SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Second baseman Joe Panik took his annual physical Monday, and the Giants did not order an MRI exam for his lower back. They didn't send him for X-rays. At most, they asked him to bend over and touch his toes.
There was no mystery to unravel, no puzzling injury to diagnose. The Giants and Panik knew the exact cause of the lower back pain that wiped out his final two months of the season: a spondylolysis, or stress fracture, of the L5 vertebra.And an MRI in December showed exactly what the training staff anticipated. The fracture has completely healed.