It turns out the early reports were a little bit off, and by a little bit, I mean waaay off.

Results from an MRI exam on Monday revealed Marlins catcher Matt Treanor has three muscle tears in his left hip-pelvic area.

On Tuesday, Treanor said that he will have to face surgery. The question remains: when?

For now, Treanor plans to put surgery on hold as he hopes to be able to play again this season.

---

 

Basically, Treanor has the same injury that Philadelphia Eagles quarter Donovan McNabb had in 2005. It has commonly been called a sports hernia. Treanor had a cortisone shot on Monday, and on Tuesday he was doing some baseball activities: catching pitchers in the bullpen and taking some batting practice.

"Surgery is imminent, regardless if I play the season with the cortisone," Treanor said. "I'm still going to need surgery.

 

 

Fabulous.

And it just goes on.

"There's a chance I get hurt worse, but the surgery itself is cut and dried," said Treanor, on the disabled list since July 8. "It's not like if I blew out completely I'd have to spend more time rehabbing. I felt the best thing to do was see if I could get through the season."

To do that, Treanor received a cortisone shot and resumed full baseball activity Tuesday. The plan is to see how he feels today and begin a rehab assignment as soon as Thursday. Treanor did not rule out being activated Tuesday for the start of the upcoming trip against the Phillies and Mets. 

"I'm not taking a cortisone shot and trying to do a quick fix just to get back on the field," said Treanor, adding that the club left the decision up to him. "It's to play effectively. If I don't feel like or the club doesn't feel like I'm going to be effective, they're not going to put me back out there."

It's nice to know that even if he hurts himself further, it won't affect his recovery time from surgery.  Though I'm guessing it will be quite painful for him in the interim.  Whether Treanor can make it through the rest of the season or not, he still should ready by the time spring training rolls around after the surgery.

The Marlins front office has a decision to make: whether to part with young arms for a catcher or hope that Treanor can somehow make through the season via the cortisone.  And if he can't, the Marlins will pin their hopes on Baker and Hoover down the stretch..

The non-waiver trade deadline is 4:00 p.m. on Thursday which gives the powers that be very little time to put something together.

Given the, shall we say, frugal nature of the organization, I bet they will count on Treanor to tough it out.  Normally with a healthy Treanor, I would be happy to see if the Marlins could make a playoff run.  Especially seeing how he adds much more to the team than just his bat.  But with him being iffy and the two young catchers who aren't hitting and their play behind the plate is making me wonder if the roving catcher instructor knows what he is doing, I am a bit concerned.