San Diego Padres Should Not Rush Carlos Quentin Back for Opening Day

The San Diego Padres have a pretty good starting left fielder in Carlos Quentin. Unfortunately he came into this spring season having a recently repaired knee. That wouldn’t have been a problem except for the fact that he aggravated the knee recently. That, thanks to one game being rained out, leaves him with no official at-bats. Currently he isn’t able to play because of the knee trouble. That’s bad but what would be worse is a complete re-injuring of the knee. That might be where Quentin is heading if he and the Padres don’t watch out.

Both manager Bud Black and Quentin say that he will have no problem getting into the line-up on opening day, April 1, 2013. I have to shake my head when I read that and ask myself how they figure that? There are only a couple of weeks of games remaining and he isn’t getting playing time at all. How could he possibly be ready in time for opening day? He has had no spring! He very well might be ready, but if I were the Padres I would leave him out of the everyday line-up until the knee was completely ready.

Am I crazy? It seems the fact that he re-injured the knee already, coupled with the fact that he has no official at-bats, means that the knee isn’t as healthy as they think. So he is going through normal workouts and injures the knee, however slightly. He then sits out all of the spring and jumps into a few games the final week or so and is magically ready to go? Really? I think the chances of him getting the knee in bad trouble again increase greatly if they don’t reexamine the idea that he will certainly be ready by the first of April. It’s possible the knee isn’t healthy enough to go.

David Miller is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @davidmillerrant, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google₊.