An injured thumb can wreck a season, as Nomar Mazara discovered in 2018.
His right thumb was damaged just before the All-Star break, while making a play in right field at Camden Yards. He tried to avoid the disabled list but couldn’t. He came off the DL a month later, and probably shouldn’t have.
A season in which he was streaking toward career-highs in many offensive categories ended up with him where he was the first two seasons of his career, 20 home runs and an average below .270.
Mazara knows all of the above, and that his career so far, built on so much promise, he has yet to reach expectations.