Baldelli's Health Problems May Be Over

News on Rocco Baldelli from ABC Rhode Island's Ken Bell and MLB Trade Rumors:

Great news for Rocco Baldelli. A visit to the Cleveland clinic last week revealed that doctors had misdiagnosed his illness.  Baldelli missed much of last season, and when he did play, he was limited because of extreme fatigue.  Doctors thought it was mitochondrial disorder, which can be fatal.  The Baldelli family told me tonight that the Cleveland clinic diagnosed his condition as channelopathy, a non-progressive, highly treatable disease.

That is indeed great news for Baldelli and his family.  It's certainly been a rough few years. The baseball question becomes, is Baldelli a viable free agent centerfielder?  He played just 28 games last season, 35 in 2007 and 92 in 2006.  In 2009, he'll turn 27 years of age, which is still a prime season. The problem in looking at Baldelli is figuring out what type of hitter he actually is.  He's never been a strong on-base percentage guy with a career .325.  His slugging percentage has gone anywhere from .358 in limited playing time in 2007 to .533 in 387 plate appearances in 2006.  Defensively, he's rated at least average in centerfield, if not a little bit better based on +/-, but again, the sample size makes it difficult to judge. We don't know yet exactly how much playing time Baldelli will be able to handle in 2009 and it makes little sense to just give him a starting position.  But he is a more than capable backup who, if healthy, could make a push for a starting job.  If the Cameron deal doesn't happen (and it looks like it might not), giving Baldelli a contract with some incentives and no promise of a starting job wouldn't be a bad thing.  Going into the spring with Melky Cabrera and Brett Gardner fighting it out for the centerfield spot is not ideal, nor is planning on giving Johnny Damon substantial time out there.  At the very least, Baldelli would provide good defense and the hope of a strong upside. Once again, it all depends on the money involved.