10:22pm: Mesoraco says he’s “going to definitely have to get surgery at some point,” as Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer tweets. But he’s still considering whether to try playing through the injury.
5:40pm: The Reds announced today that catcher Devin Mesoraco has suffered a torn labrum in his left shoulder. He’ll go on the 15-day DL for now. It certainly seems likely that he’ll require an extended absence, though it remains to be seen whether surgery will be required.
This injury constitutes the latest setback for the 27-year-old, who missed most of last season after undergoing hip surgery. Mesoraco signed a four-year, $28MM extension before the 2015 season, with the club buying out all of his arbitration eligibility and buying up one free agent-eligible campaign.
That deal came together after Mesoraco’s breakout 2014, in which he slashed .273/.359/.534 with 25 home runs in 440 plate appearances. It’s been mostly downhill from there, as the former top prospect has struggled at the plate while battling his various ailments. In just 106 plate appearances since the start of 2015, he’s carrying a .158/.245/.200 batting line without a single long ball.
Going to turn into a never was pretty soon. Dude just cant stay healthy but teams will give him a shot until hes like 32 just bc of that one year.
The guy hit 25 home runs in a major league season so you can’t exactly call him a “never was.” That’s just unfair and incorrect.
Pacheco to the rescue
Yes, Devin. Let’s try to “play through” just as you did last year and push your recovery time into the beginning of spring training again. Barnhart is the better catcher at this point and there is no point in playing hurt for a 100 loss team. Might want to check every pitcher in the pen to make sure they don’t have torn labrums!
Mesoraco already tried to “play through” an injury last season and it was disastrous. I know these are tough-guy athletes but this is why you have trainers, managers, front-office staff, etc – to not allow these guys to keep playing and making things worse, or allowing cascade injuries: shoulder injuries turn into elbow injuries pretty quickly.