By Dejan Kovacevic | 3:45 p.m. Tuesday
Pirates catcher Ryan Doumit will miss 8-10 weeks because of surgery scheduled for his right wrist Thursday.
He was diagnosed earlier today with a slightly displaced fracture in the scaphoid bone. That bone will have pins inserted to fuse it together by Dr. Mark Baratz, the team's hand specialist at Allegheny General Hospital and the one who made the diagnosis.
The Pirates will promote Robinzon Diaz from Class AAA Indianapolis to replace Doumit.
More details to come.
UPDATE 4:05 p.m.: Neal Huntington says the CT scan that was taken this morning confirmed the fracture that was suspected on the MRI last night. Another CT scan will be taken in 4-5 weeks, after which a determination will be made about when to begin full baseball rehabilitation: "If we see the bone healing, solidifying, then we can move forward with the rehab," Huntington said. "If not, then we have to wait for the surgery to take. So, 8-10 weeks is the most likely time. It could be a little bit longer if the bone doesn't heal. It could be shorter if it does." Huntington added that Doumit chose the surgery route, with the full support of the Pirates: "It's the bone that gets the least amount of natural blood supply, which lends to not such a good prognosis in terms of healing on its own. Ryan opted for surgery, and that allows him the best opportunity to heal fully and make the quickest recovery, so we feel it was a good decision."
4:12 p.m.: Doumit was predictably crestfallen: "It stinks. You do everything you can in the offseason to try to prepare, and we're off to such a great start. From spring training on, we felt like we had a good thing going. It's devastating, you know? No one wants to be told they can't play for 8-10 weeks. If there was anything I could do ... just cut the hand off and let me play." He explained his decision to have the surgery: "A lot of things. Recovery time. If I'd continued to try to play on this, were there going to be long-term effects? I want to come back the same player." ... He said he thought little of the pain at the time of the injury, during his second at-bat Sunday: "I felt like a little grab, like one of those things you feel all the time. It obviously turned out to be more than that."
4:49 p.m.: Here is audio of Doumit's media session.
5:01 p.m.: Just spent some time on the field with Jason Jaramillo, who will get the bulk of the catching duty in Doumit's absence. "When you decide you want to catch, this is why you take the job," he said. "That's the responsibility that comes with it, and I wanted to catch because of that responsibility, that role of leadership, so I'm looking forward to this challenge. I'm ready to roll. Obviously, it's bittersweet. Ryan's a big part of this team, and I hope he gets back healthy 100 percent. But I'm just here to hold the fort down and keep it going."
5:50 p.m.: Here is the full article just updated for Breaking News.
Posted
Apr 21 2009, 03:45 PM
by
Dejan Kovacevic