Baseball Prospectus | Articles | Under The Knife: What Happened?
The Braves sighed after an MRI showed no severe damage in the left knee of Mike Hampton. While Hampton did tear cartilage, he should be able to pitch through the playoffs without exacerbating the damage. Interestingly, Hampton also received a Synvisc shot, the artificial joint lubricant, which could point to a more severe degeneration inside Hampton’s left knee.
I hope the Braves have ‘that insurance’ you know the kind that pays part or all of the contracts of hurt major leagers. I’ve had the synvisc injections for my arthritic left knee. The arthritis was caused by a lack of meniscus between the hard cartilage at the ends of the bones. Of course Mike is very much younger than me and they will also deaden his knee so that he can play through the pain. A professional athlete should be able to work through an injury like this but the mechanics of a pitcher can be thrown off by the smallest things.
I have to wonder if he can really pitch effectively with a torn meniscus. I had to quit playing soccer and stop running becuase of mine. This off season he’ll undergo an arthroscopic procedure to remove the torn part of the meniscus. In about 3 to 4 weeks he should be able to train again. The synvisc injection is the kicker. If he has arthritis then everytime he pushes off that back leg he’ll have the same unpleasant sensation I do when I’m going up stairs. I hope that they did the synvisc to just give an added level of lubrication to the knee.
If we can get any money back at all this could be great. I would think that Hampton projects to become less and less valuable every year going forward, certainly to the point that we’d rather have Meyer, Davies or Capellan starting and paying Hampton half his salary rather than having Hampton starting and earning his full salary. I feel bad for anyone with a serious sports injury, but it could be a blessing in disguise for the team.