Orioles reliever Dennis Sarfate might learn Friday that his season, and potentially his career, could be in jeopardy, but suddenly baseball isn't his main concern.
" Really, the last couple days I've been kind of ... hanging out with my daughter, taking her for walks," said Sarfate, who is on the disabled list with a circulatory problem. " Baseball is a great game; I am so thankful to God that I have had the opportunity to play it. But my life and my livelihood, me taking care of my family and all that, is definitely more important. So baseball has been the last thing I have been thinking about."
Sarfate, 28, will undergo an angiogram at 9 a.m. Friday to determine the cause of numbness in the middle finger of his pitching hand that forced him out of a game May 1.
Sarfate said doctors believe a muscle mass in his arm could be causing a blockage in a blood vessel. They should know for sure soon after Friday?s test, which involves injecting dye into his body and tracking its path.
Sarfate, who became a father for the first time last season, acknowledged that he is worried but believes doctors are just being cautious. It?s why he hasn?t played catch this week even though the feeling has returned to his finger.
" There was one instance that a pitcher had the same kind of symptoms as I had and he kept on pitching," Sarfate said. "And what it did was shut off one of his arteries and went back to his heart and he had a stroke. So obviously that was the No. 1 concern."
The best-case scenario, Sarfate said, is that he might require some physical therapy and be pitching in a game within a month. The worst-case scenario is that the arteries are damaged or frayed and surgery is required.
"You start thinking about what could happen and what really is the synopsis coming [Friday] after the angiogram and just the unknown,? he said. ?It?s scary. ... Hopefully, everything turns out all right."
Freel's status unclear
Infielder-outfielder Ryan Freel (head trauma) was supposed to play in at least one game of a doubleheader for Double-A Bowie on Thursday as part of a rehabilitation assignment but sat out both ends, leading to speculation that his time with the Orioles is ending.
" We expect there will be a resolution in a day or two that will be to everyone's satisfaction," Orioles club president Andy MacPhail said.
