Juan Encarnacion files for Free Agency
TOWER GROVE — St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Juan Encarnacion, who sustained a severe and vision-threatening injury to his eye late in the 2007 season, submitted the necessary paperwork Monday to file for free agency. The move is largely symbolic, a formality that all players do at the end of an existing contract.
At the end of August 2007, Encarnacion was standing in the on-deck circle when a foul ball sped toward him and shattered his orbital bone, causing tremendous trauma and permament damage to his left eye. The injury has put more than his career in jeopardy — it put his vision in question. Colleague Joe Strauss, who has done continuous reporting on this subject, and myself have spoken with people who say Encarnacion’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.
“Clearly it’s a matter of hope,” team doctor George Paletta shortly after Encarnacion’s first surgery. “We hope … (but) there is guarded prognosis of with his chance of recovering his full vision.”
The Cardinals have said they had minimal contact with Encarnacion this season.
Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak said Monday he recently spoke with Encarnacion’s agent and that “it is still a difficult time for him and still has a long road to go.”
Encarnacion’s status had been difficult to obtain throughout this past summer, as the outfielder has not responded to calls and inquiries, even from teammates. (A call was placed Monday afternoon to his agent, just to check again.) There was a thought that Encarnacion would visit the team during spring. He did not. Some members of the Cardinals attempted to visit him during their visit to Boston this past season, where Encarnacion was at one time receiving treatment on the eye. They were unsuccessful.
He has had several reconstructive surgeries on the bone structure around the eye, officials said.
Encarnacion signed a three-year, $15-million contract with the Cardinals before the 2006 season. Encarnacion went 8-for-36 during the 2006 postseason run, and in his first season with the Cardinals, starting regularly in right field, Encarnacion hit .278 with 79 RBIs and 74 runs scored. Before the injury in 2007, Encarnacion was hitting .283, slugging 445 and he had 47 RBIs and 43 runs in 78 games.
Encarnacion was the only player to file for free agency Monday. He is the last of the eligible Cardinals to do so. Free agency opens later this week.
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One other newsy item: Cardinals third base coach Jose Oquendo will interview for Seattle’s vacancy at manager. The Cardinals have granted the Mariners permission to speak with the Secret Weapon.
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Derrick Goold said he was going to Mizzou for capital-J journalism, but after growing up in the Time Zone Baseball Forgot he was really drawn to MU sitting between two major-league cities. Goold joined the Post-Dispatch in 2001 after working for The Times-Picayune and Rocky Mountain News, covering sports from LSU to NHL and every level of baseball in between. 
I’m sure I speak for all of Cardinal nation when I say that we wish Juan all the best and hope that, even if he is never able to play the glorious game of baseball again, he can regain his vision once again. You will always be in our thoughts and prayers. Good luck, Juan, in whatever the future may bring you.
Good wishes to Juan. It sounds like an extremely difficult time for him. I do wonder if it’s strictly a grieving process and/or privacy issue, or why else would he cut off contact from the team? Maybe no one knows except those closest to him. Just curious. Again, good wishes to Juan. Tragic situation.
Best wishes to Juan. He always had very impressive tools as a baseball player. We wish you success in your future endeavors.
I echo Bobs sentiments. Juan may have been out of our sight, but he has always been in our focus of prayer and thoughts.
It’s an intersting question as to why Juan was cut off from contact with the team. Thoughts on why he was he cut off from contact with the team, DG?
Best wishes to Juan, and good luck to him in whatever the future may hold.
I join with the others in wishing him the best.
emc, it sounds from the tone of the article, and others I have read, that it is he who has cut himself off from the team, not the other way around. I know some people who had associations with him when he rehabbed in Springfield, and they say he wasn’t the friendliest of guys. Maybe there’s a litter bitterness, although what happened to him is nobody’s fault really.
Also, I wish Jose Oquendo the best of luck in his interview with Seattle. It would be cool if he went there for a season or two to get some experience and then came back to St. Louis to manage.
Members of the team, and officials on the team itself, reached out to Encarnacion, sought to get in touch with him. He did not reach back.
Seems like it would be painful for Juan to adjust to his tragic injury and the end of his baseball career. People often suffer a period of deep depression as they seek to come to terms with such a dramatic change in their lives. Not saying that’s the case with Juan, but could explain why he has not returned calls from teammates. Perhaps it is painful for him to have contact with the baseball world until he has come to terms with no longer being able to be an active part of it. His status and the extent to which he could recover his vision has been so up in the air that it has likely been an emotional roller coaster for him. Whatever the case may be, hopefully knowing that there are so many people who wish him well can provide some comfort.
I had a similar injury to Mr. Encarnacion’s 6 years ago.
I am legally blind in my left eye with 20/400 vision meaning I can’t make out the big E on the eye chart with my left eye.
I will never get used to it and it is a constant struggle due to the type of blindness.
However I am able to drive a car safely. I feel for Juan very much as it is an extremely difficult thing to adjust to when your vision is shattered in that way.
Congrats to the Secret Weapon but I really wanna see him manage the Redbirds!
I doubt he will ever read this but my wife and I were in St. Louis the day after we got married in 2006 and we seen Juan and a female friend in BeBe at the Galleria. My wife was scared to talk to him but wanted to so badly, we are big redbird fans. She finally approcahed him and he was very friendly and so was his friend. We wished him good luck in San Diego and he signed a piece of paper for my wife. We wish him the best of health and maybe he can get back into the game.