40 hours: Josh Fields and mixed messages

Let’s go back in time to Friday night.  It was 8:04 pm when Terez A. Paylor published some injury updates on Chris Getz and Josh Fields for the Kansas City Star.  By all accounts, Chris Getz is on his way back and that is good news assuming the Royals can make room for him on the roster in a way that does NOT involve Alex Gordon.  This isn’t about Chris Getz or impending roster moves, however.  […]

This is about Josh Fields and this is what Paylor wrote about his “status” on Friday evening (I’ve removed the stuff specific to Getz).

"Hillman said second baseman Chris Getz and third baseman Josh Fields continue to make progress in their attempt to return from their respective injuries.Hillman said Fields has been taking some ground balls in Arizona and participating in hitting drills but hasn’t played in any games.“It’s been a little slow, but he’s getting better,” Hillman said."

In Trey’s own words, Fields was making progress, taking some ground balls, and participating in hitting drills.  Fields was making progress and slowly getting better.  In my mind Fields’ progress has been irrelevant because from the day he was acquired by Dayton Moore I have been of the belief that Josh Fields has now business on a major league roster.  Even if the roster in question is that of the Kansas City Royals.  Healthy or injured he has no role and no value on the major league team.  My assumption has been that the Royals would keep him stashed on the DL as long as possible and then designate him for assignment when they could no longer hide him.  All of this would happen with the hope, by the front office, that he would clear waivers and get tucked neatly on the Triple-A roster.

As of Friday night it seemed that course of events was slowly playing out.

This afternoon, just 40 hours after Paylor’s report, Ryan Young published Royals’ Fields will have season-ending hip surgery.  Wait.  What?  I thought he was gettting better?  Once again Trey was ready, willing, and able (?) to elucidate us all.

"“We’ve done extensive studying,” Hillman said. “He was and is continuing to progress, and his hip was getting better.  But with enhanced studies and the opinion of (physician Marc Philippon) in Vail, Colorado, he’s elected to go ahead and get the surgery done now rather than later.“He’ll effectively be out for the season.”"

I’m going to go ahead and assume that all of this extensive studying didn’t take place in the last 40 hours.  I’m also going to assume that Dr. Marc Philippon didn’t provide his opinion in the last 40 hours.

Based on those assumptions, where does that leave us?

I see at least two possibilties.

One, Trey Hillman doesn’t know what is going on with the players on his 40-man roster and is not completely in the loop.  His primary concern is the major league roster and how his nightly game of playing bullpen roulette is going to play out.  As such it is probably perfectly fine if that is what is going on here.  After all he’s got a lot on his mind relative to the performance and collective attitude of his 25-man roster.  However, if this is the case, then why is he providing the media with updates on these players?  All he is doing is setting himself up to look like a bigger fool than his roster and GM already do.

Two, Trey Hillman does know what is going on and is misleading the media and the fan base.  I guess I can see why this would be necessary at times, but in this case we are talking about Josh Fields.  In this case there isn’t exactly a need for secrecy or subterfuge.  It’s not the NFL.  You don’t need to hide injuries from the other teams.  Here’s a newsflash, even if this were the NFL, no one is going to bother gameplanning for Josh Fields anyway.

Three, Josh Fields made the decision to have surgery between Friday night and Sunday morning.  This is certainly feasible but with such a decision on the table, you’d think the Royals would be a little more vague.  What is wrong with simply saying on Friday that they are continuing to evaluate Josh Fields and his progress?

Either way and whatever the reason, the last 40 hours have continued to make the Royals look like a dysfunctional and poorly run franchise.  I guess in the grand scheme of things that is to be expected since that is exactly what they are and what they have been for a very long time.

As for me?  I guess I’ll just keep hoping and dreaming of better days for this franchise.

(Wally Fish is the lead writer for Kings of Kauffman, Call to the Pen and is also FanSided’s MLB Director.  You can keep up to date with all of his work by following him on Facebook, Twitter or by way of the Kings of Kauffman RSS feed.)