'Several Angels teammates' skeptical of C.J. Wilson's elbow injury

Left-hander C.J. Wilson has one season left on his contract with the Los Angeles Angels after 2015. He probably can't wait to find a new team, if what Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com wrote about Wilson's elbow injury, and how the Angels have been handling it, is accurate.

Gonzalez reported Saturday that Wilson has been on his own in finding an updated diagnosis for his sore left elbow, which has bone spurs that limit his range of motion to the point where he no longer can pitch effectively, Wilson said. He needs surgery to fix the problem -- something Wilson knew in April when the bone spurs were first diagnosed -- but surgery now would put him out for the rest of the season. And that's unacceptable to "several Angels" teammates who apparently don't think Wilson is that injured.

That's only part of what Gonzalez means when he writes that Wilson is "on his own." Wilson "spent most of Friday getting his elbow examined on his own, undergoing a CT scan, a 3D and contrast MRI." Wilson joked that he would return to the team Saturday and read the test results to the media himself, but he probably was only half-joking, because support for Wilson on the Angels feels more like skepticism.

To the public, manager Mike Scioscia says he's confident that other Angels pitchers would be able to fill in for Wilson. But:

Privately, though, several Angels players expressed frustration in Wilson's decision, with some believing he should've continued to try to pitch through the issue.

Wilson was adamant in saying he can no longer push through it.

"I've been pushing through it for a couple months," said Wilson, 8-8 with a 3.89 ERA in 132 innings. "I've thrown 100 innings in this condition, and it's just consistently getting worse. As it gets worse, the risk of blowing my shoulder out and being completely done with baseball increases, and I'm not willing to take that risk."

Wilson asked doctors if there was any chance he could be available to the Angels out of the bullpen when rosters expand in September, "but they don't think the timeline is really there for that."

Being skeptical that someone isn't that hurt when he says he's hurt is a dangerous thing to do on a sports team. These guys are crammed together for several months out of the year and, even if they don't all like each other, they count on the support of teammates. They certainly count on opposition. Wilson doesn't seem to be getting the full support of Angels players. And what about the staff and management? Well, Scioscia doesn't say anything incriminating in Gonzalez's post, but that Wilson was out getting checked out "on his own" means Angels officials weren't supporting him, either. Again, nobody has said this to the press, but it's as if Angels officials (along with several teammates) are telling Wilson he needs to pitch through the pain. It's outrageous. It's disgusting. It's total baloney sandwich, if you get the euphemism.

Wilson has made between 31 and 34 starts per season since becoming a full-time starter in 2010. He's missed, like, three starts in all of that time (when he went on the DL in the middle of 2014), while making 186. This season alone, Wilson has gotten fluid drained four separate times. Wilson, who had Tommy John elbow ligament replacement surgery in 2003, has had bone spurs removed on two other occasions, most recently after the 2012 season. He knows what's up with his own elbow. How can (some of) the Angels not understand this?

Presumably, it's because the Angels are in a playoff race in the AL West, and Wilson is making $18 million, and should just be a man and push through the pain, because that's what you do. Well, as Wilson said, it's what he's been doing. Apparently without much backup from his own team. The Angels have had a bad year in terms of publicity, starting at the top with owner Arte Moreno, and filtering on down. The Jerry Dipoto business. The marketing nonsense. Remember how they supported Josh Hamilton after it was found he relapsed? Yeah, they didn't. They wanted to tear up his contract. They did him a favor, by happenstance, trading him to the Rangers. It was a bad look.

There was a notable exception during the Hamilton debacle. C.J. Wilson stuck up for Hamilton, realizing that addicts are people too, and that teammate support, at least to a degree, happens without conditions. Say whatever you want about Hamilton, that his actions and behavior make him unworthy of support -- but there's nothing that Wilson's done to be backstabbed like this. Does his support for Hamilton have anything to do with his team not being there for Wilson? You hope not. Wilson also has a reputation for being a bit different, in terms of personality. Is it because he won't mindlessly play through an injury? Or that he likes to take artsy photographs? The car dealership? It doesn't matter regardless. It's a baloney sandwich.