Projo Sox Blog

Sox outfield prospect Zach Daeges is recovering well following ankle surgery to remove an extra bone in his foot last month, and expects that the problem that caused him to miss the entire season is behind him.

"It's going good. I just got out of the boot the other day, so it's going good," Daeges said from his Iowa home.

Daeges injured his foot during Spring Training, and spent nearly the entire Triple-A season trying to rehab what he thought was a badly sprained ankle. Recently, specialists determined that the PawSox outfielder is one of a rare few with an extra bone behind his ankle, called the Os Trigonum. Sometimes, when the bone is knocked out of place by an injury, it presses on the tendon and causes pain and weakness, and Daeges jarred it on a slide during a spring training game.

Daeges had surgery Sept. 18 to remove the bone, and will report to the team's complex in Ft. Myers, FL to begin more extensive rehab at the end of the month. He is expected to make a full recovery, and to be ready to play in time for spring training.

Daeges, 25, came into the season as the team's 24th-best minor-league prospect, according to Baseball America, which rated his strike-zone discipline as the best in the Boston system. Daeges hit .333 with two home runs and six RBI in 15 major-league spring-training games before the injury forced him to miss the rest of March. The 2006 sixth-round pick out of Creighton was ticketed to start the year at Triple-A Pawtucket, where he would play the corner outfield positions and an occasional first base.

Red Sox director of player development Mike Hazen said that it was unfortunate that Daeges lost the entire year, but he is an advanced enough hitter that his development won't be hurt too badly by the missed time.

"As a college kid, that had already done what he needed to do at Double-A, it was going to be now, at Triple-A, about getting the at-bats, and getting ready to be a major league protection player," Hazen said.

"He already was [ready], now it's just going to be about going out and performing, getting the opportunity. There's not a ton, on his overall game, that he needs to develop. Obviously there's some work that needs to be done, mostly defensively, but from an approach standpoint, power development standpoint, he has those things. He just needs more at-bats. The thing that he lost was the at-bats," Hazen said.

Daeges said he has been working on his upper body strength as much as possible, and is looking forward to swinging a bat, something that is probably a little less than a month away.

Still, after spending the season wondering if his ankle would ever get better, Daeges is upbeat knowing that he can finally move forward with his career.

"My progress has been pretty quick, so I'm pretty happy with where things are right now," Daeges said. "I think I'm moving in the right direction."

 Tags  Boston Red Sox Dan Barbarisi Mike Hazen Pawtucket Red Sox Zach Daeges

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