BLOG: Injured list from dry eye
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Key takeaways:
- MLB catcher Tomás Nido was placed on the injured list due to dry eye disease.
- Nido was treated with medicated eye drops and punctal plugs.
It had to happen someday, right? I mean, every other job in the developed world has people who are so badly afflicted with dry eye that they can’t do their job. Why would we think that North American professional athletes would be spared?
It could have been a hockey or lacrosse goalie missing easy saves. Maybe a PGA Tour golfer struggling to see the break on a 5-foot putt to win the tournament or a WNBA superstar shooting a one-and-one to put the game into overtime. Wimbledon. World Cup skiing. Heck, the new pro pickleball leagues. Any sport could have had the dubious honor of having the first player sidelined by dry eye.
Image: Adobe Stock
But it was baseball. America’s pastime, Major League Baseball, had the first player in pro sports to be placed on the injured list due to dry eye.
Catcher Tomás Nido broke into the New York Mets starting lineup in April when his teammate was injured. Nido, on and off with the Mets since 2017, played very well in spring training; the Mets were on record saying they didn’t really expect a drop-off in performance with him at backstop. If you follow baseball, you know that the Mets have been a sad sack team of rather bizarre misfortune. Hopes were high this year as billionaire owner Steve Cohen showered money in the clubhouse.
You can guess what comes next. Nido appears to have had some regression following his 2019 LASIK and began to have fluctuating vision and headaches brought on by [new onset] dry eye disease [totally unrelated to LASIK]. When his batting average fell below the Mendoza Line, he was placed on the IL. The local sports media reported that he was put on “medicated eye drops” and had punctal plugs inserted in May.* After his time on the IL, he returned to active status, flamed out and was designated for assignment (a gentle way of saying that he was cut from the team) on June 5.
It is said that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in organized sports, although cricket players may quarrel with that.** Imagine trying to hit a baseball traveling more than 90 MPH, swerving and dipping as it heads toward you over the 60 feet 6 inches between the mound and home plate. Now do it with your vision coming in and out of focus. It’s a wonder poor Nido got the bat on the ball at all. Here’s hoping that his new contact lenses and whatever his dry eye treatment may be gets him back in the game sooner than later.
I’m betting he won’t be the last. Maybe FanDuel has a betting line on the next player put on the IL with dry eye.
*All info for this post comes from stories published in the sports media. I have no idea who is treating poor Tomás or what that treatment is.
**At the time of publication, I was unaware of any cricket player of note suffering a decrease in performance due to dry eye.
Editor's Note: This article was updated on June 26, 2023, to more accurately reflect Nito's condition.
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