SEPT. 20: Stewart underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, the Pirates announced. The operation was performed by Dr. James Andrews and comes with a recovery timeline of six to eight weeks, so he should have plenty of time to recover and prepare for Spring Training in 2017.
SEPT. 14: Pirates catcher Chris Stewart will likely require knee surgery, MLB.com’s Adam Berry was among those to report. Pittsburgh has already placed him on the 60-day DL and scheduled a visit with Dr. James Andrews.
It seems that the knee issue isn’t just a run-of-the-mill injury. Stewart has suggested that a surgical option could be career-threatening, but also said that he may not be able to continue playing without it.
“Everything is on the table at this point. We don’t know,” he said. “The way I’ve been playing, I’m kind of leaning toward [surgery, which] might be the only way to go to continue my career. We’ve tried to do pretty much everything else to keep me on the field without the surgery.”
The 34-year-old has found a home in Pittsburgh as a reserve backstop, signing a two-year, $3MM deal over the winter which includes a club option for 2018. But the injury has limited Stewart to 113 plate appearances on the year, and he has compiled a subpar .214/.319/.286 batting line.
So Francisco Cervelli is 30 years old and he is injury prone, Stewart has career-threatening knee surgery, Fryer is useless, Elias Diaz missed most of the season with injuries and for me he is a big question mark in that regard. And we just suddenly don’t need Reese McGwire because he is like blocked by others. U-ha!
I’m too shy to ask, but what exactly is the Pirates plan on catcher position? If Cervelli got hurt badly, who will change him on long term? Who do we got in Altoona? Jin-De Jhang? Wow. Just wow.
My thoughts exactly. Our deep catching situation suddenly has been depleted.
I had finally accepted the trade to Toronto to get Liriano off the books until I heard NH say the club was comfortable with dealing McGwire because of the organizations great depth at catching. Guess he’s figures Tony Sanchez is out there looking for work.
They lost a career backup……why is this a topic….lol
Because it shows the lack of real depth they got
And a good defensive career back up who strengthens any pitching staff… so it’s an important topic.