Danny Hultzen shut down with wonky shoulder

We can talk ad nauseam about this front office, their legion of mistakes and frustrations. We have done that. So I don't really want to re-hash all of it again. Danny Hultzen was a cool and fun story back in Spring, the Time of Joy, but he had a planned shutdown and stint in extended Spring Training. Now, today, the dagger:

Danny Hultzen has been shut down again with shoulder fatigue. He likely won't pitch again during the regular season.

— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 25, 2015

Hultzen's shoulder injury was the type that made a complete recovery a longshot to begin with. Gil Meche was famously one of the few to do it and even he was stuck being Gil Meche. The road that any professional baseball player walks from draft to MLB debut is long and fraught with pratfall, calamity and misfortune. Hultzen's calling card at the time of his selection as the number two overall selection of the 2011 draft was that his road was shorter and safer than most. That has proved to be very, very untrue.

I don't know where Danny Hultzen goes from here. I would imagine that he is very, very frustrated right now. Feeling like years of labor and pain were for nothing has got to be an incredibly defeating feeling. From his view point and the Mariners this isn't a surrender or scheduling of a second shoulder surgery.

The Mariners decided not to risk any more issues and shut him down. There's a hope he can throw in the fall league or instructional league

— Ryan Divish (@RyanDivish) July 25, 2015

The odds for Hultzen making a successful comeback from shoulder surgery were very long, and now they are longer still. Many, possibly most fans will give up on his journey, if they haven't already. I certainly won't blame those that just view the Danny Hultzen Experience as another drop in Jack Zduriencik's Ocean of Failure. But Danny Hultzen hasn't given up, not quite yet. So I won't give up on him, not quite yet. The Fall League is a few months away. Get right, Danny and good luck going forward.