One Free Agent Who Won't Be Signed

I've been following Juan Encarnacion's injury situation on and off since it happened.  If  you're not familiar, at the end of August 2007, he was hit in the eye socket by a foul ball that was hit by a teammate while he was standing in the on deck circle.  It was a truly horrific injury, essentially crushing the eye socket into little pieces.  Fortunately, his eyeball did not rupture.  You can look it up on YouTube, but I didn't put a link  here because I didn't want to be sensationalistic or macabre.  Anyway, Juan's eyesight and baseball career were in immediate jeopardy, and he's had several surgeries.  I noticed him listed among unsigned free agents, so I went digging.

Per the St. Louis Post Dispatch on November 10, 2008, Juan had gone through the motions of filing for free agency as a formality, but is not expected to play again.  Juan's "vision has not returned to a point where he can drive a car.  He was, at one point, described by a doctor as legally blind in the left eye.  His vision was classified a  year ago as 20/400 in  his left eye."

The article goes on to say that he has not been in much communication with the Cards, although GM John Mozeliak talked with him.  Sounds like Juan was in a bad place a couple months ago, still has much recovery ahead, and wasn't taking visits or calls, even from teammates.

Sorry to be the bearer of such woesome tidings, but thought you might be interested in our former Tiger and one-time World Series opponent.  I won't be trite and send him get well wishes--actually maybe I will.  Sounds like he could use a corny Hallmark card right about now--to let  him know "we're thinking of  him at this difficult time."