Hello E5,

No offense, but it makes more sense to me to not risk a greater injury to a 18-YO player you drafted in the 4th Rd. (at age 17) and are expecting great things out of rather than give him 80-100 ABs at a level where he is no older than the league average, and arguably, is younger, since he played his first professional season in the States at age 17.  I don't think any ML organization would have risked playing him after that type of injury, certainly not for 80-100 ABs.  Any time you break a bone, it's usually considered a significant enough injury to warrant missing playing time.  

I think you're referring to Red Sox 2B Dustin Pedroia, who played with a cracked hamate bone for the last two months of the season.  There are a few differences between Weglarz and Pedroia:

• While both injuries are serious and probably should lead to time off (as both did require surgery to recover fully from them,) a broken hamate bone is more severe than a cracked hamate bone.  Pedroia could manage to play with his, though who knows if he might have played better than he did, even though he played well.  Even though he played well with the injury doesn't mean that the injury didn't affect him to some extent.  We'll never know how well he might have played if he hadn't had the injury.  

• Pedroia's cracked hamate bone wasn't discovered until Sept. 10 via an MRI, so it must not have been bothering him that much, as it wasn't even discovered until several weeks after he reportedly injured it.  Weglarz's was immediately known after he was hit by the pitch in his second AB, and as mentioned before, his hamate bone was broken, not cracked like Pedroia's.

• Weglarz is a young, highly-touted prospect who's not that close to the MLs.  Plus, the Indians are expecting great things from him, being that he was a 4th-Rd. draft choice and the fact that Weglarz was only 18 at the time he was injured.  It was logical for them to err more on the side of caution, since Weglarz still has a great deal of time on his side to live up to that potential.  Missing around 100 ABs was arguably more prudent than trying to rush back and get 50 ABs, risking a greater injury that could affect him down the road and hurt his ability to reach his great potential.  It's likely every ML organization would have done the same thing as the Indians did in regards to shutting down a young, highly-touted prospect like Weglarz for the season after an injury like that.

• Pedroia is a solid prospect who had made it to the MLs and was helping contribute to the Red Sox's great season.  Pedroia probably felt that if he took time off with the injury, being that he was a rookie and being in an organization that doesn't often rely on rookies to be starters, he might not get his starting position back, since this was his first full season in the Majors.  Pedroia probably decided that he would play through it if at all possible, and must have been able to convince the Red Sox he could, along with the fact that the doctors felt that they could hold off until after the season to perform the surgery without any long-term complications.  Again, Pedroia's hamate bone was cracked, but not broken like Weglarz's.

Just my 2 cents - no offense.