SURPRISE, Ariz. _ On the first day of spring training, the Royals revealed a strong contender for the most bizarre baseball injury of the 2017 season.
The day before he departed for camp, reliever Brian Flynn crashed through the roof of his barn at his home in McAlester, Okla., breaking a rib and sustaining three non-displaced fractures in his vertebrae, Royals manager Ned Yost said on Tuesday.
Flynn will miss close to eight weeks, Yost said. A 26-year-old left-hander, Flynn was expected to compete for a spot in the Royals' bullpen this spring.
"He was working on his barn and fell through the roof," Yost said. "So he took a pretty good tumble, knocked himself out. So he's going to be about eight weeks behind everybody else."
The revelation came at the end of Yost's interview session with reporters following the first official workout of the spring. Flynn did not take part in the workout, though he appeared in good spirits earlier in the morning, walking through the clubhouse and sitting in front of his locker.
A former standout at Wichita State, Flynn posted a 2.60 ERA in 551/3 innings across 36 appearances in 2016. It was his first season in the big leagues since being acquired from the Marlins in a trade that sent right-hander Aaron Crow to Miami before the 2015 season.
