Baseball in Fort Wayne

Former Fort Wayne Wizards outfielder, Freddy Guzman broke the hammate bone in his right hand during Seattle’s intrasquad game yesterday. He was in the Mariner’s camp trying to win a bench role with the team. He will require surgery to remove the bone and will likely miss 4-6 weeks.

“I just swung, hit a foul ball and felt the pain,” Guzman said. “I knew something was wrong.”

The hamate bone is a wedge-shaped bone that is located near the wrist. Ken Griffey Jr. had a similar injury in his right hand in 1996 and returned in just three week’s time.

Guzman is a non-roster invitee of the Mariners this spring. Guzman was highly regarded by Baseball America for his game-changing speed when he came up in the Padres system. While playing in Fort Wayne during the 2002 season, he hit .279 with 53 hits and 39 stolen bases over 190 at-bats. He was San Diego’s #3 ranked prospect in 2004 and #2 in 2005. But he missed that whole season with an elbow injury and his prospect status dimmed.

The Padres brought him back on a one-year contract in 2006, but traded him along with Cesar Rojas that May to the Texas Rangers for Vince Sinisi and John Hudgins. A year later, the Texas Rangers traded Chris Shelton to the Texas Rangers for Freddy. Last year with Detroit, he stole 71 bases while splitting time between Double-A and Triple-A.

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