WEDNESDAY’S GAME
Giants at Reds, 12:35 p.m., MLB Network, 700, 1410
For the second straight season, Cincinnati Reds catcher Devin Mesoraco faces a difficult decision about his future and possibly a long absence from baseball.
The Reds put Mesoraco on the 15-day disabled list Monday with a torn labrum in his left shoulder. He has played in 16 games. He missed all but 23 games last season because of a hip impingement and underwent season-ending surgery in June.
Now Mesoraco may need another surgery, and it would mean another lost season for a 27-year-old who made his first All-Star team two years ago.
“It feels like a bad dream, to be honest,” Mesoraco said Tuesday before the second game of a three-game series against the San Francisco Giants at Great American Ball Park. “I didn’t expect this. My shoulder was barking a little bit, but I didn’t feel like I was dying out there. I didn’t feel like how it actually is.
“You’ve got to cherish every moment out there on the field. After this, I’ll certainly have a better understanding about that. I can’t change what happened. I can’t change what happened last year. I’m trying to make the best decision for the future.”
Mesoraco hasn’t made a decision about what course of action to take.
“We’re still talking to people,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a collective thought between myself and my agents and the Reds and what (Dr. Tim Kremchek) thinks and we’ll go from there. We’re still trying to get more information.”
Mesoraco last played in a game April 27 against the Mets in New York. He’s not sure when the injury occurred but first felt pain swinging a bat in batting practice.
“It’s just a hard thing to explain,” he said. “I think it’s more the wear and tear of hitting than anything else, but I don’t think it’s a question that can be answered.”
The diagnosis surprised Mesoraco. He held out hope he could get a cortisone shot in the shoulder and jump back in the lineup.
“As soon as I walked in and told Doc what was going on, he had a pretty good idea what was going on,” Mesoraco said. “He wasn’t surprised when I told him my symptoms.”
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