Russell Martin is finished for the season with a fractured hip, but Ken Gurnick of MLB.com reports that there’s some hope he’ll be able to avoid surgery.
According to Gurnick “three specialists agree” that Martin will rest for 3-4 weeks and “be re-evaluated in September to determine if the fracture and/or the hip labrum he also tore will require surgery.”
Because the surgery has a three-month recovery timetable Martin can afford to delay a decision for a while and still be on track to be healthy for spring training. However, as Gurnick explains it’s far from a run-of-the-mill injury:
The injury was suffered on a freak play, when Martin made an awkward landing on his right foot, jamming the top of his leg into the cartilage-like material that insulates the inside of the hip joint. Such a traumatic hip injury is considered unusual for baseball players, and even the specialists have limited cases for comparison. Because of the requirement for catchers to squat, and the stress squatting puts on the hip, it’s not clear what Martin faces long term.
Once upon a time moving Martin to another position may have been an option, but his bat is no longer good enough to be an asset anywhere but catcher.
