, that might be the best Pence can get from his hometown team.
“There’s two pretty distinct ways to look at it,” Daniels said. “One is he was extremely productive on the field and a really valuable member of the clubhouse that you would love to have back. On the other hand, how many at-bats are we going to have for a corner outfielder/DH.”
Pence finished the season with a .297 batting average, a .910 OPS and 18 home runs in 286 at-bats. The highlight of his season was a pinch-hit game-tying grand slam May 8 at Pittsburgh to give him consecutive games with four RBI.
He was voted as the starting designated hitter for the American League All-Star team but couldn’t not play in the game. The swing did exactly what he had hoped and gives him hope that he can be productive again next season.
He remains a candidate to be Comeback Player of the Year.
But he hasn’t played since Aug. 22, two days after he drove in three runs and delivered the walk-off single against the Los Angeles Angels. He hit the injured list Aug. 27 and didn’t expect the injury to keep him out the rest of the season.
“I want to play, I was very frustrated, but I have to trust that things happen for a reason,” he said. “Unfortunately, this is something I just can’t will-power through and overcome, so I have to heal it. The goal now is to get healthy to potentially play next year, and if not that to have a healthy life and a quality life.”
Pence rebuilt his swing in the off-season, waiting only two days after the season before beginning his work with California swing-guru Doug Latta. Pence played winter ball in the Dominican Republic and took a heavy load of swings in spring training to continue working on his new path to the ball.
That might have taken its toll on Pence, first with a June groin injury and again with the lower-back issues.
“Sometimes injuries do happen in this sport, especially at my age and with the amount of work I did this off-season,” Pence said. “The fact that I was able to perform when I was able to play is, to me, a success. I made a big adjustment, and I’m pretty happy with that.”
He should be. He just won’t get one final game in before the season ends Sunday.
This story was originally published September 24, 2019 at 6:05 PM.
